Rimshot
When you make the right to go North to Cambria, Hearst Castle will great you just north of Cambria. A little north of there is where the elephant seals hang out. Two good stops IMO.

We only have a few days so...we decided to wait on the Castle (we did take a few pics from the road). We stopped and got some pics and a few videos of the seals. We are staying at Monterey Bay tonight...tomorrow is still a mystery.

Tomorrow Never Knows?

1. Big Sur
2. Big Sur
3. Big Sur

clintmartin
 
This is what we need to know...I want to see Big Sur, Monterey Bay (I was there once in 1994), Carmel, cross the Bixby and Golden Gate bridge. What are the highlights? What should we not miss? We thought about starting at Dana Point, but I don't know if we have time. We will try to get as far North as we can...I've read it's pretty.

 
if you go to monterey,
take some time and visit the aquarium. awesome.
 
if you go to dana point,
take some time, rent a paddleboard,
and tour the beachline there.....
awesome.
 

I was hoping to go to the aquarium again, but we're not going to have time this trip. I was there in 1994...I'm sure it's bigger and better now.

clintmartin
We're here in Bakersfield! We are going to go north on 99 and turn west on 46 to Cambria and then up the Pacific coast highway. Today is our 25th anniversary...and yes I'm already missing my studio! I did however take advantage of the time off and put my guitars in the shop for a fresh setup.

Goodness ... you're not even going to take pictures of the cabbage patches? ... I mean tar patches in Goleta and above!
 
Of course, and then there is the bunns of all the jokes in 101 ... the Gaviota rest stop! You are required to always ... (can't say it here, as _________ humor usually gets ignored!) ... so, one time we smoked a joint, and dropped it into the ____________ and then left!

Home sweet home...back in Arkansas. It was a great vacation and we are already planning our next trip to the left coast, but I wouldn't want to live there. The slow life is the life for me.
Thanks for all of the suggested locations. We managed to cross off everything on our list. The 90 miles of Big Sur was amazing.

We drove from San Diego up to Monterey then back down here to San Diego.
We took the drive up the coast real slow, taking about 5 days.  We spent the week in places like Santa Barbara, Morro Bay, Hearst Castle, Cambria, and Big Sur.  (I recommend all of those.)  Then we zoomed back down to San Diego on Interstate 5.
One thing that I'm glad we had: a sports car with a nice sunroof on it!   That gorgeous southern coast cruise with windows down, the sunroof open, and cranking some tunes on a great stereo system in the Kalifornia sun.....well, that's truly tough to beat.

We started in Cambria...I had never heard of it before. Truly I could spend a week right there. My favorite parts were the light houses and bridges (I've got a thing for bridges). My wife liked the water fall in Big Sur. It was Beautiful.

happy anniversary, hope it was a great drive! anyone else driving down through malibu should check out el matador beach, it's gorgeous :)