Two Days on the Pacific Coast Highway

There was once this great hole-in-the-wall gyro shop on Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati. Spending just a few minutes in there would cause your clothes to smell like the grill. Even so, I preferred to dine in. It was my go-to spot, a favorite restaurant in the city that I vastly preferred to even the high-end ones. There were so many times over the years where I’d wander in on some rainy or snowy evening and be the only customer there—enjoying a delicious gyro with fries and a glass of tap water because as usual: the soda fountain was broken. The employees were kind, but more concerned with their work than conversation, so I’d take to staring at the photographs on the walls while eating. They were these beautiful, quintessential scenes of the Mediterranean. Postcard-like captures of tourist spots as they’d appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Despite showing their age and clearly being promotional posters, there was something just wholly comforting about them. Especially when compared to the midwestern atmosphere that existed outside of the restaurant’s doors. Even with having traveled over the years, I’d never personally seen anything quite like the views in those Mediterranean marketing materials. Until one day when I made it not to Greece, but rather: Big Sur, California.

Looking down the cliffside to the beach below, the water was mixed with incredibly rich shades of blue and green. The Pacific Ocean was washing up against the sand and then pulling it back in gobs of brown dust. What remained was an ephemeral film of white foam that would dissolve into the shore before the whole process repeated. The coastal wind was cold, yet I’d somehow managed to start sweating in my jacket while climbing to down the view I wanted. Once there, my legs felt as if they were freezing against the cool surface of the rock that I’d claimed as my perch. The first thing that came to my mind when I started taking in the whole scene: that gyro shop and the photographs on its walls.

Big Sur and the Bixby Creek Bridge were just one of multiple stops my friends and I made on a two-day drive down the Pacific Coast Highway en route to Los Angeles from San Francisco. What follows are photographs from that trip.

Taco Bell Cantina Pacifica

Beautiful view, but still not capable of getting your order correct.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Absolutely wonderful, but the best “seaside amusement park” in my opinion is still Indiana Beach.

Monterey

The pier looks like a “Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co.,” but despite its many touristy things: it does not in fact feature of “Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co.”

Bixby Creek Bridge and Big Sur

Incredible.

Nepenthe

After stopping for a drink here, we had to double back and head inland since part of the Pacific Coast Highway was closed.

Someplace we Stopped for Dinner

The neighboring building had cool stairs.

Morro Bay

Arrived in the middle of the night and then woke up to this view of Morro Rock:

The Madonna Inn

Unique décor and strong coffee in San Luis Obispo.

Solvgang

A city of decorative windmills and Danish-inspired architecture.

Refugio State Beach

Walked into the water and enjoyed some peace before we headed into L.A. traffic.

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