Big Sur and the big drive

So this was one of the reasons for this whole trip, to drive along the famous route 1 up the coast of californai, which i had heard was sensational...but neither of us actually knew what the 'big sur' was...in the guidebook there is a picture of a bridge...so we simply shrugged and assumed that was it. the drive was amazing, only 300 miles, but it took us 10 hours of driving (plus 2 hours in santa barbara). the roads were windy, tight, frightening and stunning all at once. we almost ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere...whcih was 'fun'...but 90% of the drive was as in the photos, hugging the pacific ocean...absolutely stunning. we did have a slight issue in that we were going north, and the big sur was just south of our destination, and i was genuinely worried that we wouldnt hit the big sur until after dark, and ero pointless and missing out on the view. for the last 2 hours we were literally chasing the sun. we eventaully crossed a bridge (photo) but soon realised that wasnt our bridge. just before sunset we spied our bridge and pulled over for the photo of the two of us, the sun was just sinking and literally 10 minutes after we got there we got an amazing sunset and amazing colours over the mountains...we had literally made it by 10 minutes...i was massively relieved and delighted. i was also a little worried as the tight twisty roads dont have street lights, and would have been incredibly frightening at night, after the bridge we didnt have far to go. turns out we never did find out what the actual big sur was, we soon passed a small town with big sur camp sites, but we still think its just a region and not a place. another relief was that we had hired a beautiful mustang convertible and had obviously had the roof down to maximise the experience, but as we moved north it got colder, and as i lent my hoodie to J (soft southerner), i only had a t shirt on and was completely freezing...so as soon as we left the bridge, we put the roof up (not as we were driving as we tried in LA, nearly breaking the whole bloomin thing), put the heater on full blast, and made the last hours journey in the dark...we got to our hotel very late...which was the best view of all hotels, it overlooked the ocean which was lit by moonlight...absolutely gorgeous....we went for dinner and a very well deserved beer...such an extraordinarily amazing day

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is about 2 hours north of LA, is a beautiful small sleepy town. We were actually rather surprised about how much we fell in love with Santa Barbara. We only allowed ourselves 2 hours as we had a long drive, but quiet as it is, it is the most perfect place in the world to retire

More LA

More Venice Beach and our favourite bar...which literally had sawdust on the floor...and j's future husband...the guy with long hair sat on the bar stool...bless her its all she could do to stop staring...

Los Angeles

so our first real jaunt in the mustang, we managed to lose the coast road (yes, we lost the entire pacific ocean) so drifted inland for the 2.5 hour drive to LA. los angeles is one of those iconic places that youve heard of so many times and seen on tv...you almost feel like you know the place. we stayed on venice beach, which is the hippy/alternative part of the city...this was no accident...we both loved venice, and really was our cup of tea. although this was a predominantly beach related holiday, we felt it would be wrong not to see a bit more of LA, and not wishing to get stuck in traffic, we plumped for a very touristy coach tour...which included hollywood (where jayne bumped into one of her ex boyfriends from the uk...i mean...what are the chances of that?!) beverly hills, the farmers market and a few toher places, and we even did the cheesy 'stars homes' bit...the photo in the next section was marilyn monroes house...we even saw our vey own famous person at the farmers market where we had lunch...shes that famour we didnt know her name but she has been in films

San Diego beach

a big them of our trip was surfing, J is a keen beginner surfer and i have never tried it before, so we took lessons in san diego, which i have to say were massive fun, very exhausting, but lots of fun. our hotel was right on the beach and we spent our mornings having breakfast by the beach, bit of pottering, long boarding up the boulevard, sunbathing and surfing, while our evenings were spent in a very very cool bar just off the beach. we didnt see much of central san diego but that wasnt the point. san diego was a wonderful place and would go back in a flash