BIG SUR/ Monterey.

Sunday- Day 41

Today was the drive on the famous Big Sur – the road north that hugs the sides of the mountains and is touted to be not for the faint hearted. Usually in this part of the California the fog rolls in in the evenings and lifts mid morning but when really bad can stays all day and yes you guessed it we drove the Big Sur on one of those heavy fog days.

Somewhere down there is the water

Driving conditions on this very windy road.

Needless to say it was full of twists and turns and sharp dropoffs down to the water from some high elevations but this road is not all that’s its cracked up to be. We should have listened to our Sheriff in Beaux Bridge and taken the inland road to Monterey. All the literature says you have to drive the Big Sur so we did and were not that impressed, of course the weather would have had something to do with our perception of this road but once you have seen a cliff dropping off to the waters edge you don’t need to see it over and over again. It didn’t even seem that scary just annoying as it was so long and repetitious.

It wasn't completely all gloom and doom we did manage to get some spots that cleared a little for a happy snap.

At the beginning of the Big Sur is a place called San Simeon Beach. This is a place to visit and see the massive Elephant Seals.

Elephant seals frolicking like baby elephants in the sun

Please do not disturb

You could drive to San Simeon and then take the inland road and then when you get to Monterey drive a little way down the coast and see the Big Sur that way, in hindsight that is what we should have done.

Stayed at Cannery Row in Monterey. Hotel in good position to visit the sights of Cannery Row and also the sights of Monterey such as The Fisherman’s Wharf.

Monday – Day 42

Foggy again this morning decided to walk to Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf, passing lots of harbour seals sunning themselves in the fog.

All along the walk into Fisherman's Wharf you had to look carefully to see whether it was rocks you were seeing or harbour seals sunning themselves on submerged rocks

It is a smaller wharf than most full of restaurants and the usual tourist shops. Lots of free samples of Clam Chowder, the crowd pleaser of entrees. Too early for lunch so jumped on the free town shuttle and toured the area.

A local stopped in to say hi while we were having dinner

Cannery Row is home to the Monterey Aquarium and it’s buildings are updated,

shinier versions of turn-of-the-century canneries, that specialised in sardines. They house an eclectic blend of specialty shops, local artists' galleries, and more than 25 restaurants.

Most of the attraction of Monterey is of course these areas and their beaches, when the weather is warmer.

Back to the Fisherman’s Wharf for a fish lunch and to purchase some saltwater taffy for the small staffroom guys.

Fisherman's Wharf

As always when we are heading to the airport the next day we have to juggle the weight of the bags which can take some packing and repacking, so back to hotel for the dreaded job.

Packing compete – last stroll of Cannery Row and another fish dinner.

Tuesday – Day 43

Up early and yes we made the weigh in at the airport although one bag was .5 of a pound over and for a split second she was going to make us repack but we were early and she wasn’t busy so I think that saved us. We are carrying so much weight in backpacks and handbags am so glad they don’t weigh them.

Arrived at LAX airport – took 15 mins to get to dock then a walk from plane along tarmac then a bus ride along what resembled a highway in the middle of all the runways to get to another terminal and then a walk for ages and finally picked up bags.

San Luis Obispo

Thursday - Day 38
When we were in Beaux Bridge we ran into the sheriff of the town. I know what your thinking -what did they do, well nothing we were looking for information and he was there to help. So why am I telling you this - well he suggested, when we told him we were heading up the coast of California, that we take the inland road as it was more scenic. We have spent all our time on the coast road and today we ventured towards the mountain country to SLO(San Luis Obispo). We drove straight over the mountains at the back of Santa Barbara and at first the landscape was very rugged, as expected, but then it changed to a scene of fields of perfect grapevine rows.

Above and below the change in scenery was refreshing from the arid landscape of the coast

On the way we stopped off at a Danish town in the middle of nowhere called Solvang. It was like being in Denmark in the middle of the USA. From there we continued to SLO.

Decided to have a coffee at a Belgian Cafe - the weather here was a lot warmer than the coast

The bnb, Petit Soleil, that we booked is in a great location and is rather unique. It has all different rooms furnished in a French Provincial style, each very different from the other. It has a cute courtyard and serves homemade goodies for breakfast and every afternoon at 5 they serve wine and aperitifs on the house. And we didn't know this at the time but for all you doggie lovers, Kim, Cath and Gail, it is pet friendly.

The front of the bnb and there was another courtyard out the back just as quaint. 

