4th annual road trip out west

A few weeks back I was sitting at my desk, drinking coffee and responding to emails, shortly after Jeff had left for work when the feeling hit. That intense urge to travel. I text Jeff and said “I need to go to the desert. We can sleep in the car again!” I figured he’d give me the usual “I know, I miss it too.” Instead, he said, “Look for flights then!” Less than two hours later, without ever speaking of it other than through rushed, excited texts, we had a flight booked. A week later we were on our way to the airport!

Each year since we started dating Jeff and I have taken a trip out west. We fly into whatever city is the cheapest, rent a car, and just spend a week aimlessly driving. Each year has had its highlights, and of course, low moments but I think this year’s trip may have been my favorite so far! Last year was nice because we had booked a hotel for every night in advance so there was always a cozy bed to look forward to but this also meant that were on a schedule. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about taking road trips and how I function on the road, it’s that schedules kill fun. In an effort to not only save money but be free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted we slept in the car three of the five nights. It wasn’t the most comfortable but it allowed for us to easily catch sunrise and sunset – the two most magical times of the day, especially somewhere as beautiful as the desert or the ocean.

This year we flew into Los Angeles, drove around in Nevada for a while then headed to the coast. Despite the fact we drove the Pacific Coast Highway back in 2015, we saw completely new things this trip. I feel like we could drive the coast again ten more times and still not see everything there is to see.

We watched the sun rise over giant colorful boulders in the desert, drove the extraterrestrial highway, met all sorts of amazing animals, crept around sunbaked abandoned buildings, searched for ocean life in tidepools, saw all sorts of random roadside attractions, wandered around some of the most interesting cemeteries I’ve ever seen, and fell in love with more than a handful of new places. Lookin’ at you, San Diego!

You’d think after four years of taking the same trip we’d be tired of it but I get the feeling we’d both be fine continuing this little tradition for as long as humanly possible. There is just something so incredibly special about the desert and the time we spend there. The ocean too, I could never tire of it!

I have SO many photos to finish going through and organize into posts. I can’t wait to share more!
xoxo