Who says you need to go far to have a nice family vacation?

...Especially when the exceptionally gorgeous central coast of California is just a 5 hour drive away?

I am always in wonderment when we road trip through our home state.  Nowhere else in the world can you have the beach, the desert, ski slopes and world-renowned national parks all within a short(ish) drive.    (Well...OK,  maybe New Zealand qualifies too, but it certainly is *not* the best place to live.)

The beach, in particular on the central California coast is a sight to behold...it really is unlike any other coastline in the world.  Drive through the Pacific Coast Highway or the 101 anywhere from Big Sur all the way down to Santa Barbara and you are in for a visual feast.

I told Dave to kick me next time I have wanderlust and want to shell out about a month's worth of salary on another expensive family trip to Europe.  (NOT recommended with 3 year old twins, by the way, and definitely NOT recommended when the dollar is doing as shi%ty as it is against the British pound sterling and the Euro.  Thanks, Mr. Bush.)

Central coast rocks.

  

Vacation's all I ever wanted

Here we are on vacation, finally. A road-trip one, at that. Just 250 miles north of San Diego at Dave's family's shore house in a sleepy little beach hamlet called Cayucos.

And I wonder why we haven't done this sooner?!

Who says that you need to go to Mexico or Maui or Europe for a great vacation?

Only Day 2 in the beautiful central coast of California and my pulse rate is already lower, my sleep time is more restful and my relaxation meter is at an all-time high. I don't think I've been this relaxed since I went to La Costa Spa...and that was over a year ago. And to boot, we're with the kids and both grandmas. (They are our babysitters - and they are both happy to do it!) Yes, we are all relaxed.

Some friends chuckled when I told them I was going up the coast to the beach.
"Well, isn't San Diego one big beach town, really?!" they would say.

Yes, but San Diego is so not Cayucos, where the town itself is so small you may miss it if you stop to blink while on Highway 1. You can saunter a slow "I'm-at-the-beach" saunter to the market, church, town pier and a variety of adorable beach eateries all within 15 minutes of the house.

And the beach...oh, the lovely beach. The shoreline stretches for at least 6 miles and the beach is wide and flat and packed with sand...it's a runner's dream beach, really. Not to mention, there are just small smatterings of people along the shore...you feel like you have the place all to yourself. And to top it off, you can see the shoreline crest around and on a clear day, you can see Morro Rock in nearby Morro Bay. Just amazing.

If I weren't on dial-up and I had my camera cord, I would upload photos...but we'll save that for the next post.

In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying my family and my overall decreased pulse rate (I will need it since the month of August at work will be so not fun...there's probably some higher reason I somehow neglected to bring the power cord to my blackberry...Oops).

'Til then, I'll enjoy my beachin' self.