Ups & Downs

So today started off rubbish. It was our last day of having our morning coffee at Starbucks. It was always ordinary coffee but today it was rubbish. Beyond rubbish, it was undrinkable. I admit I’m a coffee snob. In my princess way I took it back, got another one and it was still rubbish. Ben did drink it as he drinks instant.

To add to the rubbish pile we picked up the car. Not so lovely Yusuf told us that we ordered a small car, which in his world is wrong. He told us we should upgrade. A small car is an equivalent to a family car in Australia. He said he would give us an upgrade free of charge. We then proceeded to the pick-up area feeling quite happy, thinking how nice Yusuf was. We were met by a woman that we’re quite sure was stoned. She couldn’t keep her eyes open and kept swaying. She gave us what looked like a nice car, however it  only had ¼ of a tank of ‘gas’. We drove back to the hotel were we had our last toilet stop before the big journey to L.A. Lucky Ben went back to the toilet and found my bag that I left on the table. I blame it on not having coffee.

After trying to set the GPS we finally were on our way for a lovely drive in California along the coast road. About 20 minutes into the journey we realised the GPS was not taking us the scenic way we had hoped for. A lovely girl at the gas station helped me with directions while Ben filled the empty car given to us by the lovely people at Alamo Car Rental.

Finally we were on the correct highway when Ben started slowly down and the steering wheel started shaking. Not a tiny shake but a shake I could feel in the passenger seat. After $50 worth of calls to the car rental company, we were told that it wasn’t an issue and put on hold for a really long time.  Nothing was solved. We were about one hour behind schedule. We decided to drive to Monteray Airport where there was an office and see whether anything could be solved.

Now as we mentioned San Fran has a fog problem. Well to add to our rubbish day the drive so far along the coast has been covered in fog. We could only see the road and everything to our left, which was mountains and fields etc. No beautiful cliffs, or magic sea views could be seen only fog. 

We arrived in Monterey successfully driving on the right side of the road. Ten points for Benny. The two lovely people at the rental branch told me that it was a bad problem with the brakes and that we shouldn’t have been given that car with such little fuel and the breaks issue. He said you could never trust a car with Mexican plates. A big note for future visits. We were given a replacement white VW Beetle. It was safe and a whole lot easier to drive.

At this stage we’re quite hungry so we drove to Carmel-by-the-beach. Precision reverse parking by Benny, the day was just starting to get better. We had a beautiful lunch and the most amazing coffee. It was the first time I had seen coffee beans and also a real ‘Italian-style’ coffee machine. The flat white was beautiful. At Starbucks when you order a cappuccino you are served about ¾ cup of froth and if you’re lucky some coffee. After lunch we went for a drive to see the ocean view. A little disappointing but more fog, and an overpowering smell of seaweed. We did get a few photos but not postcard worthy. We were though amazed by how many people were learning to surf there. It is no Straddie.

Finally the fog was burning off and the views were emerging.

One thing that needs to be mentioned that due to the minor events of the morning, we were under a bit of time pressure. Very few stops were made. We saw a paddock of Zebras but no stop allowed. At dinner Benny admitted that the people weren’t taking photos of boring black birds on the rocks but actually seals. I was driving so my eyes were firmly on the road, of course I believed him.

Now seeing it is a Wednesday we thought that accommodation wouldn’t be too hard to come by. We decided to stay at Santa Barbara or something close as the sun doesn’t set until about 8 so a lot of driving can be done. We turned up to a trusty Best Western outside Santa Barbara and were told it was fully booked. Now looking at a little map we saw another Best Western down the road. Now down the road in our terms is like 5 – 10 minutes. Well think again, it was 45 minutes away. Back onto the freeway we go as we had called ahead and they were saving us a room. After leaving San Fran at 10 this morning we drove into the Best Western at Oxnard at 9pm.

Lovely Carlos told us that BJ Brew House would still be open. We drove down and walked into a jam-packed restaurant/bar. (http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/) It had a big screen TV every 2 metres. We had the pleasure of eating two great pizzas. I went back to my childhood favourite of ham and pineapple. I think I wanted it because after such an up and down day I wanted something that could be guaranteed to be good. Because the meals are so big Ben’s going to eat the left over pizza for breaky tomorrow.