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Road Trip Adventure, Day 2: Ups & Downs of Taking Scenic Route

July 12, 2011 By
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    Manic:  With so much to see, we decided to stay only one night in Santa Monica, so we were already off on the second leg of our road trip journey.  Would this be manic or managed? 

Managed:  Decided not to rush, but to take it slow and drive the scenic route that would take us up the Pacific One Highway, along the coast up to Northern, California.  For the most part, all was managed, but we did have a few manic moments….doesn’t every traveling family?  Read on to see what happened, so that you are prepared if our road trip trip-ups happen to you!

The first part of the scenic route was beautiful and peaceful.  Everyone was happily riding along enjoying the lovely ocean view on the left side of the car and the mountain views on the right side.  California is such a beautiful state. 

Our scenic drive begins!

My kids had a great view from the back seat, too. Look how blue that sea is!

 

 
 

Passing Malibu...home to many of the biggest Hollywood celebs!

 
So the first few hours went great.  Then our truck’s GPS decided to malfunction and before we knew it, we had veered off course!  That was frustrating!  Fortunately, my Droid cell phone was all charged up, so we used the navigation app that came with my phone.  However, it took a long time to reroute us.
 
The mountain roads were stunning, too.  So we decided to avoid being manic about our broken GPS.  And believe me, that wasn’t easy to do, because having our GPS break on our big 1700-mile road trip is not a good feeling!  So striving to feel managed, we decided to enjoy the beauty that was now all around us on the mountain route.  And just as I was about to begin taking pictures for us, this website, you….
 
…the curvy roads that were winding every which way made our daughter feel quite queasy!  Fortunately, I had packed Tums at the last minute and that did the trick for a little while, anyway. 
 
By the time we were back on course, we were all so exhausted from the long drive, the stress about a broken navigation system and our girl’s nervous tummy that the vote to take the less scenic route to our next destination was unanimous!  California is so beautiful though, that even the shorter route on up to Carmel was very pretty, too.
 
Unfortunately, by this time, it was dark, so like yesterday’s post, I’m short on pictures again…in true manic managed mom form!  But stay tuned because I’ve got some beautiful pictures of Carmel, Monterey, San Francisco, Sonoma and Sacramento to show you all week in my remaining California Road Trip Adventure posts!
 
And learn from us!  Always have a back-up GPS and good ol’ fashioned road maps on hand, plus Tums, ginger ale and a sickness bag…just in case!
 
Filed Under: Family Matters, Rachel Recommends, Road Trippin with Rach Tagged With: , , ,

Comments

  1. levonne says:
    July 18, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Hi,
    I was just searching for road trip adventure blogs and came upon yours. I see that your adventure has come and gone but I wanted to connect anyway. I’ve spent the last two years exploring the central California coast communities that you traveled through. I’m driving cross country in August. I hope you’ll check out my blog about the adventure at http://www.levonnegaddy.com/2011/07/were-going-home.html

    • managedmom says:
      July 18, 2011 at 6:57 pm

      Hi Levonne,

      Thanks for reading my road trip article. I’ll be writing several more this week. Your blog is terrific! I just looked through it and plan to visit your site often! I wish you a terrific experience on your August travels. You are going a long way. How cool! I look forward to reading all about it on your site!

      Cheers,

      Rachel at managedmoms.com.