Cruising with the Top Down

Yep, I am officially loving having the wind in my hair and the sun on my shoulders, although I am having to make extra stops to re-apply sun cream. Yesterday, 19 Aug, I drove from SF to Monterey stopping in at a few places on the way mainly to see how the other half lives. Serious money in this area.

Monterey doesn't have much to offer apart from it's fishing trade. There are a few piers, some working and some touristy where you can buy anything as long as it's fish or fish-related. I tried clam chowder but it was a bit heavy so I decided to catch my dinner instead, ok that was luck instead of planning but it worked.

I also found a British gift shop (why?!?) so went in to have a nosey at what British things people could buy from Monterey. As well as the usual china and dishtowels they had a British grocery store selling... IRN BRU!! As soon as I saw it I knew I couldn't wait another week to have it. The man behind the counter thought I was hilarious getting so excited about it but I knew that it meant I'd be having a fish supper and a bottle of Bru for dinner.

Today (Monday 20 Aug) I drove the majority of the Pacific Highway, Route 1. Most of the journey is coastal covering the 90 miles of Big Sur. A beautiful, dramatic coastline formed by ancient mountaintops protruding from the ocean. I'd been told that a lot of the coastline looked like Scotland and they weren't wrong. The only real difference was the colours. While our trees are much greener I've never seen such blue sea in Scotland. It actually reminded me what's on my doorstep and made me more determined to see Scotland properly and not just motorways and the insides of gym halls. I can feel a camping trip coming on.

After Big Sur, the highway leads to San Luis Obispo, a small beach town exactly halfway between SF and LA. I'd been planning on staying there for the night but there was no room at the inn, ok hostel, and other than that I had no real option. Motels are a lot more expensive than I expected them to be - $80 and up compared to $25 average for a hostel.

So I decided to bite the bullet and drove the extra 100 miles to Santa Barbara where I am now. I checked with the hostel here before leaving San Luis Obispo and booked in for tonight and tomorrow night. The hostel seems ok, a lot of young people but in a residential area so quite quiet as well but the kitchen is ridiculously small. I've had bigger kitchens in flats I've lived in. It wasn't helped by the fact that there were 5 girls 'helping' (ie flirting with) and Italian guy who was using pretty much every pot in the kitchen to make pasta with a tomato and pepper sauce. It looked quite nice until he added a cup full of oil after it had been cooking for 20 minutes and put 3 handfuls of salt into the pasta. I could've waited but I'd had nothing since breakfast and all the driving and sea air had really had an effect on my appetite. My pasta and pesto was so much better than his oil slick and salt effort anyway.

Tired and cranky? Yep!