Big Sur

Big Sur is so amazingly, stunningly beautiful! If you haven’t been, drop what you’re doing and GO NOW!I went to school at UC Santa Cruz and somehow avoided Big Sur for 3 years. But I was happy that I had never been before and got to experience all that beauty with my husband! We drove down from San Francisco and stopped for lunch in Santa Cruz before heading into Big Sur. It was raining, but it was still beautiful!We stayed at Deetjan’s Big Sur Inn which is such a charming little bed and breakfast (and dinner) type place.

Most of the rooms are in buildings (apparently with paper thin walls) and some have shared baths, but we stayed in Castro Cabin, the only stand-alone room at Deetjan’s Big Sur Inn. It was super cozy (once we got a second blanket), and we loved listening to the rain on the sunlight window all night.Breakfast the next morning at Deetjan’s was amazing! Everyone on Yelp and in the room journals (each room has guest journals going back several years) recommends the eggs Benedict, but we went with our usuals: pancakes and sausage for the misters, and eggs, bacon, home-style potatoes, and toast for me! Before checking into the Inn, we stopped at the Henry Miller Memorial Library. The mister had heard of it because several bands have played very intimate shows at the Library on the lawn. The shop sells Henry Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jack Kerouac books, has a few places to sit and read, drink coffee, and pet the fluffy cat. It’s … interesting. As I was flipping through one of the Henry Miller books, I randomly came across this letter from Henry Miller to a friend:I’m sure almost everyone would recommend eating dinner at Deetjan’s, but we decided to try something else and went to Roadhouse. The food was great, decor is awesome, and service was prompt and friendly. We highly recommend checking this restaurant out.The next day, we drove north from Deetjan’s to go to Pfeiffer State Beach. It’s a bit hard to find as there is no street sign and no wireless service in Big Sur. But basically the directions from Deetjan’s are take the first left street turn past the Big Sur Deli. Once you turn down the street, you should see this sign:From there it is a two mile drive to the beach. Access/parking is $5/car. The beach is gorgeous. It was cold and raining for the majority of time that we were there, but that didn’t stop us from walking down the beach. The rock formations and crashing waves are just gorgeous!

We then made our way south, stopping at a few vista lookouts, and then stopped at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to walk to McWay Falls, the only waterfall in California that falls onto a beach (or in the ocean). Parking is $10, but we also saw a lot of cars parked along Highway 1. The falls are stunning, but keep walking all the way to the end and you will get a gorgeous view of the turquoise waters along the north as well as a bit of a history lesson on the area and a house that was once built there with stunning views of the falls.