California – US1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles (10 June 2007)

After a day free of driving, we felt ready and raring to hit the road, the US1 coastal road to be precise. We planned to stop en route for a bit of beach time but unfortunately, isolated clouds appeared every time we approached a good beach. This is Monterey with its very own micro climate.

Clouds aside, the views were very pretty and we managed to stop at the edge of cliff tops for photo shoots.



We saw other sights too. After J became a temporary vegetarian, he simultaneously got very good at animal spotting (I’m sure there must be a link there). It started with a large field of stags...






... was followed by a cluster of rare Californian seals...












... and then there was a lonesome more common seal.







But what was most impressive was the field of zebras. The locals didn’t believe us when we told them we’d seen zebras in California. It was a little surreal.


Anyway, we eventually found a beach with sunshine... admittedly it was just before the sun set and wasn’t quite the lunch break we had hoped for, but we did get some sun. Moving on, we stopped for dinner in Santa Barbara and since we were in the land of the rich and famous, we felt the urge to do our best Santa Barbara impressions.



And no, we didn’t really know what a Santa Barbara impression was either.