This summer in June, my family and I were asked to housesit a friend in Northern California. We were asked to housesit for two weeks, and my family and I decided to take an extended roadtrip to reach the house. On the way there, we went to Hertz Castle and Monterey Bay Aquarium. When we arrived we also went to San Francisco for a daytrip along with Santa Cruz the following day, and visited some local hiking spots and shops around the house we were sitting for.

So far, this trip has been the highlight of the summer for me, as I feel that I’m happiest when exploring and experiencing new things. The highlight for the trip had to be going to Santa Cruz, as we went to the Boardwalk for the day. Santa Cruz had a very chill vibe with a lot of cool things all throughout the area we visited. The boardwalk specifically had a lot of really fun arcade games mixed with fun amusement park rides.

Besides Santa Cruz, all the places we went to were also pretty amazing with each of them having a unique experience in terms of what you could do at each location. Hertz Castle for example was an incredible tour that offered a visual representation into the minds of the people designing the castle. It was also a special experience for me, as my family and I stayed in a beach hotel in Cambria near Hertz Castle for a few days. It was cool being able to wake up and walk on the beach, visit a beach town, and then visiting the castle all in one day. Visiting the beaches and hiking also felt like a massive escape for me in a good way, as it allowed for me to just spend time secluded in the scenery as well as independently taking time to explore the area.

Overall, I loved spending time away from home in California, which I felt was a needed vacation from the goals I set for myself over the summer. The trip in general also made me feel more of a need to seek out more new experiences in different places, along with creating a desire to pursue different cultural landscapes.