The Best; The 101

It's my 101st blog. This number brings to mind tons of references. To me though, the best connotation that comes to mind in the form of 101, is not spotted dogs, but a freeway. My gateway to the freedoms of the California Coast. Since it's California, and since we're so cool we like to put a the in front of our interstate names. It's not just 101, it's the One Oh One. Here's how it's been viewed through my eyes. Digested in my life.

Union Station
Alameda
Figueroa
Melrose
Santa Monica
Sunset
Hollywood

Each journey down the One Oh One, starts differently for all the different reasons. Base camp for my journey's usually start just north of Los Angeles, the southern base camp for the US 101 itself.

Cahuenga
Universal Studios Hollywood
Lankershim
134
Tujunga
Colfax
Laurel Canyon

Driving up the on-ramp on a hot summers day in the backseat of my bestfriends parents car is usually how I most remember the 101. The Eucalyptus trees trying to escape the valley heat, envious of our elopement to the coast. The old beater-Volvo filled with us teenagers, ice chests, boogie boards and the tunes of another 101's Breakfast with the Beatles. Just add the .1-KEarth. The path out of the valley, the One Oh One, our own byway to the ocean, to freedom.

Though many of my own dog days of summer were spent in almost that exact fashion, by way of using the 101, it is not the only reason that the 101 freeway holds such a great nostalgia for me. The south side of the valley is much different from the north side, where I grew up. It's a tighter residential area that's more intertwined into the hills than the north. The 101 is the segeway for a sometimes faster route than Ventura Boulevard, it's hand in hand running partner on that south side.

Whitsett
Coldwater Canyon
Woodman
Van Nuys
Sepulveda
405
Hayvenhurst

The 101 isn't just for the work commuters headed south to downtown L.A. or for the school-ditchers heading north for escape to the beach. It's been my passage to visits as far as San Francisco. To have driven across the Golden Gate Bridge is to have driven on a portion of the 101. Just north of Los Angeles, the 101 can deliver you to Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo. It takes on a new persona after taking the dive down the mountainside just to the south of Camarillo, as it's scenery changes from the dark colors of city, to the bright colors of life against the Pacific. The scenic drive takes you along the coast through Ventura, Carpenteria and Santa Barbara as it links up with the Pacific Coast Highway for a shared section. Driving right along it as the sun displays the remarkable beauty of the Pacific's blue, in it's stunning contrast to the sandy beaches, the dark highway and the green mountainsides that the 101 separates.

Balboa
White Oak
Lindley
Burbank
Reseda
Tampa
Winnetka
DeSoto
Canoga
Topanga Canyon
Ventura

The journey up the coast on the 101 takes you past some of the most scenic parts of California. It runs along the same path as the El Camino Real, which was built by the California Native Americans and the Spanish Missionaries. The route is marked with rusted bells every couple of miles, and puts more nostalgia already into the historic route. It separates from the PCH, the 1, right after El Capitan State Beach in a game of hide and seek as it departs further inside the coast, revealing the lined hills of grape vineyards. It cleverly rendezvous back with the One on the coast after passing by Solvang, Santa Maria, and Arroyo Grande. Towns all shaped by their close to ocean climate, that is only separated by a mountain from the Pacific, allowing some of the best wine growing the country.



The El Camino Real continues with the Pacific Coast Highway but only for a brief enough second to view the blue waters over Pismo Beach, and then out of view and inland you travel. The ocean perhaps out of sight, but with views that excite the eyes and the heart. The constant wind in the road never revealing too much to give away what's ahead, but always leaving an intriguingly curious feeling. The drive through the mountains, into and out of small valley's, filled with rows of wine-vine constantly changing with the setting sun over the mountains and just beyond the smell of the Pacific. The green oaks spot the yellow of mountainside wild grass that overlook the green farmers fields. And yet, so very shadowed by the depth of the scenery, the mountains far in the distance, but seemingly looming so close. A variation from the wind whipped Torrey Pines that so majestically stand on the cliffs by the sea, with their green branches laying flat against the never ending Pacific Blue.


Solvang



Mulholland
The Ronald Reagan Freeway
Kanan
Los Virgenes Canyon
Seaward
Seacliff

My many road trips up the One Oh One have always been a delight. During day or night. Driving through the beautiful towns that at night are only marked by a few lights and the bright lit ones of gas stations. Or the visually stunning Madonna Inn, so wonderfully lit up along the side of the 101. The traffic that you find yourself in always in L.A. on the 101, the only thing to despise about the historic route. The vacations taken up the coast to places like Ventura, Carpenteria, or even San Francisco I would rather go no other way then straight up the 101. The scenery, winding roads, and outlets to the Pacific are absolutely amazing. It is the Kings Royal Highway. Though I've never taken it further North than San Fran, it goes all the way up to Olympia, Washington. Possibly the perfect finish for a road trip up the western coast of the US. Or perhaps, the perfect beginning.


The Madonna Inn


Look, a Bell!