Part Six - Pacific Highway

After our few days in San Francisco the last part of our journey was the road to LA, the pacific highway, with numerous stops along the way.

The first destination after leaving the city was Monterey. We arrived around 6ish and headed to the local trader joes for some food. After getting a little lost and finally getting back to the motel, we spent the evening eating and watching tv before bed. The next day we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the Monterey Aquarium, which is apparently one of the best in the world and it didn't disappoint. There were lots of different things there to see, sharks, jellyfish, manta rays, sea otters etc. we also managed to watch the penguin feed which was cool. After the aquarium we headed back to the town, via trader joes, for dinner and to chill out for the evening. The next day we travelled further down the coast. After leaving Monterey and driving on the highway for a bit, we eventually got to the coastal road. To say the views were scenic would be an understatement. There were impressive views around every corner, with numerous viewpoints along the way, allowing us to stop and take it all in. The road followed the coast twisting along the cliff side. There was one last viewpoint before we stopped for the day. This was a beach which, for a certain amount of time each year, gets completely overrun by elephant seals. This was very cool to see them in the wild, although all they seem to do was sunbathe and wrestle each other. Not long after, we reached our stop for the night in Morro Bay. This was a nice little town on the coast. After wandering around looking for a restaurant to eat, we eventually found one which could cater for both of needs, and also over looked the water where more seals could be seen and heard. 

The next day we left Morro Bay and continued along route 1 towards Santa Barbara. We took a detour around lunchtime for some food on the sea front in Pismo Beach. After a walk along the pier, we were back on the road, although still making sure we stopped along the way to admire the views. We arrived in Santa Barbara around 2ish and after checking in to our motel, we headed out for a walk along the beach. The weather was nice and the beach was very tropical with palm trees lining the road along the front. We walked along the beach, onto the pier and through the town before getting some food and heading back to the motel. 

Our last day with our car was spent making our way back to LA. We had to try and return the car as close to empty as possible so decided to drive to our hostel to drop off our bags first. After taking the wrong exit off the freeway, driving for an hour through heavy traffic on the wrong road, we eventually found our way to Hermosa Beach. We checked in, dropped our bags off and made our way back towards Thrifty at LAX, to bring an end to our road trip, which has been one of the best experiences of our trip so far. However we weren't quite done in America. We still had a few days to spend in Los Angeles.