It was our first wedding anniversary. John and I decided to travel California's famous highway 101. Since we have never been to California before, we studied the trip thoroughly.
John and I flew to San Diego Airport and borrowed a car and started a journey. California was like our paradise. It has a warm and dry climate and beautiful tropical plants and trees. It was simply gorgeous! I felt we had to stay near heaven!
The night after that, we saw the sunset looking at the sunset towards the nearby beach. After that, we had dinner at a restaurant in Mexico until late at night. Later, we arrived at the hotel and planned a trip for the next day.
We got up early the next morning and had breakfast for breakfast. After that, we left for a journey to travel over the California coastal highway called Highway 101. That particular day was our first wedding anniversary. We were like two young children. We saw the most beautiful beach and stopped at a place overlooking the sea along the highway. For us, such beauty and wonder are fascinated!
I discovered that California is mostly desert landscape. It is influenced by a beautiful Hispanic system and has such history and beauty.
I could see the sea in the rest of my life and I felt it was not too tiring! Its beautiful blue-green water and aquatic life are more beautiful than explained! The sound of the sea is also very calm!
We are driving many of the famous California towns north of Highway 101. Malibu was one of many hip towns along our journey.
Our goal was to drive from northern San Diego to San Francisco on Highway 101 and stop the sight in the middle. We wanted to capture the sun on the sea every evening. Of course, we also recorded videos of nice inviting beaches and other sights.
On the second night, I went to Camarillo, California. We settled in a lovely hotel and decided to drive to a local beach to see the sunset. On the map we used, we saw about 5 miles of the beach from the hotel, so we started driving towards them. We were in rural strawberries with rural orange trees. It all looked very nice and peaceful.
We started driving the main street in a nearby town probably connected to the beach. While we were drunk, we saw the police doing what looks like a drug bomb near the street. It was very creepy. Looking at the people on the ground, I was handcuffing the creepy onlookers on the scene. We continued to drive some more blocks, and in another incident, the police car surrounded a car hitting a light pole. The police fixed the man to the ground and put handcuffs on others. The incident we saw in this small town gave me a shock as I was told my husband to come back to our hotel. That is exactly what we did as soon as possible! That evening, we had dinner next to the hotel in a quiet family restaurant.
These two accidents really strained me in the same street and nearby, nearby daytime. I am traveling a lot about the new state, the new city, someone I do not know about, or the area where we used to go. My spiritual flag was rising, I suddenly became very uneasy about the trip!
After the rest of the night we felt refreshed, and it was a beautiful day. We have taken the road again. The highway guided us to the foot of the mountain a few kilometers from the sea. The scenery was new, different from when we ran together. I had a wonderful time again, forgetting the case of the night.
I can imagine the age of wild West Japan, an Indian peering into the mountainside, or a cow being driven into a cowboy. The mountain desert scenery surprised my heart in the old days.
Our destination on that day was Morro Bay, California. On the way, I will drive a beautiful Santa Barbara. We judged that it was a city worth stopping on the way it was going back and saw the sight.
Soon we began driving again along the edge of the ocean. It was always our favorite part of the drive. We went sweet and wonderful Morro Bay early in the afternoon. We saw the sight going there immediately. We saw a famous huge rocky layer coming out of the sea and saw people surfing nearby. The wind was blowing very hard, and our jacket was amazingly cool. I got the impression that everything in California is sunny and warm. wrong! It is sunny and cold.
After that, we decided to run a little on the north side of the coast and go to see other sights. As we dug northward, the landscape became even more beautiful. A breaker descending from the sea on the beach was great! We saw a seal of jellyfish and a beautiful lighthouse. We met interesting people to visit in a scenic view area. As we proceeded to the north, we found that a heavy fog was involved. We went back to the quaint hotel room and took a rest for a while.
We had a great seafood restaurant and at dinner at the port of Morro Bay at night, I sat on a table near the corner and met a nice German. They were touring the west coast on a bus trip. They could not speak much English, but they were very friendly and comical. We talked regardless of language barriers.
After souvenir shopping the next morning, San Francisco judged that this middle-aged traveler is going to be north too far to go. We decided to decelerate a bit and decided to start sight on the way toward San Diego on Highway 101!
Santa Barbara was the first city in the list of towns to tour the way home on Highway 101. We stopped by the visitor center there and went to a nearby wharf and visited sightseeing spots. Of course, our video camera was always rotating, so we could cherish this scenery for many years. We met nice people from California. We talked about individual homes. And my husband and I grabbed a fresh seafood sandwich in a little open air cafe and saw dolphin swimming near the wharf. I returned to the road soon and it was time to go south further.
My husband used a new GPS to navigate our route. John loved the way he wanted to go. I did not like it very much. Because the way to our destination is quite long. Sometimes we took us to the root through several devastated neighborhoods
In Santa Barbara, we headed in the wrong direction and found ourselves in a side street just off the highway. We decided to go up and go around the block in order to get back to the highway. Suddenly from anywhere in the appearance, a large group of men in Latino started running from the side of the road rushing our cars to us! I started crying and my husband shot our car with a gun and started out in a crowd shouting a man. They seemed to be very threatening. Somehow my brave husband turned us and he kicked us out of this situation. When I turned around and looked around, a lot of men went fist and cried to us. My heart was still racing and I was crying from fear.
We still do not know what it is on this day, but that scared me half up! I had migraine and husband soon and I could not speak for about ten minutes. We were breathed away from the shock of the whole trial. I was nervous because of the rest of my trip in California. Later, I started watching the hotel's local news, the news media was talking about the gang and violent gangs throughout California. I was suddenly conscious of the unexpected danger.
I spent the night at Huntington Beach, California. I did not want to go out for dinner. I got up early and I told my husband that I am ready to return to St. Louis. Rui!
The next day, we took more time and headed south. We did not stop until we got to La Jolla. We got a nice motel along the beach and stayed for 3 nights. I stayed near the motel while watching sightseeing spots around La Jolla. It seemed safe there, the area was very cute!
Although I was still looking up from the previous bad experience, I stayed near my husband for safety no matter where I go.
On the last day of our trip, we went to San Diego and toured the battleship. After that, we went to Coronado to visit there, we saw the harbor there and made a late lunch.
The day after I flew from San Diego, I was very ready to go home. I never said I would never go to California again!
I may visit Northern California someday by eating my words. But I would prefer to go with friends who know the area very well.
I do not know if this is just our bad calamity or whether this horrible event happened frequently to California tourists. If you travel in California or elsewhere near the Mexican border and leave the West on that, do your homework! Especially for safety of travel! Please find everything possible about the level of crime in the area you are traveling. After that, remember the safety concerns of the trip and understand what you expect. Please prepare also unexpectedly!
We have experienced many places in many other states and have never experienced this type of fear or similar experiences experienced in California. It was a real adventure in more ways than we had ever thought!
We enjoyed the wonderful scenery and bought some good memories with us with bad ones. We taught self-taught travel experiences that my husband liked to call adventure.
If you are planning a trip, happy roads and safe trips can go anywhere!