SLO is a lovely town, not that far from the coast, nestled in the mountains. It is a good spot to visit all the local beach towns from, as we did in the following days.
On each Thursday night from about 6 there is a Farmers Market that fills the streets of downtown SLO. We ventured to see many stalls aligning the main street, all the local shops staying open to all hours, heaps of yummy food stalls and of course entertainment of all sorts.

Even the local town band comes to town to perform at the farmers market.

Friday - Day 39
Today we went back to the coast to San Luis Pier in the hope of having one last day at the beach. The weather has not been what we expected and again is at 10 degrees below average. You are having warmer weather than us in Sydney's winter.
At the pier we had the pleasure of meeting the noisy, local harbour seals and seeing the pristine waters of the bay. A lovely place.

Up close and personal with a sea lion and below the harbour seals loved lazying in the sun around the pier.

The area was full of volcanic rock mountains and clear waters.

Caravan Parks American style, right on the side of the waters edge next to the road.

From there we drove to Avila Beach and spent a few hours in the sunshine on the beach but too cold to venture past ankle deep in the water. A lot of the kids swimming here do so in full wetsuits, an indication of the water temp.

This is Avila Beach in peak season - the lack of people indicates the weather temps.

Another Farmers Market in Avila on the beach

Lunch at a local institution, the 1920's grocery/deli before heading back to our mountain retreat for afternoon wine and homemade aperitifs.

Saturday – Day 40

Today started out a beautiful sunny day in the mountains, however, as we headed to the coast and Morro Bay, the fog set in and so did the cold.

Morro Rock and Mez feeling a little chilli

At Morro Bay there is a famous rock to see but far more interesting is the local sea otter population. Took so many pictures, they(the otters) are just fascinating.

The otters spend 6 hours of each day preening themselves and playing, 6 hours eating and 12 hours resting. They hang in same sex groups and only get together to mate for a few days a year. They wrap themselves together with kelp when they sleep so they don't drift away.

Then drove further north to Cayucos and to Ruddles Smoke House for a smoked salmon sandwich, very tasty and different. We were going to attempt another beach day but just too cold.

Back in town bought some pressies from the university store. The Uni in town is rather large and they are called the Cal Poly Mustangs. Cal Poly – Californian Polytechnic University. The Mustangs are the University Football Team.

Headed back to SLO to prepare for drive north. Had to say goodbye to our beautiful beach chairs, stylish hats and borrowed towels, from the New Orleans’ Pool at hotel.

Tomorrow heading further north to Monterey.

Santa Barbara

Sunday - Day 34

Left Venice beach and cruised up the Californian Coast towards Santa Barbara. Had a stop for lunch at Ventura Harbour, another lovely little harbour on this very unusual coast. The drive was very interesting and again the landscape has me intrigued.

This scene is very typical of our drive. On the left of the pic the cliff falls away to the ocean.

Ventura Harbour

Captured out the passenger side window - mountains are for the most part arid and rugged.

Arrived at our latest airbnb accommodation after doing the block a few times due to one way streets and the instructions we were given were sketchy. This place is a one bed, freestanding apartment in a battle-lax block right in the heart of downtown.

The main street of SB is called State Street and we are just 3 blocks away – a short walk to shops, restaurants and the electric shuttle that takes you to the water for a cost of 50c a ride.

Decided to take the trolley to Stearns Warf, the pier, that actually decided the development of SB. Before the pier was built there was no way of getting building materials to the town due to the mountains and with the development of the pier all materials were shipped so that the town could develop. Along the harbour we ran into the local Sunday market, some interesting things but we didn’t part with any cash.

Mez trying to soak up some rays along SB Beach, with the pier in the background. It looks a lot warmer than it is just out of shot are the jumpers.

Monday- Day 35

Caught trolley downtown State Street to the pier to catch a $20, 90 minute tour of Santa Barbara. This was very informative and for the most part of it we had a personal tour just the driver and us. We visited the many areas of SB including the area where all the rich and famous have homes here, that being Montecito.

The first hotel built in Montecito was by Charlie Chaplin and if you look closely you can see his picture above the name plate.

The driver rattled off so many celebs that have homes here it was amazing, Oprah bought a home here for 90mil after it had just been refurbished throughout and then she guttered the inside to suit her and doesn’t spend hardly any time in this part of America and pays the local taxes of over $100,000 a month- sorry to me that’s just a gross waste.

