Farewell California

Hooray, we survived over 850 kilometres of driving from San Fran to L.A. This morning we work up in Oxnard and started back on Highway 1 Coast drive to admire the view. The drive was only an hour driving time and as we were ahead of schedule many stops were allowed. It was very different from the previous day, not as pretty.

We drove through Malibu and saw some amazing beach houses. They take the Straddie Beach House to a whole new level. Malibu runs about 43 kilometres across the coast. We saw so many people sitting on the beach but no one swimming. It seemed kind of weird.

Just a tiny beach house.

From Malibu we drove to Santa Monica and that made us really feel we were in California. We found an amazing carpark just outside a cool Caribbean Café were we were served up some hearty food before our horrible aeroplane food tonight. We went for a walk along the beachfront and so some pretty unusual things for Australian standards.  The beach we were walking on was Muscle Beach. So the people of Santa Monica don’t have to waste their money on gym fees they have their own little gym by the beach. Also something different, chess beside the beach. They have set up permanent tables, you just need o BYO chess pieces and find a partner. People are constantly roller-blading or cycling past us. Lauren, you and Martine will be pleased that there is someone that it is considered normal practise to roller-blade. 

We saw a few bodybuilders, a man who had a cart with exotic birds and also a man with an iguana on his shoulder. The men with the animals wanted you to pay them money to have photos with their creatures. It is definitely an interesting business to get into.  Not sure if they are millionaires yet.

Santa Monica is famous for their pier that has a mini EKKA on it. It had a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, trapeze school, Carnies and tonnes of stalls selling ridiculous crap. People actually go swimming at this beach unlike their friends up the road in Malibu. After our little walk around we drove successfully into L.A not getting in any wrong lanes and being abused by other drivers.

So here are just a few observations from our trip to California:

• There are a lot of mid-life crisis men cycling along Highway One from San Fran to Santa Barbara.
• You can adopt a highway – interesting concept can’t see it taking off on M1 at home
• Apparently the speed patrol monitors you by the air. We never saw it happen.
• No one drives at the speed limit – it is not unusual for them to be 10 – 20 miles over the limit.
• No one likes to use their indicators.
• The meals are still ridiculously big.

A few highlights:

• Dylan’s tour
• Giants Baseball
• My first time at the Anthropology store
• Successfully driving from San Fran to L.A
• Walking up the steep hills of San Fran
• Catching a cable car
• Happy Hour
• Eating at some cool places such as Colombus Café, Lori’s Diner, Tony’s Pizza and Cha Cha Chicken.

Also for those interested we got some money back on the car hire as they felt bad and I whinged a lot. Thank you Alamo!