Miles yesterday: 178

Miles today: 196

Miles to date: 4969

Where are we now? Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles (just south of LAX)

Where were we last night? San Luis Obispo (about half way down the coast from SF to LA)

Fun fact: Thinking up fun facts can be hard work. So today there isn't one.

Sunday’s Events: Well, we got up and gave Santa Cruz another chance, driving down in search of The Boardwalk (which we thought would be miles of planking, like a pier, but running along the beach, not out into the sea; but which turned out to be a charming, old-fashioned amusement park: so charming, old-fashioned that it often doubles in movies for the famous – but largely defunct - Coney Island amusement park, outside New York).

From there, we drove to Monterrey, where one of the major tourist attractions is Cannery Row. This is as featured in the novel by John Steinbeck (America’s George Orwell, for our older readers, who didn’t study Steinbeck at school). Only in America, would they take the setting for a major novel about the oppression of the poor sardine canners; and turn it into a shopping and holiday resort, with restaurants, boutiques, ‘art’ galleries, and hotels in all the old canning buildings, without even a museum to record the oppression of the poor old workers. That said, it was, of course, beautiful, in that way that the Americans pull off so wonderfully in the six places in the country where they are officially encouraged to get out of their cars. (We sneer, but we have participated fully, as you will hear.)

Ok, shortly after Monterrey, the really scenic bit of Highway 1 starts, and then it goes on for 100 miles. No detours, no side roads, no alternative routes. We say this because the road really does run along the cliff face where the mountains meet the sea, and it does run about 500 feet up the cliffs, and it does zig, and zag, and do hairpin bends and the road signs advise you to go at 25 mph, because you’re always only seconds from plunging over the cliff, Thelma and Louise style. It is stunningly beautiful, but we think it is literally a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience i.e. we’re never doing it again! It good to see it but not good if you suffer from vertigo, and you don’t like impatient sports cars travelling 3 feet from your rear.

Added bonuses from taking this route were that we got to see some giant redwoods, we got to see Big Sur, we got to see the fog rolling in off the sea (not too much, fortunately), and we got to see the gateway of the famous Esalen Institute where they invented counselling and most of the ‘New Age’. How did we feel about passing by Esalen? As free as a bird – see photo.

Unfortunately, the 25 mph bends, and the need to pull into ‘turnouts’ (lay-bys, to you English people) meant that we missed the 4.30 tour of Hearst Castle by minutes (Hearst Castle is the original for Zanadu in the movie Citizen Kane, not the Olivia Newton John vehicle) and so we did not get to see all the stuff that Hearst had imported from Europe to this mad castle on coastal hill, miles from anywhere. Shame. However, we drove on to San Luis Obispo, where we found a Louisiana restaurant next to our motel, so had gumbo, jambalaya, and hush puppies, and Louisiana beer, of course, while listening to ‘Pass the Dutchie’ in a zydeco style. So that worked out ok.

Today’s Events: Basically, we have driven from San Luis Obispo, down to LA, past the Madonna Inn, where every room is different; and through Malibu, where the stars really do live in beach front houses, that are built on stilts with steps down to the beach and with a four (five, if you count the central turning lane) lane highway, inches from their front doors – we know because we knocked over Sandra Bullock’s dustbin. Well, she shouldn’t have left it in the road!

We also stopped for lunch (two hot dogs and a can of coke) in the little sea-side town of Carpinteria. We chose this just by chance, but it turned out to be our fantasy Californian beach town – nothing special: just modest houses (that had been there long enough to have some trees round them), wide roads lined with palm trees, and a big long beach with local people sunbathing, swimming, surfing, or playing volley ball. If we had known of this town before, we think we would have booked a few days there.

Our original intention was to get here mid-afternoon and go to the local (Manhattan) beach but sleep caught up with us. Anyway, our plan for the rest of the day is to get some nosh in a bit, have a good sleep, drop off the car at LAX (the airport) in the early morning, catch a Mass Transit train to downtown, grab a quick bus tour of the homes of the stars, and then take an Amtrak train to San Diego, where we plan to hole up in a motel on a beach for a well-earned break, before flying back to Boston on the 26th, and back to the UK two days later.

Ted’s Photo Blog

A picture of me, Ted, feeding the meter at Cannery Row.

A picture of me, Ted, climbing

a banana tree at Manhattan Beach, CA.