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Hello,
It's been a while since our last entry, so we will update you on our roadtrip down Highway 1 - it seems like a while since our last entry, though it was only a week or so ago. When you don't have a job to come home to, all the days seem to blend into one, and we have no concept of what day of the week it is or how long we have been away!
We began our last week by picking up our hire car, and starting the drive down Highway 1 from San Francisco, eventually ending up in L.A. The weather started off great on the first day, we had glorious sunshine all the way down to Monterey, and the view from the car was fantastic. We stopped off at little vista points along the way, and arrived in Monterey after a few hours of driving. It's a nice little town, with a wharf and restaurants by the sea, and you can also do whale watching from here, though we decided not to do that. We continued our drive down the coast the next day, stopping off at Carmel-by-the-Sea for a short while. Carmel is a very cute little town, with a lovely beach. Clint Eatwood was the mayor of Carmel for a few years in the late 80's, and there are various buildings and other things named after him. Carmel seemed like quite a wealthy small town, with arty shops and quaint houses.
After our stop at Carmel we carried on to drive Big Sur, an area of the coast where the mountains reach the Pacific Ocean and tower over the sea and create rocky outcrops. This section of Highway 1 hugs the coastline and becomes very twisty and windy, and if the weather is good we think you would get an amazing view. We say 'if the weather is good' because as soon as we hit the Big Sur area, the weather changed dramatically and became extremely foggy and we were unable to see much of the ocean, or the rocky beaches below the cliffs, from the car! It was a shame, because if you 'google' pictures of Big Sur and the dramatic scenery it look fantastic. We did get to see some nice views a we came out the mountains, and occasionally the sunshine would shine through, but overall it was just fog!
We spend the night at San Simeon in preparation for our trip to Hearst Castle the next day. Hearst Castle was amazing, despite the fog we had for part of the tour, and it is definitely something that we recommend for anyone visiting the area. The castle was built and owned by publishing magnate William Hearst in the 1920, and became a retreat for his rich family and the rich guests he invited there for glamourous parties and shenanigans. Because of his immense wealth, he was able to furnish the castle with ancient art work and furniture from all over the world, most of which remains in the castle for visitors to look at. The pools were also stunning, and when we put some photos on you will see what we mean.
We carried on down the coast to San Luis Obispo (another pretty little town), and Santa Barbara, which is about 2 hours from L.A, and like Carmel seemed like a wealthy town and had a nice harbour.
Our motel outside of Santa Barbara was not so nice, and our nights sleep was the worst we have had of the trip so far. The good thing about motels is that they're cheap..... the bad thing is when you get stuck in a room next to a bunch of rowdy guys, who keep you up all night with their drunken conversation that is so loud that the Sheriff is called out in the middle of the night, and then they don't even have the courtesy to have a lie-in the next day, getting up at 6.40am and telling everyone who will listen that they're gonna "go to Arby's for breakfast!!". We woke up the next day tired, but got on the road again, this time heading for L.A. It was just around the corner.....
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