Highway-1

17th October 2009 We were only driving 20 miles south today to our final motel before flying out on Sunday, but we decided to take the scenic route. We headed back to our old friend the Pacific Coast Highway and drove through Malibu with its roadside beaches and beachfront homes. Then we saw a pier with a ferris wheel on it heralding our arrival in Santa Monica. We parked up for a few hours to wander along the pier thronged with people enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. There were also plenty of people on the beach and in the water. Before returning to the car, we walked along the promenade above the beach. ...

15th October 2009 The sun has reappeared and we’re finally having to use our sunglasses again. We headed down to the wharf at Pismo Beach and spent a pleasant half hour in the sun watching the surfers catching the big waves rolling into the shore. Then we re-joined highway 101 and headed south, making a detour across a lot of agricultural land to the Guardalupe Nipomo Dunes. These are the largest coastal dunes in the United States. Lots and lots of sand with pounding surf crashing onto the beach. We also saw these long billed, long legged birds, which we think were long billed curlews (after some Googling). ...

14th October 2009 A brighter morning today, and one of the first days recently where it has been warm enough to be out in just a t-shirt. Since we couldn’t explore Monterey Bay yesterday when we arrived, we headed down to the wharf this morning to at least get a look at where we were staying. On the one side of the wharf a lovely long stretch of sand and on the other a marina packed with boats. It seems like a really nice town. ...

13th October 2009 Watching the weather last night we were warned that the west coast was in for a soaking as a result of the tail end of tropical typhoon Melor which hit Japan a few weeks ago. We hadn’t quite appreciated how much rain and wind this meant we would get. When we opened the door this morning, this is what we saw!! ...

October 5th & 6th The Lost Coast lies between the Kings mountain range and the Pacific coast and became ’lost’ when it was deemed too expensive for a highway to be built due to its steepness. They weren’t joking!! It should actually have been called the lost mountains since we spent a good hour and a half getting to the coast and then another hour and a half back to the highway. The views along the coast though were fantastic, but there is nothing else along it but cows. ...