We visited the Old Mission they call the Queen of all the missions and an interesting fact is that the missions up the coast are in areas that are a days horseback ride from the other.

Above and below pics of the Queen of all the Missions. This mission is also unusual as it has 2 sets of bells. The story goes that after the earthquake of 1812  the mission was destroyed and hearing this another set of bells was sent from Spain and when they arrived they found that the existing ones survived so therefore both had to be installed.

Later we took ourselves uptown to the Court House Tower to get a great view of the entire town.

To me it is the most picturesque town we have visited on the Californian Coast so far.

The courthouse architecture is very typical of the majority of buildings in SB. There is a huge hispanic influence with white buildings with the terracotta  coloured roofs.

View from the top of the courthouse to the coast and below towards the mountains. As you can see the landscape is very green with the majority of the trees being palms and in amongst are the white and terracotta buildings - this makes for a very picturesque city.

We can look out from the balcony of our accommodation and look at the mountains and they are very similar, at times, to Switzerland just not as high.

View from balcony the mountains are so close.

Tuesday- Day 36

Decided it was about time this convertible, that we hired, got a run around with the top down so we did just that.

The convertible

It's funny I don’t think anyone around here even notices that u are driving a mustang convertible, not like at home, as cars are so cheap over here and we are in a town that has money around, although it is not a pretentious town far from it.  Anyway we enjoyed ourselves. We called into the Marina and harbour for a quick look around, then onto hilltop drive for a view over the beaches. From there we headed to East Beach, a favourite of the locals and the beach where the first pro beach volleyball tournament took place way back in the 60’s.

East Beach and the many volleyball courts that are packed each day. It would be so could if we could have councils to do this at home.

Along the promenade at SB is a strip of grass in between the beach, walking track and the road. Many moons ago a prominent woman purchased this land and planted palm trees all along it so that the people of the town could enjoy the beauty of the coast - how generous.

Had a look around Montecito but didn’t spot any rich and famous.

After much cruising around we decided the harbour was the best place for a very late lunch.

View from lunch spot looking over SB Harbour. If you look closely at the bottom left, there is a black rail, that is where we're sitting - stunning spot.

The weather is still well below the usual summer temps over here.

Wednesday-Day 37

Today we went back down south only a short distance(15 minutes) to a lovely place called Carpinteria(unusual spelling). This place is the last beach you can visit before coming to SB.

Pics of the beach and town in Carpinteria - again heaps of palm trees

It is a place in a time warp, why do I say that –well after spending a few hours on the beach, which is supposed to be touted as the safest beach along the coast and was lovely, we ventured into town for lunch about 4pm and checked out the shops etc. It was like walking into stores from way back, Mez even said one place reminded her of stores she would visit as a young child with her Grandmother.

This is a real down to earth holiday place with camping area etc but I was amazed at the cost of the units etc around the area.

Heading to San Luis Obispo tomorrow.

Venice Beach/Santa Monica

Day 30 - Wednesday

Left Laguna Beach early before brekkie as the tourist guide aka - Mez had read about some spots to stop on the way up the coast.
First stop - Ruby's Shake Shack right on the beach at Crystal Cove. You are to drop in here and have one of the famous shakes and that we did having a date flavoured shake before brekkie very naughty. Shame it was an overcast morning but that seems to be the norm for the Californian Coast.

The view from the shake shack is magic shame about the weather

Next stop Huntington Beach and brekkie at the famous Sugar Shack Cafe. It was packed and to get a table you wrote your name on the board. Super busy, super big meals and super over the top full of cheese. Not our cup of tea, just too much. Strolled around this popular beach town and walked the pier, beach not looking its best as they were dismantling all the stands from America's Surf Championships held here at Huntington last weekend. 
If you ever get a chance to see this part of the world you have to take the coast rode - Pacific Coast Rd or Highway 1. This road hugs the coast for most part and passes some lovely very open beaches. Had a quick stop at Sunset Beach, not staying anywhere too long as its pretty chilly here today- good day to be on the road although no driving with top down today.
Long Beach next stop.  You drive past lovely beaches and then are faced with a massive ugly port, it was huge. We were later to find out that Long Beach and Los Angeles Ports are side by side in San Pedro Bay and create the 6th largest collection of containers in a port in the world. 

To view this port from this vantage point we had to travel the most nerve racking of bridges ever. It was really high to accommodate all the vessels passing under and it was only 2 skinny lanes and every second vehicle was a truck, with no room to move eventually made it across.

