I have my parents to thank for my travel bug, and I couldn’t be more thankful. I have so many fond memories of traveling all over the country with my parents and brother — beaches and mountains, a motorhome trip across the country to see Mt. Rushmore (and the Mall of America, which I was thrilled about!), California, Hawaii, Vegas, NY, Seattle, and the list goes on. I think traveling is one of the most wonderful things in life… seeing the world God created for us, experiencing how other people live, discovering and enjoying new cultures… and eating lots and lots of good food.

I dream of traveling the world with my handsome sidekick, and we’ve started documenting our US travels on a giant vintage map (idea courtesy of my favorite bloggers, Young House Love). Red pins mark where we’re traveled together, white pins mark Craig’s travels, and black pins mark mine. I can’t wait till there are more pins than blank spaces!

One of our most recent plans is to take a good old fashioned road trip. We’d thought about renting a Winnie and driving allll the way across the US, but we decided on something a bit more stylish and fancy. So off to California we’ll go for a combo trip to celebrate our 30th birthdays / 4th wedding anniversary next year! We’re planning to drive the famed Pacific Coast Highway for about 9 days in the spring, and I can barely contain my excitement!! The idea is to fly into San Francisco, which is one of my favorite places (I’ll be going next week for my 3rd Hoopla, the national Stella & Dot conference/giant slumber party/amazing weekend). Craig’s technically been to California, if you count skiing on that side of the mountain in Lake Tahoe. But I don’t know if that really counts.

From San Francisco, we’ll drive through Monterey/Carmel,  Santa Barbara, LA/Santa Monica, and end up in San Diego. I found an amazing whale watching excursion on little 6-passenger Navy Seal boats — so fun! I don’t know about those tiny boats floating next to the largest animals in the world, but they say it’s safe and I suppose I trust them.

If you’re a CA expert or have any tips on the famous PCH drive, please share! I have heard about something called the “June fog” and know that it’ll likely be pretty chilly earlier in the spring. Have favorite restaurants or little roadside motels we should check out?