Day 28 The End of our Journey

Spent a slightly wet last day in Santa Cruz..

a little bit tacky and pretty much closed......

but it does have one of the oldest & most famous roller coasters in America 

 

seaweed

Martha with Alvin and the Chipmunks......

we then went to the cinema to see Puss in Boots and out for a great meal.....

Jay found what we thought was a snake and on closer inspection we saw it had legs and was a little lizard...

so we never did find a rattlesnake....

 

said good bye to the ......bit of a smelly motel we were quite pleased to be leaving..... 

and to the slightly creepy wooden houses that we really really like......

at the airport we saw a great bit of wall art made of small thought provoking bits......

                                                         

our flight was at 3.10pm on the 12th and we arrived in the UK at 9.45am on the 13th....

as it was still daylight we got a great view of California from above and took the opportunity to reflect on the wonders of our excellent holiday - well for a few minutes then watched movie after movie after movie... which was also excellent...

                                     

                        

                                                     

 snow capped mountains                                                                    patchwork fields

and arrived to a beautiful sunshiney autumn day......

wondering if it was all a dream..........

Day 27 Driving the Big Sur west coast to Santa Cruz

we returned to see Mroro Bay by daylight and saw sea otters, extraordinarily plump squirrels as well as sealions, interesting surf wading birds and a pelican....

 brown pelican

 4 sea otters playing in the bay... 

 obese squirrel

then we drove on and found the most spectacular coast..

 elephant seals..

 huge tarantula

full moon over a globe artichoke field just as we arrived at Santa Cruz.....

day 26 drive to Morro Bay

we started our drive back to San Francisco from LA taking the coastal highway that will become the Big Sur. We stopped at Santa Barbara which has a wonderful harbour and beach...

 santa barbara

 harbour

a blurry snippet of what was an incredible sunset......

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we had clam chowder, fish and avocado for dinner at the harbour at Morro Bay and then went to listen to the sealions barking at each other in the harbour. 

Days 22 - 25 Los Angeles

We drove up the coast from San Diego, stopped in Orange County for croissants and bagels and arrived in Beverly Hills in the evening.

bye bye comfort inn San Diego...

...hello Los Angeles condo

the next day we went to Hollywood

and saw some movie stars (spot Sky from Mamma Mia) 

next day we went to Universal Studios - WWWooOOOwwWWWW!*!!!*

on the way back we stopped at Griffiths Park to get a good view of Los Angeles

and dad got a ticket for not parking straight or the right way round

our last day in LA was spent at the seaside in Santa Monica and Venice Beach

we went to the pier

and mum videoed a singer 

then bought his CD

Venice Beach was great, interesting and a bit scary - there are lots of people living on the beach, the street, begging, making and selling stuff as well as people (and their dogs) jogging, cycling, skating and exercising on the beach.

Next day Jay and Martha locked themselves in the bedroom. when we finally got them out we packed the car and set off on our way back to San Francisco, first stop Morro Bay.