Highway 1

Monterey was quite touristy, and Cannery Row very much so, 

although they had restored the Pacific Biological Laboratory where the real-life Ed Ricketts (Doc Ricketts in Steinbeck's books) and Steinbeck's best friend worked. Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was mayor for a while) was twee houses and expensive shops.  But the Point Lobos Reserve just south was wonderful, 

with harbour seals, Californian sea-lions, sea-birds, flowers and trees - not to be missed.  The John Steinbeck Centre in Salinas was also well worth the visit - must read his books again when we get them out of the attic!

Highway 1 south along the coast 

passes through Big Sur, and we stopped to walk a few trails through coastal redwoods - very tall!  

Learned that the Sierra Nevada sequoias are a different species (shorter and fatter) from the coastal redwoods, also a sequoia.  Also saw some Californian condors which are being successfully reintroduced by the Ventana Wildlife Society.

Had booked a motel in a place called San Simeon near Hearst Castle, and when we arrived discovered that it was a community of motels and nothing else!  Having seen the choice of motels we thought it was going to be a big town - but not.   On the way we passed a huge colony of elephant seals - impressively big even though all the mature males were back at sea.  Brought back memories of my time in the Antarctic.

  Anyway, Hearst Castle (built by William Randolph Hearst) was suitably opulent

 in a stunning position surrounded by lush hills and overlooking the ocean.

Heading further south we stopped in San Luis Obispo where we learned that the 'San Luis' was the Saint Louis who was a bishop of Toulouse.  The Spanish had set up 21 missions in the late 18th century to try and claim California before the Brits, Russians and US, so most of the San somethings are old missions.

So on to Santa Barbara where we have one night for the price of two.  Another irritation of America is that they really whack up their accommodation prices at the weekend, and Santa Barbara is fairly expensive to start with.  But really like the town it's pretty, Spanish, clean and there's good Spanish history around,

with a good history museum - but there's also the beach and a lovely harbour filled with loads of flashy boats!  All the way from Monterey there have been coastal fogs and clouds mixed in with the sunshine: because it's only May the ocean is still cold and the mountains are really close to the sea so generate their own weather

 but it mostly burns off by lunchtime although there is often a stiff breeze.