Highway 1

Instead of staying in Santa Cruz for yet another day, we decided to continue our journey south. We passed through Monterey and made a quick stop, and by lunchtime, we had arrived in Carmel. This is the town where Clint Eastwood once served as mayor. It felt very upscale, and several famous movie stars have homes here. We were hungry and found a shopping center where we stocked up on supplies. For the first time in a while, it was a bit overcast, but the temperature was pleasantly warm—around 23 degrees Celsius. We drove down to the beach, where we settled into the sand and devoured some watermelon. So delicious! Of course, Mette had to snap some pictures while I made a mess of myself. Later, we wandered around downtown Carmel. There were plenty of quirky shops and expensive homes. A distinctive feature of the town was that the streets didn’t curve but were laid out in a grid with full stops at every intersection. Plus, there was free parking in town—a rarity in California! We also made it to Big Sur, which we had heard so much about—but it was a bit of a letdown. It turned out to be just an area, not a town. In the Big Sur region, there aren’t many places to fill up on gas, so we ended up paying almost double for fuel compared to other places! A little kid, probably around 12 years old, tried to play gas station attendant until his dad, who was actually running the station, waved him away. That evening, we stayed in San Simeon. Once again, we chose a motel with a pool to indulge our new obsession. From our motel, we had a view of Hearst Castle—a castle that’s now kind of a museum. It was built in the early 1920s and is incredibly impressive. We walked over to the neighboring motel to play pool and met a couple of Mexican guys, with whom we struck up a conversation. We were eager to hear about must-see spots in the USA. They told us that "Santa Barbara" was a must-visit—incredibly beautiful, with lovely beaches and friendly people. We definitely had to check it out. As the evening went on, we felt that their overwhelming hospitality was a bit much. They insisted on paying for everything we drank and all the pool games we played. Luckily, they didn’t understand Danish, so we could chat freely about their persistence. We decided to excuse ourselves by saying we were tired and quickly slipped away.