My summer on the Pacific Coastal Highway – a European on an American road trip!

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Archive note (2013): I wrote this before announcing my next three-month project. The language-learning updates that followed documented me starting from scratch, sharing my struggles and working towards my goal, all while in Spain and learning a non-European language entirely online.

That’s why I wanted to precede all those intense language-learning updates and encouragement posts with a non-language-related travel update while I could!

I also had an accent project over the summer, a fun little mini-mission where I learned some curious things! But I’ll admit that I didn’t give a huge amount of time to it, because the purpose of this summer was to relax and recharge my batteries. In fact, it was the longest I’d gone without blogging (over seven weeks in which you only saw guest posts here) in the first four years of the blog’s existence!

I needed them recharged because the year ahead was going to be hectic. After that three-month intensive learning project and a month or so travelling in the target country, I planned to start part two of my secret Berlin mission and finally reveal what it was.

But first, it's time to actually tell you how the summer went!!

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

The idea for the Pacific Coastal Highway drive

I knew that I'd be going to the World Domination Summit again (yes, it's actually called that) in Portland, Oregon. I had something to do related to the Berlin project in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I wanted to attend VidCon in Anaheim (near L.A.).

Since these three things were in the north, middle and south of the West Coast, and I didn’t want to keep flying, I decided to drive between them. The United States has excellent highways that make driving easy, and at the time I found car rental cheaper than in many other developed countries.

I figured that I'd just stick to the interstate, since it gets you between places very fast, but then someone suggested that I consider the coastal route.

My route used US 101 through Washington and Oregon, then Highway 1 in California. These roads are definitely not the quickest way to get from A to B, but they are spectacularly scenic. I had six entire weeks to get from north to south, so I certainly wasn't in any hurry. It sounded like a plan!

I actually had to fly into Seattle and had already bought my ticket. There were no direct flights to Portland from Germany that I could find, so my options were to get a transfer or fly somewhere within driving distance. The first option was off the table after a previous slow immigration queue had nearly made me miss my connection. It was stress I’d promised myself to avoid.

Seattle is only a few hours from Portland by road, so before I had the coastal-drive idea, it was the logical choice to fly there, rest up and then rent a car or take a bus. Flying there meant I could essentially cover the entire West Coast.

Welcome to America!

After touchdown, even though I was far from first off the plane, I legged it past the other passengers. I was in no hurry to grab my bag, but I did want to be at the front of the line for immigration. And no, it's not because I love it that much…

The long wait standing is dull enough when I might have something better to do. Worse, some airports played that dreadfully cheesy “Welcome, welcome, welcome, bienvenidos, welcome to America!” video. After hearing it with its inspirational movie music dozens of times in a row, I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane. Anything to make the two-minute loop stop!

Luckily Seattle doesn't have that. But I'm still glad I ran!

My friend Natalie happened to be on the same flight as me and by being nice and not pushing past everyone and being further back in the line, she told me that she was an entire hour later than me into baggage claim! Yes, they were indeed that slow!

What really gave me the head start was the stairs. While others casually took the escalator, I ran down the stairs past the other passengers like the building was on fire and managed to be third in line!

Despite this, it was still ten minutes before I was seen to and my time with immigration was its usual “cheery” experience (it gets worse the more interesting your collection of passport stamps gets)… I'm just used to the fact by now that I'll have to be made to feel guilty and apologetic for entering a country where I'm going to spend thousands of dollars in car rentals, food, accommodation, and various other activities as a tourist.

After getting grilled way too much, they actually did say Welcome to America! Every single time they do that, I feel like I've been declared “not guilty” after a nerve-racking trial.

Driving from Seattle down the coast in style: My General Lee

Finally officially in America, it was time to rent a car! I had booked the best deal I could online for the cheapest car, but unfortunately I bricked my phone just before flying and couldn't use its GPS. I had no choice but to upgrade to a car with GPS so that I could get around easily.

Luckily, my charming Irish accent, combined with the fact that the rental guy noticed my birthday was coming up, meant that I got a deal. For just $18 more over my entire three-day rental, they gave me the sexiest car they had lying around. Someone on Facebook dubbed it my “General Lee” (like in The Dukes of Hazzard).

I hit Seattle for a day, and then after resting I drove 8 hours along the coast to get to Portland.

