For the second year in a row, I came home from filming IT LIST: CALIFORNIA urging people to fly to L.A. and drive north, up the Pacific Coast Highway (aka Highway 1) through Big Sur. The drive is ridiculously gorgeous so we had to do it for a second year in a row to capture the essence and grandeur of the coast, which we did by attaching a GoPro to the front of our car, grabbing beauty shots of the vista every chance we could pull-over as well as film throws while waves crashed behind me on rocks like in Little Mermaid.
But there was this one part of the day that happened, that can only be described as a gift, a magical moment none of us were expecting. We still had about an hour's drive before arriving in Monterey where we were staying for the night, the sun was starting to go down and a misty fog was settling in so we decided to call it a day and push the pedal to the medal (…within the legal limit, relaaaax). Okay, so we're driving along, blasting Rihanna's "Work" for the umpteenth time when we see a beautiful cliff on our left and a perfectly sized place to safely pull over on the right. In an instant my camera op, producer and I all felt the urge to stop the car and explore, camera in hand, one more time before officially calling the day a wrap.
We were treated to an enchanted path lined with the most beautiful smelling flowers to a bridge that brought us to a lookout point; it honestly felt like we had just discovered Narnia. With the camera rolling we ventured along the path until it hit us and we realized we were standing on the edge of North America; with the ocean as far as the eye could see ahead, and monstrous mountains behind. We felt entirely alone in that moment. After our producer shed a tear for her beloved Mother Earth, we snapped a selfie, hugged and walked back to the car. As if that wasn't picturesque enough, right before stepping back into reality and crossing Highway 1 to hop back in our car, we came across two bunny rabbits scurrying along the side of the road.
Life is filled with magical moments and if you plan everything down to the minute, you might just miss it.