Road trippin' part I

Our second day in San Francisco.. We didn't actually stay in San Francisco :') We rented a car for two days and went road tripping! Since we all stayed in big cities before we went to San Fran, we wanted to see some more of the nature America has to offer.

Our first day of road tripping we went south towards the Big Sur area, stopping at Big Basin Redwoods Park first for a quick hike.

Big Basin is a 1,5 hour drive away from San Francisco and it's California's oldest state park. It's full of these huuuge ancient trees. The trees in Big Basin literally are some of the tallest and oldest trees on earth! You're only looking up when you're there, in total awe of mother nature. We really didn't stay long enough to explore it all, but there are also waterfalls and wild animals to see. There are different trails you can do, appropriate even for non hikers like myself.

Yay! Spotted a wild deer!

We arrived at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk just in time for lunch

We went from the oldest state park in California to the oldest amusement park in California!
It was pretty crowded (I think it was spring break?) so we quickly escaped to the nearby wharf. 

We randomly chose Firefish Grill out of all the fish restaurants on the wharf. I had the Dungeness crab cakes with beurre blanc and risotto. I wasn't sure if the dish would actually need the combination of beurre blanc and risotto, but it actually tasted soooo good. My co-travellers' food was also pretty decent!

And then we found some more sea lions next to the wharf! These guys were so close you could actually touch them if you wanted to (probably not a good idea though). Just look how wonderfully lazy they are :)

This guy is toootally gettin' his tan on :D

Then we drove further south to Carmel, where I wanted to see this church. It's called the Mission San Carlos Borroméo del rio Carmelo. These "mission" churches in California were founded by Spanish priests of the Franciscan order who wanted to spread Christianity among Native Americans. This one in Carmel was the second mission in California, founded in 1770.

I love how the Spaniards really took a little home with them. Standing there makes you forget you're in the US!

I thought the church was suprisingly large! 

There's a lot of stuff to see other than the church as well. The mission also has a large courtyard with exotic looking flowers and cacti, and a museum with Spanish colonial artefacts and interiors. Aaaand they have this huge elaborate nativity scene (as a Christmas lover I appreciate a good nativity scene), with a tiny version of the bocca della verita!

We ventured further into Carmel

The center of Carmel is awesome by the way! It's so wonderfully quaint and there are these Alice in Wonderland like buildings. There are a lot of cafés and artsy shops. Right up my alley!

Walked in for a much needed cup of coffee. And cakes. Yes.

All these cakes were so delicious (I had the warm chocolate cake with the molten chocolate oozing out). Coffee was also really, really good!

Then we drove along the coast as far as we could without getting too tired, before heading back home.

We got home late, and by this time we were pretty hungry again. I knew what I wanted. I wanted a burrito from El Castillito - supposedly one of the best places in SF you can get a burrito. But my dad and Paul just wanted something 'easy' from the nearby 24/7 Safeway (ummm. What could be easier than picking up a freshly made burrito?). Fortunately El Castillito is right next to the Safeway, so my dad and Paul drove to Safeway to get something and also got me a burrito (such troopers they are). 
AND oh my IT WAS DELICIOUS. This was such a great day for food. Paul obviously regretted their Safeway sushi a little (don't worry, I'm nice enough, I shared). 
SO. If you're ever in SF, have a burrito at El Castillito. Best. Burritos. Ever.