Halfway there, I drove over to meet Jana Fadness, who you may remember singing the Japanese and French parts of the Skype Me Maybe music video. We had lunch, and then she was my camera operator for the driving scene of my big ten-year anniversary and life-lessons video. I'm glad the General Lee made its own cameo 😀

Portland: My Favourite US City!

When I got to Portland, I dropped off the car knowing that I wouldn't need it for 3 weeks.

Portland, Oregon, is one of the few US cities I visited where the public transport was good enough that I was fine without a car. It also had a European-style coffee culture and lots of great places to eat. I don't think I've ever seen so many Captain Hook moustaches in my life.

It's a great city to hang out in though, so I was very glad to have three weeks to chill there this time! I attended the Summit, wrapped up some final scenes for the ten year anniversary video, and uploaded it on my birthday. Since so many of my friends come to this event, I got to spend lots of time with them, so I had a great commemoration of 31 laps of the solar system completed!

I had so much fun during the summit that I spent most of the next week sleeping it off! Even though I didn't need a car, I would pick up a Zipcar to drive friends to the airport because I wanted to see them off. Two nights in a row, I didn't get any sleep because I had to get up so early. I considered this adding to my Carma: my car-related karma for when I might need a ride one day!

I took the second week to explore Portland, eat out and, most importantly, spend time with good friends who lived in the city. On my previous two visits, I had only seen them briefly while dashing in for the Summit.

Driving down to the Bay Area on the 101

Next, I picked up another rental. Sadly, the General Lee had already gone off with someone else to chase bad guys away, so I got a good deal on a Jeep instead.

I didn't care what kind of car it was and only wanted the upgrade for the satellite radio, to make the long drives more interesting. Normal American radio, with its rapid-fire warnings about the possible side effects of advertised drugs, made me want to cover my ears. I just wanted music.

As such, I got to experience an entire day of the 101, with appropriate themed driving music.

The stretch through Oregon and into California is mostly winding roads, so I had a hectic day driving around hairpin bends and up and down mountains. I thought this would be a touristy drive, but I was often alone, only seeing a car pass in the opposite direction every few minutes.

This part of the country is often cloudy, so the view wasn't always great. Then, while climbing another mountain, I looked in the rear-view mirror and realised I had driven above the clouds. The setting sun was turning them orange. I really wanted to pull in and take a photo, but there was nowhere safe to stop and not even a hard shoulder. It was breathtaking, but I had to let my memory do its thing!

After a full day of driving, I pulled into the town of Arcata, which I knew would be approximately halfway between Portland and San Francisco on this route. I also chose it because it was close to the redwoods. I took the entire next day to explore the area properly, walking into a redwood park with the plan to find my way out without retracing my steps or using GPS.

Well rested, and well breakfasted, I hit the road again for another entire day driving!

The scenery wasn't so great inland, and concentrating on the winding mountain roads felt more like work than a holiday. But it was all worthwhile when, after hours in the mountains, I suddenly came out of the clouds and reached the Pacific Ocean. It was a sight for sore eyes!

I continued to where US 101 splits from Highway 1, which I would ultimately follow down to San Diego. I drove until after sunset and arrived in Oakland.

 The Bay Area

Now that I was in the Bay Area, I stopped for an entire week. I used the chance for a friend to give me a tour of the Googleplex, visit the oDesk offices, say hi to those behind my favourite travel app Tripit, and even randomly stumble across the Soundcloud offices! They gave me a t-shirt that you can see me wearing at the start of the article.

I had the Berlin-project meeting, a Fluent in 3 months reader meet-up with some cool people, and met Susanna. Just like the last time I met her in San Francisco, we recorded another video together that I'll hopefully show you soon!

I was having the best summer, but then, while I was taking a discounted kitesurfing lesson, my car was broken into and my belongings were stolen. I was furious and worried that without my driving licence the road trip might have to be cancelled. I printed a scanned copy and kept it with the police report in case I was pulled over. Luckily, I didn't have to find out whether that would have worked.

Fortunately, I had several hundred dollars in emergency cash and was ready to drive onwards. This happened on my last day in Oakland, so I was leaving anyway and only had a couple of days left on this rental before stopping in Anaheim.

Down route 1 to L.A.

The catch was that I was now driving with my back window completely broken and smashed out. Since I was driving with everything I own in the world, I was not able to simply leave the car with it all in there. Even if I was in a relatively safe area where break-ins were unlikely, leaving the window open with so many possessions in clear view was just not something I was willing to risk.

