Day Seven and Eight LA to San Francisco via the Pacific Coast Highway
We were very excited about driving the famous Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) which some say is one of the worlds greatest road trips (apparently best done in a convertible, but the Nissan had to do for us!). The full highway goes from San Diego to the redwood forests north of San Francisco, but we did an abridged version from LA to San Francisco. The PCH is not a true highway, in the sense that its actually several different roads (e.g. Highway 1, which joins with Highway 101 and also the interstate at times), so the PCH itself is not always well marked at times, which meant we unwittingly detoured off the route a few times! The section we did takes about 16 or so hours in total, so we decided to split it into two so we could take our time and enjoy the sights along the way. Wikipedia recommends 2 weeks for the entire drive so obviously it could be done a lot more leisurely than we took it! We were pretty relaxed about this drive, and didnt have a map of the route. We just used the GPS and road signs to make sure we were headed in the right general direction so unfortunately Im going to be pretty vague with names of places we passed, or roads we used.
It was grey and raining when we left LA in the morning, in good spirits and looking forward to the road trip ahead. Unfortunately after about 45 minutes we came across a road closure due to flooding!
Saying goodbye to the coast as we detour inland!
So we took a detour through the hills, which was absolutely beautiful and made up for missing out on the coast view.
We had a bit of trouble finding our way back to the PCH though and ended up on one of the interstates and a bit lost. I was a bit disheartened by then, but was cheered up when we passed a shopping complex and a store called PetCo. We have two very spoilt pets (a budgie and a dog) so I made DF make a quick stop off so we could buy our boys a souvenir. I had a really great time here; they had a fantastic range of things, both for pets and people. We bought a toy each for the dog and the bird and a key ring for me then hit the road again.
Finally we rejoined the PCH and enjoyed the beautiful coastal scenery and watching the weather and rain clouds come in over the ocean.
There were lots of rabbits at one of the lookouts we stopped at
We made a stop in lovely Santa Barbara and had a wander around.
Eventually we decided to spend the night in San Luis Obispo, as it was dark by this time and we were missing the scenery anyway. This is pretty much the midway point of the route we were taking and halfway between LA and San Fran.
This was the only night I hadnt booked accommodation for and we stopped at the Peach Tree Inn, which is recommended in Lonely Planet, and were able to get a room for a good price. This was such a lovely little place to stay, really homely, and the people were so friendly and helpful. We didnt realise how pretty it was until daylight the next morning.
After unpacking we headed into the main street for dinner. We decided to eat at a Mexican place that was really busy and full of college students and had our first real burritos. They were so delicious and like nothing wed ever had before, a lot more fresh and wholesome with yummy things like black beans compared to anything Ive tasted here! They were also enormous and I didnt get anywhere near to finishing mine.
After dinner we had a brief wander around, huddled under our umbrella, and I discovered my first Barnes and Noble, which was happily open until 10pm. I am a huge book lover and was so excited to discover how much cheaper books are in the US! My book purchases probably explain most of the 23kg of extra baggage we came home with.
Driving back to our hotel we had our first and only sickness experience of the trip. I developed a bad allergic reaction to something and broke out in a bad rash/welts, developed a congested nose, shortness of breath, runny eyes etc. (I never found out what the problem was it wasnt dinner because I safely ate Mexican several times later with no problems) I always carry my antihistamines and inhalers on me, but had forgotten my steroid creams, which would help with the rash. I tried to reassure DF Id be okay with what I had, and that it was unlikely Id be able to get what I needed without a prescription anyway, but he became very overprotective and insisted we find a pharmacy so we spent about half an hour driving around in the pouring rain trying to find a pharmacy that was open using the GPS to locate them. Eventually after about four tries we found one that was 15 minutes away from closing and were pleased to find that I didnt need a prescription for my cortisone cream in the US! DF was happy after this and oddly enough talks about that drive as being one of his favourite memories of the trip?
After a great antihistamine induced sleep I woke up the next morning feeling much better and we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the motel foyer. It was no longer raining and the weather forecast was for sun.
The coastal scenery today was just stunning and my photos really dont do it any justice. We kept stopping along the way for photos and just to admire the view.
Along the way we stopped at Hearst Castle (which is the former home of newspaper magnate William Hearst). You can take a tour of the castle, but we were enjoying the scenery too much to stop for long enough to do this.
We were also lucky enough to see elephant seals, which were on land for their birthing season. There is a great lookout where you can look down at the beach below and watch the seals safely without disturbing them, with volunteers available to talk to you about them. We didnt see an actual birth, but we saw plenty of seal pups and their poor mothers who looked exhausted.
After seeing the seals we continued along on our way and eventually hit Big Sur and stopped at the Bixby Bridge.
Next we hit the beautiful redwood forests where we had a stop for lunch and to admire the amazing trees (oddly I cant seem to find any photos!)
Except for this one which was our view at lunch
Our next stop was Monterey, a lovely coastal town.
Friends that had travelled before us had told us about the great aquarium here and it lived up to our expectations!
A cuttlefish
I was super excited that they had a special exhibition of.. beautiful flamingos!
We spent quite a few hours at the aquarium and then had fish and chips for dinner, as we had to try some of the famous local seafood.
It was dark by the time we left Monterey and we still had several hours of driving ahead of us. We joined the Interstate since we knew we wouldnt be able to enjoy the scenery of the coast, but unfortunately this meant bypassing a few other places that would have been nice to see (e.g. Santa Cruz).
Eventually we arrived in San Francisco and checked into our hotel. We were both invigorated by arriving at our destination and decided it would be a waste to go to bed right away. So we decided to walk to Ghirardelli Square for dessert where we shared this:
After dessert we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.
Up Next San Francisco
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Thank you, I'm so glad people are enjoying my report! Update coming now (I'd be a lot faster if Photobucket was easier to use!)
Starving and that vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate would go down really really well. 
loving the detail of your trip report. Interesting that you loved Vegas we found it disappointing the kids only want to go back to stay at the same hotel and to go eat at Hash house a go go (twisted farm food) again other than that we found Vegas very over rated but we did have 4 kids with us 
. It truly was not a thing like the Hangover for us.
we spent the morning and early afternoon wandering the strip and checking out the interiors/foyers/shops of some of the hotels. Despite the cold it was a beautiful sunny day and we were obviously starting to acclimatise as it didnt actually feel so cold anymore.
