Highway 1: from the Elephant Seals to the Boardwalk

Santa Barbara Mission

Santa Barbara Beach

Big Sur.1

Elephant Seal

Posing Elephant Seal

Big Sur 2

Big Sur 3

Big Sur 4

Aquarium Sea Otter

Aquarium Sea Otter 2

Monterey Aquarium shark

Monterey Aquarium

Point Lobos Fog

Point Lobos trees

Point Lobos orange fog

Point Lobos fog 2

Point Lobos red trees

Deer at Point Lobos

Point Lobos Lonely Tree

Point Lobos 2

Point Lobos 3

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Santa Cruz Boardwalk 2

Santa Cruz Boardwalk 3

The second part of our California road trip followed the famous Highway 1, along the coast from LA to San Francisco.

Leaving Venice Beach, we continued north through Malibu to Santa Barbara, LA's elegant little sister. And where Malibu was still cold and grey in the morning, Santa Barbara was already sunny and buzzing with people. The main attraction of the town is the Santa Barbara Mission, founded in 1786 by Spanish padre Fermin. It is part of a large group of Missions along California's West Coast, whose sole purpose was to religiously converse the indigenous Chumash tribe. Which primarily meant the Tribe had to work for the Franciscans at the Mission...Knowing this made me feel a little awkward visiting the site, but the building and gardens are quite beautiful. The best part of the town, though, is the beach. You can rent bikes to ride along the coast or, even better, watch other people do it (and fail).

The only downside of Santa Barbara is that it is a little expensive, so we spent the night in Lompoc (don't be ashamed if you've never heard of it). Without knowing it, we ended up in one of the best places in the area: O'Cairns Inns and Suites. One of the best because they gave us free dvd rentals, free snacks, free sodas and free alcoholic drinks at the bar! And that turns out to be a great place to meet strangers from all over the world. I got to watch pictures of tulips with a guy from Hongkong, discuss Brexit with the British bartenders and talk soccer with Belgians. And get drunk for free at the same time. Yes, we loved this place :P

Unfortunately we had to take our hungover heads of our pillows the next morning for our drive through Big Sur, the stretch of stunning coast between San Simeon and Carmel. In San Simeon a pleasant surprise awaits the travellers about to take on the winding roads of the Highway 1: a large group of sunbathing Elephant Seals. Depending on the time of year they are either fighting, making baby's or being lazy. In our case it was the last one. Which believe it or not was still fun to witness (please go see Finding Dory and you'll know why...).

Continuing north on Highway 1 we came across many stunning views of the rugged coastline, with icons like the Bixby Creek Bridge and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We underestimated the time it would take to drive to Carmel, though, so didn't manage to stop everywhere.

We did do the 17-mile drive in Carmel, advertised as one of the most scenic drives in the world. Well, it was pretty (busy with Chinese people), but definitely not the most scenic drive in the world. Not even in California if I'm truly honest. But we could cross it of our bucket list and finally get to our hotel.

The next two days we spent in the town of Monterey, a nice but touristy place. Their main attraction: the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A very nice aquarium with beautiful exhibitions and live 'feeding' shows. Besides teaching you about the different species in the oceans, they also try to make you aware of the threat of fishing and pollution. Worth a visit! The Aquarium itself is located on the Cannary Warf, a street with plenty of shops and restaurants to spend the rest of your day. And when you want to watch a soccer game, you go to the Irish pub. At least, that is what we thought...But you could here the crickets and see the bales of hay whirling through the bar because there was absolutely no one. Well, nobody who wanted to watch soccer anyway. We had to ask the staff to switch channels for us and ended up watching the Copa America FINAL with just one very loud Mexican couple (Chile beat Argentina, very much to their disliking), and pissed off Nascar fans...

Before leaving the area to go to Santa Cruz the next day, we stopped at Point Lobos in Carmel for a hike. This State park is absolutely stunning, especially in the morning when the fog still fills the sky. It creates a Game of Thrones like beauty. It is not a big park so you have the option to hike around the whole Point in just two hours, or take a (couple of) smaller 'loops'.

After hiking in Point Lobos we stayed the night in Santa Cruz, a typical surfers town with a famous Boardwalk. If you dare, try the ancient (or so it seems) rides for just a couple of dollars, or have an ice cream an sit down to 'people-watch'. And there is no better place to watch people than at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, because unfortunately the place is also the Jersey Shore of the West Coast. And even though that show will always be my guilty pleasure, we couldn't wait to leave the city and travel further north.

Next stop: San Francisco!