As soon as the plane came to a stop, I got up and started getting our bags down... Which is something that really annoys me and I don't understand why people do it. Guess they're tired of sitting down.
But this time I had to. Our flight from Lisbon to Madrid landed with some delay and we had to run for our lives to make sure we'd get to the San Francisco flight on time. Traveling is great, but the whole flying experience is terrible. We lost the glamour of once and turned it into buses with wings.
This past summer we took the kids to California, landing in San Francisco, driving down the coast all the way to Los Angeles and back. 2000 km in total, phew...
Santa Cruz
After our long flight from Lisbon to San Francisco, we picked our rental cars and drove to Santa Cruz, to stay at the Hyatt Place Santa Cruz and started with a dinner at Woodstock's Pizza.
On the first morning we drove north a bit, to visit Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It's very much worth the visit for it's amazing trees and trails. Even the drive up there was amazing through the deep woods.
We made our return to Santa Cruz via the Natural Bridges State Beach and then driving down the coastal road, passing by the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, which, looking back we should have visited. Instead, we made our way to the beach as the day was great and it's summer after all. But we were hungry and found ourselves at the Betty Burgers on Murray St. which proved much better than we anticipated.
After lunch we walked back to the Santa Cruz Beach, right in front of the Boardwalk Park and spent some time catching some sun, walking about and taking a few plunges. The waves were stronger than they seemed and sadly we found the sand to be somewhat dirty. Lots of algae and seaweed too.
We ended the afternoon at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where we had a lot of fun on the Giant Dipper and a few other rides. In all this excitement, we managed to miss the O'Neill Surf Shop. Duh! That evening we had dinner at Kianti's which wasn't memorable but not bad either.
Pfeiffer Beach, Carmel by the Sea, Monterey
The next morning we got an early rise and made our way south, all the way to Pfeiffer Beach. Can't say we were disappointed but it wasn't as impressive as it was "sold" on the magazine. The weather was not great and it was super windy.
"The beach is amazing, the water clear and the sand... well, it's a beach after all."Yeah, none of that. The water was covered with algae and the sand was littered with some trash and debris. The scenery resembles some beaches we have here in Portugal but I'd say ours are far more beautiful.
Next stop: Carmel by the Sea. Whoa! We love it!
It's a fairly small town but very very tidy and cute. Parking was a bit of a challenge but we ended up finding a parking place and had a wonderful lunch at the Carmel Burger Bar on Carmel Plaza. The restaurant was ok but what I won't forget is the fire pits in the outside area.
We spent some time walking about, checking some stores and just enjoying the day before we continued toMonterey. We did so by the coast, stopping on a couple of places to see the sea lions and then took the 17 Mile Drive to Monterey. The weather wasn't great by the ocean, very windy and cloudy, but we loved the drive by the coast.
Monterey did not disappoint either. We didn't have much time to spend there but we loved the Old Fisherman's Wharf so much we ended up having dinner at the Abalonetti Bar and Grill where we had some seafood which was nice but not unforgettable.
Next morning we only had time to revisit the shops street in Santa Cruz where we bought some cookies, visited the Rip Curl store and mentally prepared for the jump...
Santa Barbara, via Morro Bay and Pismo Beach
Our next stay would be Santa Barbara but since the drive was faily long we decided to take our time and made our way by Morro Bay and Pismo Beach.
Morro Bay was great. A bit of a short stop but the weather down here now felt like actual summer and the view was amazing. We had a quick lunch at Rose's Bar and Grill which was quite good, although I was starting to get tired of pizza or burger. Feeding five people for 10 days in the US requires a bit of spend management...
At Morro Bay we had another hiccup: one of our rental cars did not lock the doors. Which when you're driving with the trunk full of luggage is worrying. Driving back to San Francisco was not an option but we found a branch near Santa Barbara so decided we'd take the car there in the morning. We would not make it in time that day.
Pismo. Pismo Beach! What a magnificent surprise. Pismo is a beautiful beach, with a very long pier and a wonderful boardwalk, again full of joyrides. We didn't have time for more than a few minutes on the pier, watching the surfers and the sunset. But we promised we'd return on the way back.
Santa Barbara was my favorite stop. What a lovely place. We had a nice dinner at Paseo Nuevo (pasta/pizza/burger again) and the next day we started off with brunch at Jeannine's Restaurant & Bakery where we had some really delicious food. We walked all the way to the end of the Stearns Wharf and spent most of the rest of the afternoon on the beach.
PS: Forgot to say that the day started early with a drive to the Santa Barbara Airport to get a fix for the door locks. After a bit of persuading the reluctant employee, we managed to get a replacement car.
One of the goals of this trip was to Surf in USA. Didn't manage to find lessons in Santa Cruz (the weather and short stay didn't help much). Carmel/Monterey was also not welcoming for it. So here we found a surf school and managed to book a lesson for the next day (just before continuing to Santa Monica).
That day ended with a stroll on State St., ice cream at McConnell's Fine Ice Creams and an Apple Vision demo at the Apple Store and later dinner at Flor De Maiz, a mexican restaurant where we had an amazing meal, but the kids didn't eat much. When I was their age I'd also eat pasta/pizza/burgers rather than any other food.
Surfing! For me it was the peak of the trip. We drove to Santa Claus Beach to meet our intructors from Surf Happens, the weather was fantastic and the beach looked great. Six of us went surfing, most with no experience, and everyone love it.
To the end of our lesson time, a scout from another group started rowing outside and after a bit whistled and signaled with his hand what I believe was a shark alert. At least judging by the fact the summer camp school next to us all having gotten out of the water. We didn't. 🫣
Santa Monica
Universal, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, Venice Beach,The journey back
Malibu, where's the beach?!
Solvang, more ice cream
San Luis Obispo, Pismo is very close by