Road trip from L.A. to San Francisco
Hey everyone! My name is Jessica Rose and I’m a full time content creator and freelancer. I have a 7-year-old daughter named Nylah who drives me insane but I love her dearly. I’ve grown a community of over 500,000 mothers across all social media networks by bringing a comedic perspective to the struggles of single motherhood.
Spring Break, National Park week, and Summer seem like they are all just around the corner and I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to be stuck in the house with my child.
Outside is finally opening up and I’m excited to take a road trip upstate with my daughter, Nylah. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and currently still reside here with her. I’ve been itching to get to San Francisco for a while and luckily Vrbo’s vacation home rentals are going to help make it possible.
Taking this road trip with my daughter means so much more than just making sure we aren’t stuck at home. It’s the fact that I have the ability to spend this kind of time with her in comparison to how little time my mother was able to spend with me when I was a child. I was raised by a single mother of three who was so busy with work that even when school was in session, spending quality time with her was rare. I joke a lot about the struggles of motherhood and desiring alone time, but the ability to create these kinds of memories for Nylah and me is something that I value and look forward to. I’m sharing this with you all not to gloat, but to inspire other black women to change the narrative around travel and experiencing things for ourselves with our children.
Planning our trip to San Francisco
Me, Nylah, and our one-year old puppy Cherry (who we adopted 10 months ago) will all be taking this trip together. There are two different routes you can take driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, with the most scenic route being CA Route 1 (an 8 1/2 hour drive). Now don’t get me wrong, Nylah is a little bit older now, she turns 8 this May, but even for a kid her age, 8 ½ hours in the car sounds like it could be painful. I plan on making quite a few stops to keep me and her from going insane and to make sure Cherry uses the bathroom.
There are so many options as far as great stops on the route from LA to SF. When I was doing my research I saw that a lot of people tend to stop in Santa Monica or Malibu, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m an LA baby and have frequented those places often enough to not have much interest in adding either of them to this trip.
I think our first stop will be an hour into our trip. We can pull over in Santa Barbara to eat, stretch, and sightsee. With us only being an hour into the drive, I plan to keep this stop brief.
I don’t want to make this trip too overwhelming so an overnight stop in Solvang would be a good conclusion to the first day. It will be our first road trip of this nature together and it’s just enough driving for us to get our feet wet in the road trip life. I love how Vrbo makes searching for a place that accommodates pets as well as children as simple as the click of a button. Plus, with the way wine is discussed in this town an overnight stop is mandatory! Since we are going to start driving early every day we will have plenty of time to wander around the town and catch a narrated tour on the horse-drawn Solvang Trolley.
For Day 2 of our travels, after a nice breakfast and a walk for Cherry, we make a straight 3-hour shot to the Big Sur. After getting settled into our vacation rental we would head off to a hike at McWay Falls where we would sadly have to leave our pup behind because of state restrictions about dogs on the trails. Everything I’ve read says that this trail is kid-friendly so I think it will be a great activity for me and Nylah to throw on our hiking boots and bond together while getting our steps in and doing some exploring. Afterwards, we would head back to our stay, wash up and have dinner at a restaurant called Nepenthe so I can try their ground steak sandwich for myself while Nylah decides what she wants from their kid’s menu.
Chocolate Farm, Kaneohe, HI When I’m planning travel with Nylah involved, I always look up menus beforehand. You would be surprised in new locations how often there just aren’t kid menus available. Nylah is by no means a picky eater, but portion sizes and something basic can save you money and complaints. Nobody wants to hear whining about a lack of mac n cheese on vacation. This is why staying at a Vrbo rental is so important to me. I can easily locate somewhere that has a kitchen for us to cook in for quick and affordable breakfasts, but also ensure we are staying close to highly rated dining places for whenever we want to dine out.
Day 3 calls for about a 2 hour drive leaving Big Sur heading to Half Moon Bay where we would check out this dope little plant shop called Worlds Rare Plants where we can examine carnivorous plants and follow-up that visit with some creamy gelato from Cafe Mezzaluna.
From Half Moon Bay, San Francisco is only about 40 minutes away so we’d hop back in the car and journey along there until getting settled in for two nights to be able to take in everything San Francisco has to offer. We would want to stay on the northern waterfront, Fisherman’s Wharf, to really be in the heart of the city’s tourism and have easy access to their infamous sourdough bread bowls.
San Francisco is one of those places that I just know would excite Nylah. I have watched her over the years grow into different levels of herself on trips as simple as San Diego and as elaborate as Hawaii for a week. She is normally a timid child who takes a lot of time to come out of her shell, but there is something about travel that brings out another version of her. Travel excites her and I can tell it’s her preferred method of learning. She is such a creative little artist. At just 7 years old she totes around a pen and her notebook everywhere to draw any and everything around her.
It’s my job as her mother to keep her inspired. Travel does just that!
With that said for day four I see us waking up, walking Cherry, and after breakfast and coffee making our way to the Golden Gate Bridge, to view it, learn about it and most importantly draw it.
Honolulu, HIIn parenting, I struggle with the idea of pretend play. I don’t know at what age my ability to play barbies completely left my body but I genuinely despise it! I suck it up and do it ever so often but what I do even more is come up with different ways of being able to spend time with Nylah where we can both enjoy what we are doing. Coloring, drawing, and reading together are just a few of them.
This has also become a great travel activity and it’s completely free! I know how important budgeting is while traveling as a parent. I know how important budgeting is as a parent period. This is already a road trip during a time where gas prices are out of this world so something that knocks out learning about a major landmark and spending time together for-the-free sounds like a win to me.
I’ll make sure I pack our supplies before we even leave the house, we have plenty of coloring options to choose from. I may even get fancy and pack our paint and canvases to make it a paint party! What excites me the most about this is that I know it is going to bring my daughter so much joy. Activities don’t have to be over the top to create memories that we will both cherish forever.
One of the other places I want to make sure we check out while there is the Bay Area Discovery Museum. I love museums like this for Nylah because they are educational but super interactive which makes it just as fun as a playground for Nylah!
The goal throughout the whole trip is to keep her as entertained as possible, eat tons of good food, and make memories with her that will continue to grow her confidence in herself and the world around her.
The activities that we do in each city are nothing in comparison to the conversations, experiences, and beautiful sites we will share while coasting down route 1 with one another this Spring break.
Do you travel with your children? Have you thought about where you’re taking them this Spring Break? Make sure that when it comes to finding places to stay you check out all of the options Vrbo has to make sure you’re comfortable along the way.
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