Pacific Coast, California - March 2016

We wanted to take the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to LA and what better way to do this, than to hire a great US tradition, an RV ..... well, sort of!  We only had a week, so were keen to make it count.

We may have been laughed at from passing vehicles and had one guy tell us we should get one like his which ours would fit inside of and he can even carry his car.  Hmmmm, I think he somewhat missed the point.  It was so easy to get around with this baby, it had a full kitchen in the back, you can sleep in the pop top or the van and it even has a fridge (for the fishing bait of course!).  And what's even cooler, is that Jucy was founded in NZ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JUCY  Quite a few people throughout our journey took and interest and asked for a "guided tour".

We drove over the San Mateo Bridge south of Oakland.  It is the longest bridge in California and the 25th longest bridge in the world, 7 miles long.   We stayed at Moss Landing https://goo.gl/maps/B6koEo4jTm92 that first night and it was our first real touch of the Pacific Ocean.  Bloomin' cold but look what we found floating in the shoreline!  We drank the milk and it was still fresh.  Was it from the supermarket or had it floated over from a Pacific Island somewhere??  We know what we wish to believe :-)

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We arrived at Monterey, chiefly to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium, James' favourite in the world.  Monterey itself is a pretty wee town.  It's Cannery Row, the one time center of the sardine-packing industry, was immortalised by John Steinbeck in his 1945 novel.   There are no sardines to be had these days as they were all fished out in the 70s and Monterey is now just a tourist destination.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Montage

At Carmel-by-the-sea we parked by the sea, next to the first (and only) Jucy rental we came across.  Clint Eastwood was mayor of this cutesy and very exclusive place around 20 years ago.  Leaving here we rather fancied taking 17 Mile Drive, which famously runs through Pebble Beach and some of the most exclusive golf courses in the US, but there is a gate charge of $10.  Yeah right.

Big Sur coastal road is something quite spectacular.  The cliffs rise straight up out of the sea and make for some gorgeous scenery along the way.

One of the highlights of this road is the colonies of Elephant Seals.  The males are frighteningly huge, and most ungainly.  The pups can't swim for quite a few months many die in the high tides before they learn to do so.

We arrived at Morro Bay for a spot of fishing ....

 and ended up sharing the harbour with these little cuties ....

The sea otter sleep in these little "rafts", seemingly holding on to each other, and I kid you not! as they wake in the morning they start with their crunchies - sitting up and touching their feet a few times in a row.  Very health conscious and very very cute!

Continuing on down the coast we came upon Malibu - the beach, not the cocktail.  ALOT of money round here.  The houses are not only at the beach, but over the ocean, on stilts.  They could fish right off their balcony!  No photos, but you can imagine .....

Los Angeles a blast, as expected.

We visited The (John Paul) Getty museum, a great place to get away from the maddening crowd.  And it's free! There was a 16th Century French Tapestry display.  The tapestries were approx 5m x 5m and the detail just stunning.  How did they do that way back when?!?!   Apparently by painting the scene first then transposing it onto the tapestry cloth before weaving. 

Tapestry

New (very old) dresser anyone?

The grounds are just as interesting and imposing as the museum itself.

 We visited the  Original Farmers Market http://www.farmersmarketla.com/ and ate very expensive ice cream.  Had the best ever coffee at Venice Beach, and wondered at the mixing of the homeless with the VERY trendy locals, joggers and holiday makers.  Hmmmmm

When it was time to return our trusty Jucy, we hightailed it up the Interstate 5 back to San Francisco.  A long and boring (in comparison) road, but handy when you just gotta get somewhere.

A few things to note: We now understand the US obsession with bagels; the scenery just in the small part of California we saw is varied, vast and very beautiful; everything is BIG - vehicles, houses, food portions;  there is a lot of open space, people are really friendly and service is way better than anywhere we've been; these guys really need to think about the way they farm cows .... we found this very distressing (and horribly smelly) along the I5 :-(