Chapter 2 – Highway 1 – LA to San Fran

After a late start, we say goodbye to LA and make our way onto the famous Highway 1 to spend the next three days driving up to San Francisco. This highway up the coast is reputed to be one of the most beautiful coastal drives and it doesn’t let us down.

As we drive, we quickly pass through Santa Barbara and Malibu and spend our first night in a place called San Luis Obisbo, a small university town. 

Outdoor pool

On day two we head to Hearst Castle, which was built by the billionaire media mogul William Randolph Hearst (on who the movie Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is based. Orson Welles was apparently a very creative man, he created a radio program in the 30’s called “The War of the Worlds” based on H.G. Wells novel of the same name. He ran this show on Halloween and led a lot of listeners to believe that a Martian invasion of Earth was underway!). This place is truly a castle and worth a visit. It was the hangout of loads of movie stars back in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s and was never completed. It was also not his only house. If your keen check out http://www.hearstcastle.org/ .

Indoor pool

After Hearst Castle we continue up the coast at drive along the stretch known as the Big Sur. The Big Sur is one of the main reasons for Highway 1 being so famous and it lives up to our name. It’s a great drive with beautiful vistas, big bridges, sea lions and a lot of other tourists doing the same thing we are. Lesson 4 for us Kiwi’s, the touristy things are far busier in bigger countries like the US then they ever are back home. 

We overnight in Carmel, a small town about 2 hours from San Fran, also home to the world famous (or so we are told) Pebble Beach golf course. We had a great night at a middle-eastern restaurant there and were treated to an impromptu show when the head chef, a very charismatic man, picked up his oud and with everyone singing along invited all the young ladies to get up and dance, including Esther of course. They were so impressed that they offered me 50 camels for her. I considered it but after some careful consideration decided I had nowhere to put 50 camels from Carmel. 

So the next day we continued together up the coast to San Francisco!