This meant that for the next 2 days as I drove down the coast, I had to keep my car within view at all times. It was a little limiting, so every time I stopped for food for instance I could only go somewhere that had a car park right at the window of the restaurant, but I dealt with it.

Hearst Castle is an interesting sight just off Highway 1. But I could only pull in to see it from a distance because I had to keep my car in view.

At least other things were easily accessible within view of my car, such as this friendly squirrel at the Elephant Seal vista area:

This time I stopped in Cambria on the way. It felt safe, but I took everything out of my car just to be sure. The next day I continued along the coast.

The coast itself was fascinating, especially because so much of it was undeveloped. I had expected to see high-rise buildings or weekend condos taking advantage of the scenery, but it was peaceful and tranquil. The one development with direct access to the coast was the highway itself.

At many stages, I was driving just a couple of metres from the crashing waves. I’d done that before on tiny roads, but driving a coastal highway with the vast ocean right beside me was one hell of a unique experience!

If anyone else decides to do the same drive, I'd recommend going north to south because that puts you on the ocean side of the road. I was driving alone, so taking turns with someone else would have allowed me to appreciate it way more. Having said that, there were plenty of vista points where I could pull in, take photos or just gaze at the ocean.

Finally, it was time to enter the metropolis of Los Angeles. I returned the car and took a shuttle to Anaheim (where Disneyland is, although that's not why I was there…).

YouTube Land: VidCon

I was there to attend VidCon, a conference that brings together some of the best-known YouTubers. While walking around the halls, I bumped into Paul “Bear” Vasquez and had a nice chat with him, some of which you can see here:

While he may not look that familiar, a little video he made will definitely ring a bell for some of you: “Double rainbow all the way… what does it mean??” (38 million views). At a night out, I was also dancing with the Chocolate Rain (93 million views) sensation Tay Zonday.

I managed to sneak into both VIP parties each night, and hang out with iJustine, Tobuscus (Toby Turner, who I'm a huge fan of), Daily Grace (whose voice was hoarse from partying, so I had a chat with her about how this wouldn't happen if she learned ASL!), Nice Peter and Epic Lloyd both of whom are behind the amazing Epic Rap Battles of History channel, and loads of other interesting characters! I hung out loads with Nomadic Matt and Yang Yang and got to chat briefly with Tim Ferriss and Ryan Holiday.

I had a great time with all of them! It was great to see so many faces that I recognised from YouTube in the “meat world”.

The final stretch

After VidCon, I made it to Long Beach and was stuck there without a car. Putting on my thinking cap, I realised I could use my Zipcar membership for the final days of my coastal drive. Another car rental would have required me to show a physical driving licence, but I’d already shown Zipcar mine when I signed up and only needed my membership card to collect a reserved car.

Of course, my Zipcar card was in the wallet when stolen, so I had to get a replacement by spending the entire day on Los Angeles' public transport to get into Hollywood to their offices. L.A. really is a city built for cars!!

While in Hollywood, I made the best of my time:

Then I could finally pick up a car again, and drive it down to San Diego!

At this stage, my six weeks were about up, so I could only stop in San Diego briefly. I met some friends and took a couple of hours to visit La Jolla, where I had lived 11 years earlier (before I graduated from university or considered long-term travel; I worked as a yoga store manager of all things while I was there). Lots of reminiscing ensued!

Satisfied that I had completed the coastal drive, I took the interstate back to L.A. and returned the car. My friend John Fotheringham picked me up and drove me to the airport. I spent one more week in the States, then flew back to Ireland.

My “other friends” left me a little present to remind me of the land of the free, though: a notice that my bag had been searched :-/

“For my safety”, everything I owned was searched without me being present to watch.

When I was flying out of Colombia, staff called my name over the intercom and asked me to be present while they looked through my bag because a present I was bringing home appeared strange on the X-ray. I didn't mind that at all. Security checks are understandable, but having my possessions searched without being allowed to watch made me feel as though I was in a police state. America, you had some catching up to do with the rest of the “free” world. But at least I could submit my police report online. That was efficient when I already had so much to deal with.

It wasn’t quite the farewell I was hoping for. But despite the brusque welcome, the warrantless search, the crime that broke my perfect ten-year streak, and other frustrations, I had a wonderful summer. That was not just because of the beautiful coastal drive, but because of the wonderful people I spent time with. I knew I’d be back 😉

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