Ryan Trahan and Haley pulled into Carmel-by-the-Sea with a Highway 1 hat, a red Carmel hoodie, and a rental Mustang convertible they had been saving for exactly the right moment. Day seven of testing the top 10 tourist attractions in America had a built-in deadline: a sunset picnic at the Golden Gate Bridge, with an appointment only Sunset himself was keeping. The clock was already running.
Carmel, brunch, and a book that started here
Carmel-by-the-Sea was the first stop, and it earned its place on the itinerary the old-fashioned way. Two of their five anniversaries had been spent here, which Trahan cheerfully calculated as 40 percent of their anniversaries. Haley had loved the town so deeply on that first visit that she eventually fictionalized it for her debut novel. At the beach before the drive, she said plainly: ‘I spent so long in Carmel fictionally in my head.’ The two of them briefly recreated the cover of that book on the sand without quite meaning to.
Brunch came first, at a restaurant they had eaten dinner at during a previous anniversary but had never visited for the morning meal. Ryan ordered eggs, bacon, and biscuit. Then it was time to drive.
Three hours north with the top down
The Pacific Coast Highway does not hurry anyone along. The first pull-off was a state park where succulents bloomed straight out of the ground and distant paragliders drifted over the cliffs with no crowd in sight. A proper road-trip snack run followed at a gas station, sour zips and rainbow strips acquired with full ceremony. Then came a grove of trees neither of them had seen before, a downtown in Half Moon Bay that Trahan described as ‘unreal,’ and the slow, unhurried pleasure of watching the ocean appear and disappear around every curve.
The convertible top stayed up until it mattered. San Francisco’s city limits arrived with just enough time for a drive-through window stop for two 10-piece nugget meals, one order of honey mustard, and the disappointing news that the real honey was gone.
Then the bridge appeared through the windshield.
Trahan dropped the convertible top right there in traffic. Haley looked up as they passed under the suspension rings while he kept his eyes on the road. She saw something he did not. ‘That was magical,’ she said when they cleared the other side.
Cold nuggets, warm hearts, and the lock wall
The lookout point above the bridge required a long walk from what Trahan insisted was the best parking spot in the world. At the top, a wall of padlocks marked in couples’ names overlooked the water, Alcatraz clearly visible to the east. The nuggets were cold by then. Neither of them minded.
Back at the hotel that night, ratings came out. Experience: Ryan gave it a six, Haley started at eight, and they met at seven. Scenery: both landed on nine, just below Yellowstone, because at Yellowstone the scenery is the entire point. Magic: Ryan gave it a six, Haley pushed for eight, and they settled at seven again. The Pacific Coast Highway road trip tied Yellowstone in the overall standings, then, after a consultation, landed just below it in the rankings.
The padlock wall at the top of the lookout
A padlock on the railing near the lookout reads ‘Sandra and Jurgen.’
Haley’s scrapbook page for the day used four photos and a full sheet of beach stickers, the most decorated entry in the journal so far. Three tourist attractions remain on the list.
