South Through California

Some of you may be wondering what has happened us the last few days. Well, we have been town hopping down the coast towards LA. At the moment we are in an RV park in Santa Barbara. The plan is to hit the beach tomorrow, six flags on Monday and then LA on Tuesday. It's been hard to get online recently as the sides of the road we have been staying aren't the most reliable for internet access. Anyway, here's what we've been up to since you heard from us last.

First port of call after departing San Francisco was San Jose. In this city is the Tech Museum of Innovation, basically a museum that attempts to make science fun. And it succeeds. Here we rode segways, designed our own roller coasters, designed wind turbines, had our heads mapped in 3-D and a whole manner of other enjoyable "experiments" before we headed off into the warm evening sun. We stopped off at a sports bar to watch some basketball and grab a bite to eat before hitting the road to Santa Cruz.

We found a place to stay in the town and hit the beach the following morning. Santa Cruz is a real beach town and the seafront is awash with arcades, food stalls and roller coasters. It's still out of season so it was easy enough to park and find a good spot on the beach. Here we lay in the sun, threw some disc, watched some of the wire on the iPod, admired the flocks of Pelican diving for fish in the crystal blue waters and generally just took it easy. We treated ourselves and Ita to a stay at an RV park to empty and fill tanks, recharge batteries and a worry free nights sleep. RV parks also mean a BBQ for dinner and this one was no different.

We rose early with the intention of hitting the road to get to our next destination to have the whole day to enjoy it. It didn't quite go to plan but we still made it to Monterey by lunch time. Here they have a world famous aquarium and it didn't fail to disappoint. It is a top class facility with a 3 story living kelp forest, million gallon "open ocean" tank, sea otters, penguins, seahorses, jellyfish and all manner of sea creatures in between. During our visit we got to see the sea otters and penguins being fed as well which was nice. After the aquarium we decided to do the 17 mile drive.

This is a minor toll road that goes around the Monterey peninsula. It passes through some of the most famous golf courses in the world, most notably Pebble Beach. It costs $9.25 to drive it (you quickly learn that everything in America costs money so you have to get used to it pretty quickly). The scenery along the drive is simply stunning as are alot of the houses that you encounter, especially the coastal houses around Pebble Beach. This area really seems to have been hit hard by the recession as there seems to be more houses up for sale than not. It really struck me as a rich persons playground and when you see that number of lavish holiday homes up for sale it is a sign of how hard the recession is hitting even the "super-rich" over here too. After the drive we headed on into Carmel-By-The-Sea, found a laundrette and then parked Ita by the beach and went to bed.

We woke the next morning and took a stroll around Carmel-By-The-Sea. It seemed to go hand in hand with all the mansions around Pebble Beach. The streets are full of expensive art galleries, fine restaurants and "designer" antique stores. Most of these were having sales and were extremely quiet as well. Similar to Pebble Beach, I believe this kind of place will become unnecessary as Americans find ways to tighten their belts over the next while. There wasn't much going on in the town so we hit the road again, south through Big Sur.

Big Sur is known for it's stunning scenery as the highway hugs the Pacific coastline as it snakes south towards LA. Unfortunately the heat of the last few days brought fog rolling in from the sea. This caused us to have to drive through some thick fog and made sight seeing fairly difficult. For this reason we didn't do much stopping along the way. We did come across Nepenthe which is a restaurant I had heard about before coming over. We arrived in the afternoon and found out they started serving dinner after 5pm. We hung around and were treated to a wonderful meal. The restaurant is nearly as famous for it's views (it's on a cliff over 800 feet above the Pacific Ocean) as it's great food. Unfortunately the fog removed one of those but the other lived up to expectations. We had a wonderful meal and stayed down in a lay by off the road.

Unfortunately the fog hadn't cleared by the morning so we didn't get to experience the view. We were quite keen to hit the road as we wanted to be in San Luis Obisbo for the famous farmers market. En route we passed by a viewing point of a beach filled with Elephant Seals. It is mating season and there were literally hundreds lying along the beach right by the highway. We stopped to have a look and then continued on towards todays destination. Every Thursday, the main street in the town is closed and alot of the shops come out from indoors and set up stalls on the street. BBQ fills the air as chicken, hot dogs, ribs and corn are cooked and sold. Strikes of metal ring out as men try to impress their women on the strength machine, local farmers sell fresh fruit and vegetables and all manner of people hit the streets to soak in the atmosphere. The vibe around the area was amazing and we both thoroughly enjoyed the few hours. We watched the Lakers game in a bar and then headed back to where we parked the RV with our shopping in tow.

We headed back into the centre the following morning to see what it was like normally and there was no sign of the party from the previous evening. The street was like any other town we have seen along the way. We got a couple of things that were needed and hopped into the RV to head south again. Next on our list of towns to visit was Santa Maria. To be honest, it should never have made it onto the list. It is basically a town full of malls with 4-5 lane highways going in every direction. We spotted a crazy golf course from the freeway so after dinner we played the 2 courses. Emer won by one shot after 36 holes, winning it on the last. We drove through dusk and dark and arrived in Solvang. We pulled into a residential area and found a dark spot to park and head to sleep.

When we woke we seemed to have wandered into the set of a TV show or film. We were in a beautiful neighbourhood surrounded by huge house with perfectly manicured gardens and convertible Mercedes in the driveways. We had breakfast and went to find a more suitable parking spot before having a walk around the town. The town was settled in by Danes in the past and alot of the buildings retain the Danish influences. In addition, there was a car show on where loads of Datsun (old Nissans) enthusiasts had their remodelled cars out on show. It is a nice quaint town but a couple of hours walking around was enough for us. We hit the road again and continued south to Santa Barbara.

Upon entering the city we looked around and found a space for Ita and went for a stroll downtown. It is a very colourful town and the sun had people out in force. It was also "Santa Barbara Dance Day" so there were various groups out salsa dancing, line dancing, ballet dancing and everything in between. After our stroll we decided to book into an RV park this evening as we are hitting LA in a couple of days. There was only one in our directory so we booked a place. As well as being the most expensive we have stayed in so far, it is also the worst. It's right on the freeway and is very cramped. It is close to a downtown city in Southern California so it is to be expected but we certainly won't be making a habit of it. As mentioned, we're hitting the beach tomorrow and then it's Six Flags for some thrills before hitting LA.