A lesson learned....

San Francisco - Pacifica - Santa Cruz - Monterey

It was another stunning day with clear blue skies and climbing temperatures.

After a quick breakfast on the outside decking and a round of photos we waved goodbye to our hosts and their impending fifth birthday party and headed a few miles up the coast to marvel over the mightiness of the Giant Redwoods in Muir Woods.

Sadly we had been a bit tardy in leaving after such fantastic hospitality and the car parks were already full. So we continued following the road to the nearby Muir Beach.

Everyone else had the same idea so with nowhere to park I hopped out of the car for a quick photo shoot of the pacific while hubbie guarded our beast of a car, ready to move if confronted.

In the end we decided to settle ourselves on the lawn of a highly recommended nearby 16th century English pub. The Pelican Inn was the real McCoy and had been transported brick by brick from Blighty! As it was not yet midday we managed to get a parking space and were nearly the first to order lunch.

The pub filled up quickly and we gloated over our prized position on the grass hogging the limited garden furniture while we tucked into a selection of authentic pub grub and ginger beer.

The boys flight back home was due to leave in the early evening so we decided to spend the afternoon taking in the sights of Golden Gate Park, which we had missed out the first time in San Francisco. The parks public spaces were full of exotic flowers, picnicking families and brightly coloured semi inflated bouncy castles.

After the park we cruised parallel to the Pacific Ocean sucking in the salty aroma through our car windows as we snapped away capturing the surfers and rolling waves. We eventually stopped at Pacifica for refreshments, where we strolled the pier checking the fisherman's buckets for a glance of their exotic catches. However the seals stole the show as they poached the bait off the lines which draped the side of the Pier.

We tried to prolong the afternoon in a salt encrusted authentic café, where we gratefully slurped some much appreciated smoothies. With heavy hearts we turned our backs on the ocean and headed inland to the airport.

The boys were quite excited at the prospect of a long haul flight without the governing eye of their parents, but both were reluctant to leave the comfort of America. It was sad to see them go. They had brought a richness to the holiday which would be missed by both hubbie and I.

With a mother's conscience weighing heavily on my shoulders we waved them through the departures gate and once back in the car headed off further down the coast to Santa Cruz.

As we drove toward the beach it became all too evident that it wasn't 'our kind of town' and we turned around as we hit the pleasure beach redirecting ourselves towards the ocean-side town of Capitola, which had been recommended to us.

It was jumping with an early evening vibe of weekend visitors eager to extend their day in the many restaurants. Unfortunately for us it wasn't just the streets that were full, so our hotels search was fruitless. Confident that we would eventually succeed we continued our drive towards Monterey Bay, ignoring the vacancy signs of the motels who's neon glow barely showed through the fog banks of the flat marshland and harbour.

The sun was setting as we approached the towns of Sand City and Seaside on the outskirts of Monterey, where the big chain hotels were all represented within a few miles of each other. We stopped to try our luck once more at the most attractive of the cluster.

After sidestepping baggage from a SAGA coach which had just unloaded in the lobby, we were told by a smiling receptionist that the 196 roomed hotel was fully booked. Unfortunately it was the weekend of the Sea Otter Classic bike event, which was just an unlucky coincidence which meant that nearly every hotel in the area was full to bursting.

Despite the receptionist's warnings we decided to try our luck at a few more reputable hotels in the area, but with no luck. Out of ideas and energy we recharged in McDonalds with a coffee and chicken wrap, trawling the internet to find something - anything! Our saviour turned out to be the Del Monte Pines hotel, a motel in downtown Monterey that had a king-sized room (with fire place) available for a small fortune. Faced with the alternative of a night in the car we took it. Fortunately it did have free WiFi which meant we could arrange our accommodation for the following night and not repeat the same mistake again.