Pacific coast to Monterey

We picked up our Chevy Impala and made our way out of Santa Monica. The morning was spent working our way up the coast past gorgeous sea front properties on the pacific coast highway. We pulled into Santa Barbara a picture perfect town with colonial style buildings lining its mains street. First stop was an apple store for an aux cable for the car. The Californian radio stations are either spanish, good fearing or play a LOT of Adele.

Lunch was had in a little pizza chain with wood fired pizza. Yum!! A pit stop into H&M and we found cheap clothes to update our wardrobe, having found that no one in their right mind can afford Abercrombie and Fitch. $60 for a skirt or $75 for a jumper!

Continuing up the road, sadly the pacific coast highway is closed due to landslides, so we headed inland, powered by Starbucks and frozen yoghurt. We passed through grassy hills, that turned into vineyards. No time to stop more wine tasting will have to wait for NZ.

We arrived into Monterey just before sunset into a friendly HI hostel. Walking down to Fisherman's warf we could hear but not seen the sea lions of the cove. Called in to one of the restaraunts by promise of good chowder we were sat by the window watching the boats bob on the sea. We shared some perfectly cooked calamari and I had some New England Chowder in a bread bowl. It was creamy and filling, and went down well with the local red wine.Read more