Ready for a controversial opinion? I think that the Central Coast is the best part of California. I don't claim to know every square mile of my enormous state, but the Central California Coast always speaks to me. I suspect it's because it still feels like home, but just a lot less crowded, more relaxed. Much of the landscape looks familiar, but with some exciting differences (redwoods, Monterey pines, so much fuschia, and monkeyflower). The beaches I’ve visited along Hwy 1 are generally less commercialized and much emptier than our usual haunts in Oceanside or Encinitas. My initial intent was to spend a leisurely day driving up along the 101 and…