Can you suggest some wonderful eateries and/or oddities along PCH1 from San Francisco to Cambria?

if you have day, get tickets for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the best in the world. (Their jelly fish tanks are mesmerizing). And go through Seventeen Mile Drive between Monterey and Carmel.

You must go to Big Sur.

A little way inland from Route 1 is Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, on Route 9 at Felton. The Redwood Trail is a gentle 0.8-mile hike among some of the largest (in height and girth) trees in the park, many of them hollow at the base and big enough to walk into. One of them, the Fremont Tree, is a popular place for tourists to pile into in crowds. My husband and I are currently staying close by, at our favorite near-home getaway, and we take that walk as many times as possible during each stay.

Try to come before 2:00 in the afternoon, when it’s quiet enough to hear the leaves fall. Sometimes there are after-school swarms of kids. It was rainy earlier today, and this afternoon we met only two people on the trail. The moisture brought out the color and a different set of fragrances among the redwoods and the California bay laurels.

Thank you all for the suggestions! California, here I come!