Trip to Paso Robles
What comes to mind when you hear the word vacation? I bet it’s sitting on a warm beach on a tropical island, with a straw hat blocking the sun from view, sipping a cold and refreshing cocktail or lemonade. Although that is the ideal vacation for many, a vacation doesn’t have to be grand and expensive, it can mean taking time off for yourself or a way to bond with close friends and family. A vacation can also be a road trip to nearby places for a few days. A memorable road trip of mine is our trip over the winter break to the small city of Paso Robles.
One evening my mom was scrolling through her Instagram feed and an ad popped up. She was immediately swept away by the beauty of these sublime lights that dazzled at night with their vivid colors glowing among the many acres of land. Later, she explained what she stumbled upon and told us that on the first Saturday of winter break, we were going to Paso Robles.
The drive was around three hours from where we live. We reached our destination, Light at Sensorio. At the time we were in the parking lot, the sun was starting to set behind the rolling hills, and the beautiful colors started to seep into the once-blue sky, showing shades of golden yellow, deep orange, bright pink, and light blue all faded into one another. Once we parked our car and checked in, we started walking along the dirt path, which was slightly declined as well as extremely rocky and easy to trip over and twist an ankle. At first, we walked past a couple of food trucks, a seating area, and a live performance of a woman singing and strumming her guitar. There weren’t a lot of people when we first entered, but soon people started pouring in and the entire place was eventually crowded. At this point, my brother was getting really impatient and bugging my parents about how long it was taking for us to reach the lights, but then, we saw the entrance we were waiting for.
There it was, exactly as we saw in the pictures, the beautiful view of a field of lights, glowing. We were all in awe and so excited to walk around and look at all the different colors. As we walked along the path we saw the thousands and thousands of lights change colors every couple of minutes and it was absolutely mesmerizing to see how all the colors worked so well together. As we continued to walk around and see the lights, we noticed that there were other light exhibitions to see. We passed through a structure made of glass bottles with colorful light, carefully wrapped around inside the bottle, and stacked up in multiple rocks. There were many glass bottles in each structure, and as we walked past each colorful display, we were amazed by all the effort and time this must have taken. We also passed by small firefly lights scattered around the area, showing a golden color. As the night progressed it started to get so cold I felt numb, my hands felt detached from my arms and my legs were barely moving and my face felt frozen, like a snowman’s. All of us were shivering and ready to go relax in our heated hotel room. We exited the place an hour before when we arrived. It was a truly magical experience and the lights were beautiful. I would definitely recommend this place!