California scenery: Taking a ride along the Pacific on Route 1

I've only been to California once, back in 2006, but fortunately we managed to see and do a lot for the 7 days we were visiting. Most of our time was spent in San Francisco, but we did take a day to just "drive". We ended up on an interesting journey. One that took us through some beautiful mountains, farmland and eventually (and unexpectedly!) coming out on a road where the Pacific Ocean was smack in front of us. We were hoping to see the ocean, but seeing it so unexpectedly made it even better.

Today's series of photos was taken after we reached the Pacific coast. We started at San Gregorio Beach, stopped at several beaches along the way and our trip ended around Santa Cruz (as time was running out and we had to get back to San Francisco). It was a lovely day!