I first started talking about a big trip over the summer. During our most difficult weeks and faced with a suddenly empty winter calendar I just kept saying to Matt, “We’re going away in January.” I told our families, I told our friends, I believed that as long as I kept saying it, it would happen. Once we got into 2017 the plans came together quickly and after planning for just 2 weeks we ended up truly having the trip of a lifetime (despite our dog Booker dislocating his hip just 2 days before we left).
A few things that made our trip as great as it was:
– We stayed with friends for about half the trip but made sure to split it up with hotels and Airbnbs. 2 weeks of air mattresses may have killed me and I needed some afternoons to just watch Diners, Drive Ins + Dives in my pajamas. Don’t judge.
– In some cities we made plans but in others we just wandered. In some I took hundreds of photographs and in some I left my camera in the room and just explored. Sometimes we ate fancy. Sometimes we ate fast food. We didn’t want to put any pressure on ourselves to have the ~best vacation ever~, we wanted to just let it happen.
– We left plenty of time to just get out + look at the coast. We let ourselves get lost there. It’s one thing in images, it’s another in person.
– We drank gallons of coffee (for Matt) and iced tea (for me). This was crucial. You don’t want to experience us without those.
For anyone who wants to do a similar trip, this is how we organized our time:
Day 1 – Fly into Seattle
Day 2 – Seattle (+ this amazing engagement session at Rattlesnake Lake!)
Day 3 – Drive to Portland
Day 4 – Portland
Day 5 – Drive to Fort Bragg along Oregon/Northern CA Coast
Day 6 – Drive to San Francisco
Day 7 – San Francisco
Day 8 – Big Sur
Day 9 – Santa Monica
Day 10 – Disneyland! / Santa Monica
Day 11 – Drive to Joshua Tree, Salvation Mountain, San Diego
Day 12 – San Diego
Day 13 – Fly home!
