The California Coast + Joshua Tree National Park | US Road Trip Days 1-3

This is the craziest sunset ever. Do these hats make us look like tourists? Our Christmas road trip has officially begun. Woo! For the next 15 days, we are gonna be traveling from Seattle down to Texas and back. We have a ton of fun stops along the way. Here's a quick little list of where we're going. So today we're headed to Southern Oregon where we're gonna stay the night in a rest stop in our car. Sleeping in the car is kind of our thing. It's a really good option if you don't plan on being somewhere very long and you don't want to spend money on a hotel or Airbnb or set up a campsite because sometimes that takes some time too. So our car's really, really packed. So we're crossing our fingers that we actually have enough room to sleep in it. So stay tuned for that. And then tomorrow we're gonna head to Carmel, California. And then Sunday we're gonna go to Joshua Tree. And then Monday we'll make it to Texas. And we're kind of rushing on the way to Texas because of Christmas and we're trying to get there in time. But on the way home, we'll have a lot more time to slow down a bit, go to more national parks, eat a lot of tacos. And then we'll make it home, I think around January 4th or 5th, if I remember correctly. So we're really, really, really excited and we're super pumped to have you guys along for the ride. Let's go. First pit stop of the Christmas road trip 2018 is at Matt's Barbecue in Portland. To say that I'm drooling is a bit of an understatement. We have a pound and a half of brisket here with tortillas, beans, chips and queso. I got a smoked jalapeno here. This is torture right now. I'm hungry. We have all kinds of sauces here that we're gonna try out too. I'm excited. It's gonna be good. That is solid. A plus. All right, pro tip. Get the chip, dip it in the queso, put the brisket on top, maybe a little salsa if you're feeling crazy. Oh my goodness, Nini. Brisket. Oh my. Even Kona gets to enjoy some of the barbecue and queso. Hi. All right, this is our home for the night. We got our sleeping pads, our sleeping bags, our blow-up pillows. We were able to fit everything in the front so that way we could lay in the back. Should be a pretty good maybe five hours of sleep. It'll be nice and cozy. We got Noni here to keep us warm. Oh yeah, Kona's gonna love to cuddle, right Kona? Good morning, we are officially in Cali. Woo! Cali, Cali, we made it. We're in a town called Eureka. I don't know if that's how you say it, but that's how I like saying it. We just stopped for some gas and to go to the bathroom. We've been on the road for a little over two hours now. We got maybe four hours of sleep. We left at 4 a.m. from the rest stop. The rest stop was really nice. The bathrooms were super clean, super big and spacious, at least the women's one. It was the nicest rest stop I've ever been to. I think so, yeah. It was very well lit, which made it hard to sleep at times, but we felt pretty safe. There were a lot of other people stopped there too. It was just a huge rest stop. We'll link to it in the description below in case you find yourself needing a rest stop in Southern Oregon. Highly recommend. So we're gonna keep driving. We have about six and a half hours left until we get to our first stop. We're really hoping the sun comes out soon, or the light at least, because. Yeah, we've been driving since two o'clock yesterday, and we drove a lot after we ate dinner, and then we've been driving over two hours tonight, so it feels like most of the trip has been in the dark. We're missing out on some views. Yeah, we can tell there's lots of mountains on the side and stuff. We keep going up and up. Yeah, we're getting up in elevation here between Oregon and California, so we can tell it's a really pretty drive right now, and we just wanna be able to see it. So we still have a little over an hour till the sun comes up, but yeah, we're in Cali. Hopefully catch some of that Cali sunshine. Woo! ♪♪♪ $10.58, please. One in California, two things of fries, and a milkshake, because go big or go home, right? Four patties. Do these hats make us look like tourists? We're the only ones wearing them here, but they're so fun. I mean, we've been to In-N-Out twice before, or once in Texas. I've been to it once in California, and this is by far my favorite experience. Before, I was kinda like, meh, it's okay. The fries still aren't that great, in my opinion, but my burger was good. I don't know about yours. The burger was great, yeah. We get them protein-style, so we skip the bun, and then we get some fries, so we can enjoy those. Got extra meat, lots of cheese. The fries are a little weird, but the burger's great. But really, is any fry a bad fry? I don't think so. Yeah, no, it's definitely not bad, that's for sure. The milkshake's good. The melted cheese in the burger was top-notch. So, I mean, it's the only time we're gonna come here on the trip. We just thought, when in California, we might as well just do it. Exactly. No regrets. I loved it. I'm lovin' it. Yep. We're making a quick stop in Monterey to grab some coffee and walk around. They have this awesome little pathway that goes along the water. There's a marina, so there's a bunch of boats. We can hear some seals kinda barking right now, which is fun. Reminds me of San Francisco. We came here like two summers ago on our way to Yosemite, and the weather was so foggy that day. Monterey was actually the only spot on our entire day on the coast where you could actually see anything. So, it's fun to be back. The weather looks really great today, so we're gonna keep heading down the coast and go play at the beach. Kona's been cooped up in the car all day, so she's definitely ready to go run around, eat some waves, and we're ready to just kinda sit down for a bit and relax after driving for about eight hours, I think, to get here. So, in Monterey, there's this spot called Old Fisherman's Wharf, which is kinda like one of the piers, the main pier in San Francisco. It's pretty touristy, but it's really cool to walk on. There is a hidden gem, though, that you should know about called Water and Leaves. It's a coffee shop, and it's a really high-quality coffee shop. They have these huge tubs of honey on the wall. I guess they make their own honey. They have a really cool way of steeping tea. So, highly recommend checking it out. And it's on the water, and it