Ever since our first experiment with AirBnB (where we snagged a New York City...
When I see signs like this one in Harmony, California, I always wonder if they update it for every birth or death in town. I also kind of wonder how a town this small manages a winery whose tasting room accommodates more people than does the local housing.
Located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, this “happiest place in America” is an excellent stopping point for road-weary road-warriors driving the 656-mile Pacific Coast Highway. But don’t expect too much downtime in San Luis Obispo. After spending the morning at Hearst Castle (roughly 40 minutes north in San Simeon) or marveling at California’s rocky coast, you’ll still have plenty of daylight left to explore one of the state’s oldest communities.
Having worked up quite a hunger after Hearst we made our next stop a place renowned (they say “world famous” although that seems unlikely) for its barbeque tri-tip sandwiches. The line snaking out the door told us that The Firestone Grill was indeed popular with locals; or, at least on that particular Saturday, popular with Cal Polly students hungry for hangover food.
I got up early for no other reason than to see the morning sun break on California’s incredible coast. This little excursion took me roughly fifty miles along the Pacific Coast Highway from Morro Bay, past Hearst Castle, to the southern reaches of Big Sur.

Time certainly does fly when you’re having fun; so much so that it is impossible for us to believe that we’ve really been on the road for three full years. But it’s not all fun and games, you know? With great travels comes great responsibility. And so we once again find ourselves confronted with the hard task of selecting our favorite destinations from the past 365 days.
Our previous “Best of” lists can be found here (Year 1 and Year 2)