Pacific Highway 101

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We headed back to Los Angeles via Highway 101. This route ran close to the Pacific coast and through towns called San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Ventura and Santa Monica. These names reminded me of songs from the 1960s and 1970s.

We stopped at Ventura beach and had some lunch by the sand looking out to the ocean. Fran was reading her Kindle and I was just looking out to sea when suddenly I spotted some Grey whales breaching approx 200 yards off shore and managed to get a photo, dont see whales from the beach everyday.

We saw a beachcomber with a metal detector walking towards us on the sand. He said he was very excited to find a silver dime coin and started to show us the difference between this one and a new dime. He dropped both coins on a stone and the old silver dime made a lighter sound than the new dime. He said he could sell the coin for a couple of dollars but he was very excited about the find and would not have been happier if he had won the lottery. Off he went smiling and chatting to himself about what he had found.

After lunch we continued down the 101 and the scenery was amazing, rolling waves crashing onto the rocks, sandy beaches full of beach volley ball and families having a day out by the beach. We came into Malibu and saw a film crew shooting a film from the back of a trailer. On the trailer was an old Jeep with two people in the front. This was travelling about 30 mph and had four motorcycle outriders keeping people away from the trailer.

We also saw fields of strawberrys and dozens of pickers. We could smell the strawberrys from the roadside as we drove past. In the next field we saw and could smell celery. This was just amazing.

We found a RV campsite on top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean and stopped there for the final night. In the morning we would be driving the last few miles to Los Angeles and handing back the camper.

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