has this awesome view of all the boats. So, in case it wasn't obvious, we absolutely loved that sunset. It was probably the most colorful sunset we've ever seen. Definitely one of our favorites of all time. It looked like highlighters exploded everywhere. Now, we're camping at Marina Dunes RV Park, which is in Monterey, California, or just a little bit north of Monterey, I think. So, it's actually an RV park, but they have these really cute cottages you can rent. They also have maybe four or five different tent sites, which are very out in the open, no privacy. They're pretty basic, but it's really nice. No one else is camping, so we kind of have the whole little strip to ourselves. We have a fire pit, which is awesome. They also have really nice bathrooms and showers, which we're definitely gonna take advantage of, because we're pretty gross. So, we're camping tonight. So, we're kind of going from roughing it to nice accommodations. So, last night, we slept in the car. Tonight, we're camping. Tomorrow, we're staying in this cabin thing, and then we're gonna start staying at Airbnbs for pretty much the rest of the trip. So, we're gonna hang out by the fire, maybe watch some YouTube, and then go to bed, because we have a pretty early morning, not as early as today was. But we're gonna hit up a spot that we couldn't go to last time we were on the California coast, because it was closed. It's like a bucket list item for me. And then, we're gonna make our way to Joshua Tree. We're super, super pumped. There's been a government shutdown, but we don't think that Joshua Tree will be affected. So, we're crossing our fingers. We can still get in and see what we plan to see there. Good morning, day three of the road trip. The sunrises and sunsets are just ridiculous here. We are loving it. I don't think I wanna leave California. Everything's just been so beautiful. Never thought I'd say that. Yeah, we thought, since we were driving along the west coast, that we wouldn't see an awesome sunrise. And then, it's just beautiful. And then, there it is. I just, I'm so happy. I have no words. Speechless. I'm speechless. Loving it. We tried to come to this park last time we were at Big Sur, but the road was closed because of a landslide. It was closed for months. And so, it finally reopened, and we are super excited to come here today. And it looks like it's closed again. So, we're not sure why, because we looked up the waterfall we were trying to go view a couple days ago, and we didn't see anything about it being closed. So, we don't have cell phone service. So, we're just gonna kinda lurk around and see if we can maybe find a safe spot to view it from, just from the road. I'm sad. I guess third time will be the charm. I don't know. I'm kinda losing hope that I'll ever get to see it. So, we parked alongside of the highway, and we're just kinda walking along the highway, and we can kinda see part of the view. We're not sure if we're gonna get to see the actual view we came here to see, but what we can see right now is beautiful. So, if this is all I get, I will be happier. I'm still sad, but I'll be happier. Okay, I lied. I'm super happy. This is exactly the view I wanted. It's beautiful. So, we, in full disclosure, we went over the railing of the highway, but there are no signs saying you can't do that. There's a ton of open space. So, we think it's okay, but we're not condoning any bad behavior. But we don't do anything that doesn't feel safe, and the view's incredible. So, I'm very, very happy. Right, after a beautiful morning in Big Sur, we are headed to Joshua Tree National Park. We're gonna check off another off our long list of national parks. Woo, I think this will be number 11 for us. So, we're really excited about that. The visitor center won't be open, so we won't get to buy our patch, which we collect patches at national parks, but I think we can buy one online, so that's okay. Cheat. Yep, so we're saddled up. We've got a little over five hours to go, and what does it say, 336 miles? We're going through Los Angeles, though. That's the route it's taking us, and we all know how that's supposed to go. Yeah, so we'll see if this time is accurate. Maybe we'll find a quicker route. We kind of want to see the famous Los Angeles traffic, but we want to see it from a different road. Just be like looking onto it. We don't want to actually be on it. Say glad we're not in that. So, we'll see what happens. Yep, so we're saddled up. We got coffee. We got chicharrones, one of my favorite road snacks. They smell so bad. They don't taste bad, they just smell bad. Yeah, Kona discovered a new snack she likes, too, so she's on my team on that one. So, yeah, we're ready to go. We'll be there soon. Hopefully before sunset. Yep. We made it to Joshua Tree. Woo, our 11th national park. And in typical California fashion, beautiful sunset. Beautiful sunset for the youth. So, we have probably like maybe 15 more minutes till the sun goes down, and then we're gonna make some dinner in our car, and then we're gonna stick around and hopefully get some cool night shots. Gonna be fun. Oh my gosh. Another one. This is nuts. We didn't think the sunset would actually be that great because it was super cloudy, but holy crap. This is beautiful. Another magnificent one. We made it to Arizona, but kind of barely because we're like the first exit once you cross the California-Arizona state line, so we're not sure if that really counts. We still have the whole state ahead of us. Yeah, just barely. So, yeah, we're here in Arizona. We're staying at this RV park called Arizona Oasis, and we're staying in this little cabin. I'll give you the quick little tour here. And we've got these bunk beds right here. I called that top bunk there, so that one's got my name on it. Yeah, so we're- We're trying to have some mattresses to actually sleep on tonight instead of the ground. Yeah, I mean, we have our sleeping pads, but mattresses will be much, much nicer. So, yeah, we're gonna hit the hay here in a second, and then we'll get up in about, what, four or five hours, and then get on the road at four because we've got a long way to go. Yeah, we're going to Texas tomorrow, so we have all of Arizona, all of New Mexico, and then part of Texas to hit. So this actually marks the end of road trip vlog number one, so thank you for tuning in. We have many more coming your way. But, yeah, that's it for number one. Good night.