Hittin' The Road

13/5/2010

We did it! We finally found 'ceasers' diner, or 'winkies' as it was know in mullholland drive. We sat in nearly the same booth and andrew had coffee out of the same mugs they used in the film. We also had a game of miss pacman, I was rubbish.

We then headed out of Los Angeles and started heading north to Highway 1. the weather was perfect and as we drove along Santa Monica Beach it was beautiful. Malibu was lovely as well very steep hills and huge beach houses all along the highway.

We drove for a couple of hours a lot of it inland due to the US Naval Base at Ventura. There were lots of strawberry picking fields and lemon groves etc.

We stopped at Santa Barbera for a walk around. It was perfect. We walked along the pier and saw Pelicans diving for fish and a little seal asleep on a oar inside a boat. The beach was quite busy with people jogging and playing volley ball, and they have dedicated cycle tracks throughout the town which was pretty cool. We walked into town for a bit and the shopping there looked good, but with the boys in tow I didn't actually go shopping. There were loads of bars and restaurants with lots of alfresco dining and it was pretty busy for 3pm on a Thursday! Anyway it was amazing, I'd love to get to know it better.

We then hopped back in the Vengabus and drove up to the University of California Santa Barbera so andrew could have a look around. It apparently has quite a good physics department and is right by the beach, what more could you ask for!

We then stated heading north again, the road was mainly inland through rolling hills and farm land. Of it wasn't for the sunny weather you couldve been in the Peak District :-P

We decided we were going to stop at Morro Bay for the night and had picked up some breakfast stuff and some beers at the supermarket along the way. We thought it would be a good place to watch the sunset so we hurried down to the beach whilst opening beers but there were too many clouds on the horizon to see anything so we slunk back to the Vengabus. 

Johny was acosted by two Christians who had seen the New Jersey license plate and they were asking Where we were from and what we were up to (and telling us not to drink beer on the beach). They were quite impressed and asked us whether there was anything we would like them to pray for. I just said 'that we get there' and they said 'where' and I said 'wherever we are going'. I thought that was better than getting into a religious  debate.

After driving around for a while to find somewhere to park wedecided to go back to the beach and stay there. We found a place in town that did great pizza and good beer as well. Andrew got a free pint for completing the rubix cube they had on the counter and we got chatting to a guy who worked there who had been living in Croydon last year.

We retired back to the beach and will continue heading north tomorrow :-)