The Water Tower Loft
Jeremy's Rating: ★★★★☆
What instantly grabbed me about the loft was the attention to the small things. But ultimately, more through our own lack of foresight more than anything else, finding gas so far out in Elk at night proved to be a source of stress and we were not prepared for how cold Northern California nights could be in April. But there was plenty of blankets (Note from Jen: This meant lots of cuddles.) — so, win.
Jen's Rating: ★★★★★
Every tiny, little, miniscule detail was exquisite, from our first step inside to our departure, and it felt like I fell into a real-life Pinterest board (if Pinterest offered you freshly baked zucchini bread everytiem you logged in).
Earlier this spring, Jeremy and I made the breathtaking, awe-inducing, so-beautiful-I'm-going-to-shit-my-pants-from-pure-joy road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway. The original plan involved driving from San Francisco and making our way down to Los Angeles at a snail's pace in order to enjoy the scenic views.
However, being huge Star Wars nerds, we decided to make a "quick" 4-hour detour up north to the Avenue of the Giants to reenact scenes from Endor on Snapchat. After properly processing the fact that this would be a full 8-9 hour day of driving in order to make it back down to San Francisco, we decided to cut the driving in half, set up camp mid-way, and explore the little town of Elk, California.
Coming from an obnoxiously in-your-face large city, being in a small town with a population of 208 caught me a bit off guard. The town used to be home to many sawmills, but as the years went on and tourism grew, most of the forest-sheltered buildings became bed-and-breakfasts offering ocean-side views.
But screw those adorable bed-and-breakfasts; I'm so far up airBnB's butt that I knew it was going to be the way to go. There's something about staying in such unique homes and spaces and being able to play house in them, even for just one night.
We happened upon The Water Tower Loft in Elk while browsing for a quick one-night stay and I absolutely lost all the shits I had. It felt like I had died and gone to interior design heaven; however, little did I know that the in-person experience would blow my expectation out of the water.
As we took our first step inside the loft, we were immediately greeted with soothing music drifting from the record player, bringing a metaphorical tear to my eye. I immediately spent the next 5 minutes frantically taking photos of every single corner, attempting to beat the impending sunset, in-between cries of "OH MY GOD YAS". Oh, and did I mention there was freshly baked zucchini bread waiting for us on the counter? And a hand-drawn map of the local neighborhood...with my name on it? Like I was always meant to be here and no where else? Swoon.
The only downside was how cold the space got once the sun set - we always forget how cold northern California gets - but we were provided with space heaters and enough blankets to cover us 10x over.