Wanting to stick to the coast we headed for Palos Verdes, which adorns the cliff tops of the Pacific. From here you can view the enormity of the ports below. It’s a bit tricky to stay on Highway1, as the gps constantly wants to take you on the freeways but with a few tricks that we have picked up its doable. 
The drive through Palos Verdes, which has a very heavy Hispanic influence, was very picturesque and easy driving away from the bustle of freeways.

On the other side of these homes is the sheer cliff facing the Pacific.

We drove into the Venice Beach area of LA past the LAX Airport and boy was it busy and noisy and over the top as you would expect LA to be, however, to our surprise we found our airbnb accommodation with relative ease.

Venice Beach in the background from the Venice Pier - they love to have a pier on the Californian Coast

We are staying just a shot walk from Venice Beach in a granny flat on a walk street. This area is very unusual, as you cannot drive on some of the streets, as they are just the width of a footpath aligned with very nice homes that seem to be on top of each but it works.

The front of the home where we were in the granny flat out the back. Very bohemian area in some ways.

This is one of the walk street that we took to get to most places

They are little neighbourhoods all looking out for themselves. You park on the cross streets or if you are lucky to have a space for a car at the back of your smallish property you access it from the small lanes that run behind as well. Very confusing but we are on Nowita Place and behind the property is Nowita Close. This airbnb has all you need and more, just like a large studio apartment with a lovely area to enjoy the outdoors.

This is a box on the street walk - the sign reads 'Little Free Library. Take one and leave one" This is typical of the area. 

Headed to trendy area for dinner but very ritzy and we settled for a take home pizza and salad.

Day 31 - Thursday

Sunny today but still on the chilly side. Headed down to catch a waterbus around Marina Del Rey, the Marina is the world's largest man-made small craft harbour with 19 marinas with capacity for 5,300 boats and is home port to approximately 6,500 boats, only to find that the waterbus only runs on the weekends.

Ventured around to Venice Beach and strolled the boardwalk along the beach and ingested the weird and wonderful sights that are a part of this amazing beach. The beach itself is a lovely wide beach with whitish sands and clear water.

Very touristy junk shops line the boardwalk, with every T-Shirt imaginable and of course the racks and racks of sunglasses.

This is famous Muscle Beach where the guys flex their muscle right on the boardwalk for all to see.

While we were there they had a bikini girl contest and they used the muscle beach gym on the boardwalk for them to line up in. If you look closely you can see one of the muscle buffed guys doing a workout not caring what was going on around him.

So much activity all along the boardwalk - you could spend a day people watching.

Headed back for a healthy tuna salad dinner back at the ranch.

Day 32 – Friday(home in 2 weeks- oh no back to work!!!!)
Made our way to Santa Monica and decided to get some retail therapy in famous 3rd Street. Lots of very different shops, mostly upmarket but interesting. The street is a mall having traffic only at cross streets. You could spend your time just sitting in the mall people watching. There are lots of buskers there to entertain those that sit out the front of shops waiting for the shoppers.
Ventured to the one and only Santa Monica Pier with its thousands of people, loads of shops, amusement park and this pier has loads of history. 

Not the best pic of the pier, however, you get some idea of its length as it starts in line with where the pic was taken, then there is a large carpark, then a large stretch of beach and then still goes out further into the water.

Could you imagine getting to the water for a swim on a hot day with this amount of hot sand to walk over- Santa Monica Beach

Another big day seeing the sights.

Day 33 - Saturday
Decided to brave the weather and head to the beach. By the time we got ourselves organised the weather had cleared and warmed up.

Waiting for the bus. Buses around the neigbourhood are typical of those back home - only come every half hour on Saturdays, so you have to relax the best way you can when there is no bus shelter or seat.

Spent a few hours on the beach doing our usual people watching while trying to relax in amongst helicopters flying over every 10 minutes, so low that you could see the whites of the pilots eyes, the lifesavers getting in their patrol car to drive 10m to blow their whistles and yell at people in the shallow water- bits of panic merchants and the hundreds of light planes flying past trailing all manner of advertising slogans. Not that restful but interesting. Water a bit warmer here than in Laguna.

You see these Lifesaver Posts dotted all the way up the coastline. On a long beach such as Venice Beach there would be one every 100m.

Headed back to catch another bus to Marina del Rey to see Taylor Dayne in one of the many free outdoor evening concerts that the area has throughout the summer months.
Stayed for half of it as it was really cold - bit of a shame.
Time to pack for santa Barbara.