We recently packed up our entire lives and road-tripped it across county from Texas to the Bay Area. Luckily we had movers, so we didn't have to lug everything with us! It was just Jason, me, Indy and a truck full of belongings to get us through a month. We took our time driving, making a vacation of our trip. We planned some fun stops, almost all of which were dog friendly.
Our first morning saw us saying goodbye to our home for the past 8 years, grabbing our last Whataburger breakfast for a long time, and heading towards Amarillo. We had our last Tex-Mex at Joe Taco that had a dog-friendly patio for Indy. Right outside of Amarillo, you can drive right up to Cadillac Ranch! This is an art installation that has been in place for a long time and people were taking turns spray-painting the cars. Indy just wanted to swim.
That evening, we made it into Tucumcari, NM which is right along Route 66. We checked into our hotel and left Indy for a bit to go grab dinner at Del's.
The next day, we had plans to make it to Flagstaff and Jason wanted to watch the World Cup game before we headed out, so we didn't do too much exciting this day. We did stop in Holbrook, AZ for a few Route 66 stops though!
We stopped for the night in Flagstaff and grabbed some picnic stuff and some yummy poke bowls for our exciting excursion the next day.
The next morning we got up bright and early and drove up to the Grand Canyon! Dogs are only allowed above the rim, but we were able to walk with him for a few miles before Indy basically drank all of our water and we had to turn around. The altitude and dryness definitely hits you - stay hydrated folks! We got back to the main area and had a delicious picnic with some pretty incredible views.
After that, we made our way towards Las Vegas, where we left our exhausted pup in the room so we could go to a nice dinner and do a bit of gambling. It was a fun little outing and basically the perfect amount of time in Las Vegas, ha!
We were ready to get out of that 100 degree weather, but first we stopped at 7 Magic Mountains, 30 minutes outside of Vegas. It's another art installation and located right off the road!
We drove all the way to Solvang, CA, where we would stay for the next two nights. It was actually a return trip for us as we had visited a few years back. This town is SO cute and super dog-friendly. All of the wineries allowed dogs and many of the restaurants had outside seating areas, so we could really bring Indy along everywhere we went. Our favorite stop was D.Volk winery though - we even had to buy a bottle to go!
After a few days exploring Solvang, we made the short drive to Paso Robles via Morro Bay. We let Indy play in the Pacific Ocean for a while before we checked in to our next hotel. We went to a few wine tastings (J. Lohr was yummy and our hotel had a wine tasting as well - both FREE!) before dinner, but wish we had a chance to explore the area more! Good thing is that it's only a few hours away from us, so we can go back soon.
Our last day we made the final push to our temporary housing in Sunnyvale, CA. We had heard from our waiter the previous night that the PCH was literally opening the same day we planned to drive north. It had been closed since the mudslides over a year before. It was basically a sign!
The road was windy and definitely added a few hours, but luckily most of the traffic was going south and we were going north. This is another example of a place we'd love to explore more, but it was a beautiful drive!
We had downloaded lots of podcasts to listen to on our drive (thanks Planet Money & Serial) and had a blast experiencing this with Indy. The whole drive was such a perfect transition to our new life here in California!
Also: We've found a home in Menlo Park - and are now accepting visitors...HA!
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