Saturday we made a pilgrimage to James Dean‘s crash site.

Although, can you technically call it a pilgrimage if we just accidentally stumbled upon it.

Serendipity.

Andrew and I left early Saturday morning to go to Paso Robles to check out a wedding venue with his co-worker (my April bride/groom). Google Maps took us via the 5 north and 46 west.

The drive up we had been discussing future daytrips we could take (since California is awesome), including visiting James Dean‘s crash site.

And not 1/2 an hour later we passed a highway sign that said “James Dean Memorial Junction”

hmmm … I bet that is it!

But we had passed it going 50+mph, so I didn’t get a picture, and I don’t know if you can really call it ‘visiting’ … oh well.

But! Not more than 2 miles farther west we came to Jack Ranch Cafe. Which houses a James Dean memorial tree in it’s parking lot.

Awesome.

Sometimes, ‘road trip kitsch’ is exactly what you’re looking for.

You can read about James Dean’s last day and fatal crash here.

As it was still morning, and we had some time before needing to be in Paso Robles, we stopped for good, classic, diner breakfast.

{sidenote: Even though the coffee is usually blech, I really like diners for breakfast. The simple eggs+bacon with no frills except maybe an orange slice. Good stuff. Classic America. If you are an international traveler to the United States, please try to find some tacky diner with some tenuous claim to fame and have a greasy breakfast. Love love.}

The cafe houses not only James Dean images, but a little mini-store (see the photo of the mug below) and even a (kind of) James Dean museum.

Seriously. God Bless America, celebrity worship and diners.

makes me so happy!

Such a fun little surprise for us to come upon! I don’t know if I would make a SPECIAL trip there (unless I was totally obsessed with James Dean) but as a fun side trip it totally made my day!

p.s. New dress and new cardigan in the photos above. Andrew bought me 2 vintage-inspired dresses at Target just cause he thought they’d look good on me! He even secretly checked my size to make sure it fit! What a sweet boy.

Any other kitschy pilgrimages in Southern California you recommend? I love that stuff!

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• Schooner or Later