SAN FRANCISCO - WEST COAST - L.A

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Thursday 14th October

Las vegas (Nevada) to San Francisco (California) - 649 miles
San Francisco - Santa Maria - 265 miles
Santa Maria - Los Angeles - 175 miles

We stopped a few times for fuel and leg stretching and later in the evening we had dinner not far from San fran.

We arrived at San Fran 1030pm, hurriedly checked into a hotlel and made our way to the nightclub called the Fillmore which was an old historic listed building with chandeliers and everything was in a victorian style.
We enjoyed the night but wondered if it was worth driving all that way for two hours of music. As we were leaving the club we seen DJ Paul Oakenfold coming out the back door and he chatted away to us quite the thing. We told him about our journey here from vegas
and we talked about our round the world trip. We got our photos taken with him and he wished us well on the rest of our trip!! Well that was worth it now we think!
We went into a Jazz club for one last beer to calm the nerves after that chance meeting and then headed home for the night which was a nice little hotel around the corner in Korea Town.

Friday 15th Ocotber

We got up sharpish and headed for route one!! Route one takes you all the way down the west coast of California and it has parts that are popular with surfers and some of the beaches are meant to be nice. Plus we thought it would be a nice way to travel to Los Angeles without the using the boring straight interstates and freeways.

Well, the weather? crap! Fog and mist has blanketed the whole of the west coast today so we only got a small glimpse of some of the beautiful coastlines which is a shame but it is the fall so we'll just crack on.
We stopped at Santa Cruz and i got my head shaved at a local barbers which was fun as there were a few
old men hanging about and baldness was the topic of conversation!! We all agreed when i left that bald was beautiful!!
Santa Cruz is pretty nice actually. Its famous for Skateboarding and surfing and this was evident as we drove through and stopped as there are lots of different aged people buzzing about on boards and skates. The fog has lifted slightly but its still a bit grey in areas.
Just a short distance from here is a place called Half moon and its famous for its halloween celebrations as they have hundreds of pumpkin farms around here displaying their pumpkin crops at the side of the road. Every so often we would see a house with about a thousand pumpkins all set out nicely on the lawn so i guess it's a competition to see who can have the best display of pumpkins!
We stopped at a Pumpkin farm and fete and had a wander around. Some of the different types of pumpkins were cool to see and there were a few large pumpkins that were so big
you couldnt lift them yourself. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup and even pumpkin buscuits could be bought here and it was busy with parents and children all having a good time by the looks of it!

We drove through Californian forrests and coast for about 200 miles and the roads were murder to be honest as they were slow and winding and it wasn't much fun with the poor weather. Saying that it was a fine change from the usual freeways and highways which can be really boring. We covered most of route one and our mission was accomplished.
We stopped at Santa maria as it was by now very dark and driving was becoming challenging and the eye's were nipping a bit due to tiredness. We stopped at a motel for the night and planned our next few days as we would certainly reach L.A at around late lunchtime depending on the weather.

Saturday 16th October

We got up quite late and headed in the direction of Los Angeles which was only 175 miles away. I say only as it seems a doddle now considering what we've driven in the past!

Along the way we passed through Santa Barbara, Ventura then Thousand Oaks all situated along the coastal route 101 and we so wish it was the height of summer instead of this grey day which seems to be lifting ever so slightly as we get closer to L.A.

We stopped in Laguna for lunch and then when we stopped for fuel before joining the free way. A guy came up to me and asked me directions to the place we had just eaten at. I sort of pointed in the right direction and the guy was like 'your Scottish arent ya?' I said yes and it turns out this guy was born in Greenock, Scotland but had lived in L.a most of his life. He said thanks for directions and off he went.

What a nightmare the traffic is getting into L.A. We are only 50 miles from city centre and we have actually passed the city limits and coasting along in a 7 lane wide highway!! Yes you read right...7 lanes!!
Its crazy as everyone is cutting each other up and all at the 65mph limit! I just grab onto my steering wheel and stick to the centre lane and eventually we reach slower traffic and then turn off into down town. Its totally weird as soon as we leave the road its really quiet to drive around down town so we find our hotel for the night, park up, check in and then go for a walk down town L.A.

Its not what i expected as it seems quite grubby and there are a few down and outs hanging around scrounging money off of people. We observe the high skyscrapers and have a wander around Macys and then Wallgreens where we bought some magazines to read for later.
We have arranged to meet our friend Mhairi from Aberdeen as she is in L.A for a works conference for a few days so we have arranged to meet her tomorrow for lunch which will be totally cool as we've not seen her for a few months.

Early night for Jill whereas i stay up late typing out blogs as im starting to fall behind due to lack of internet and also driving takes up most of my energy. Getting old!!
Once we have done lunch we are going to head down to San Diego for 2 nights as we will be coming back to Los Angeles for a couple of days to do the sights before we fly off for Fiji.

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