Santa Barbara and Big Sur

PCH Day 2: As we arrived quite late in Santa Barbara last night, we decided to spend the morning looking around. After breakfast we took a couple of bikes (the hotel provided them, we didn't steal them!) and spent an hour or so cycling around the city. What a fabulous place! I now know where I would like to retire to if a) I was a U.S. citizen and b) I had loads of money. The beach is great, the city is lovely and very un-American, almost Spanish looking. We could have stayed a few days there easily. We had a bit of a paddle in the Pacific Ocean and a walk along the beach, then we got back on the road at about lunchtime. After a short trip up in to the mountains to see the view over Santa Barbara, we got back on the 101 and made tracks for Morro Bay, where we are now. We spent the evening wandering along the harbour front watching the sunset, then grabbed a superb bite to eat in an eatery called the Brickhouse BBQ. Superb barbecued meat, with the best pulled pork and beef/steak we have had for a long time. Tomorrow we head up the coast to Monterey Bay - we can't wait to see the coastline along Big Sur.

PCH Day 3: To paraphrase the Fast Show, today we were mostly travelling through the most amazing scenery you could ever see! The Big Sur coastline: 80-odd miles of spectacular coastline - I'm sure the photos we took don't do it justice but they will give you an idea, and those who have seen it will know exactly what I'm talking about. We've seen more wildlife today too - elephant seals on Elephant Seal Beach, near San Simeon, and we ended the day watching a few sea otters feeding in Monterey harbour. Fantastic! We popped in to see Cambria and the fairly weird Nitt Witt Ridge, a house that seems to have been built from scrap materials by an artist (can't remember his name); we saw Hearst Castle from a distance but were not able to get on a tour, it being Saturday and very busy; Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park - absolutely stunning; and Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Clint Eastwood lives and used to be Mayor; before finishing up in Monterey, which is a lovely town right next to Carmel, but a bit more down to earth and less "twee". Pebble Beach golf course is just round the corner. It is unseasonably hot weather apparently, it's been in the low 90s for a lot of the day - bummer!