According to the Palomar Inn's website they are located in Pismo Beach, but in actual fact they are in Shell Beach, which is where we spent our third night. I would move there in a heartbeat. The bay is lovely, the houses are gorgeous, and everything is immaculate. I shudder to think what any residents of Shell Beach would think of New Zealand if they were enticed there by the 100% Pure campaign! Shell Beach really is 100% Pure - we didn't see so much as a toothpick in terms of rubbish, not even a thought of tagging, and all the front yards of the houses go out of their way to outdo each other in Home & Garden design. If you tried that at home, everything you put out would be stolen in the night. It was sad to
have to leave and continue on northwards.
We took the CA-1 north, that hugs the Pacific coast line, rather than the 101 north, whichis a big ugly road with too many lanes. The drive was spectacular; a winding little road that went up and down some veeery stepp hills, with stunning views across the ocean. At San Simeon we followed a sign to Hearst Castle, which sounded interesting, and grudgingly parted with $24 each for a one and a half hour tour.
WOW!!!! It was worth 10 times the price. The Castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, and rivalled, if not exceeded, many of the castles I saw in Europe and the U.K. I took dozens of photos, and also purchased two books as we couldn't possibly remember everything our guide, Eric, told us in an hour and a half.
More photos from Hearst Castle.
Continuing on, we pulled off the road not much later because when you see a sign that says "Elephant Seals", well, you just have to. Check out their photos here.
Google maps assured us the drive from Shell Beach to San Francisco via the coast road would take 5 hours and 10 minutes. Seven and a half hours later we finally made it, in the dark, and the rain. The only rain, however, that we have had so far - that night in San Fran.
The next morning we walked about two hours to get to Thomas Cook Currency Exchange. I had taken out $500 in cash in New Zealand, and was going to change it at Auckland Airport when I thought, why not change in at LAX? You get a better exchange rate in the foreign country - at that stage the rate was .76 in New Zealand and .82 in the USA. LAX offered .70! Dodgy buggers. So, I thought, I'll wait till Monday and change it at the bank. Ha! You can't exchange foreign currency at the banks in the USA, unless you have an American account for them to put the money in. So, I was cashless. Now, while one can survive quite well at home without cash by putting everyting on the EFTPOS card, it doesn't work in the States where you have to leave $1 and $5 notes all over the place for housekeepers, waiters, valets, busboys etc. It was sooooo good to finally get some greenbacks, and not have to keep borrowing off Mum.
From there we headed for Telegraph Hill, where the wild parrots that I have wanted to meet for many years had headed off to another part of the city for the day. Wasn't happy about that. We did watch them putting a new elevator in to the top of Coit Tower using a crane with a 200 foot reach - that was something pretty special. Descending the other side, we once again encountered helpful yet geographically challenged Americans who tried to get us back to our hotel in a direction that even we knew was wrong, so we opted for a cab instead.
More photos from San Francisco.
The next day, it was back on the road to Santa Rosa, again chosing the coastal route rather than the 101, this one known as the Shoreline Highway, and yes it was. At times the water was only feet away. Another beautiful drive.
On Thursday Mum's sister, and my Aunt, Jackie (who Mum met a few years ago for the first time, and I had never met) drove over from Sonoma (where she lives) and took us for an awesome full day tour of San Francisco and the surrounding counties. We had lunch at Scoma's on Fisherman's Wharf, where we received a meal for $75 that would cost around $200 (at least) at Harbourside back home.
Today we started off domestically, heading to WalMart first up. Mum was taking a photo of me in the carpark with the WalMart sign behind, when a lovely man driving by said "Do you want a photo of both of you?" We said yes, he obliged, asked where we were from, and when we said New Zealand he said "No way, get out of here!" He coaches the Santa Rosa High School basketball team and about seven months ago they received a Kiwi kid on a scholarship - and we remembered seeing the news item about it on TV3 back home. Small world. Gave him some Kiwi stickers, and he was beside himself with delight.
Walmart was sooooooooooo cheap - Americans must DIE when they come to NZ and see the price of everything. I wish I could have filled up a container to take back home. Just ridiculously cheap. From there we drove up to Sonoma and spent a lovely few hours wandering around, and having lunch at a Himilayan restaurant where they served real food at normal sized portions -brilliant!
And that pretty much brings us up to date. Probably not very wittily or excitingly - this is a bit of a drab post, but I really am too tired to write anything more than "We did this, we did that." Maybe I can catch some zzzzzzzz's in Vegas and get back to writing something that is interesting to read.
WOW!!!! It was worth 10 times the price. The Castle was built by William Randolph Hearst, and rivalled, if not exceeded, many of the castles I saw in Europe and the U.K. I took dozens of photos, and also purchased two books as we couldn't possibly remember everything our guide, Eric, told us in an hour and a half.
More photos from Hearst Castle.
Continuing on, we pulled off the road not much later because when you see a sign that says "Elephant Seals", well, you just have to. Check out their photos here.
Google maps assured us the drive from Shell Beach to San Francisco via the coast road would take 5 hours and 10 minutes. Seven and a half hours later we finally made it, in the dark, and the rain. The only rain, however, that we have had so far - that night in San Fran.
The next morning we walked about two hours to get to Thomas Cook Currency Exchange. I had taken out $500 in cash in New Zealand, and was going to change it at Auckland Airport when I thought, why not change in at LAX? You get a better exchange rate in the foreign country - at that stage the rate was .76 in New Zealand and .82 in the USA. LAX offered .70! Dodgy buggers. So, I thought, I'll wait till Monday and change it at the bank. Ha! You can't exchange foreign currency at the banks in the USA, unless you have an American account for them to put the money in. So, I was cashless. Now, while one can survive quite well at home without cash by putting everyting on the EFTPOS card, it doesn't work in the States where you have to leave $1 and $5 notes all over the place for housekeepers, waiters, valets, busboys etc. It was sooooo good to finally get some greenbacks, and not have to keep borrowing off Mum.
From there we headed for Telegraph Hill, where the wild parrots that I have wanted to meet for many years had headed off to another part of the city for the day. Wasn't happy about that. We did watch them putting a new elevator in to the top of Coit Tower using a crane with a 200 foot reach - that was something pretty special. Descending the other side, we once again encountered helpful yet geographically challenged Americans who tried to get us back to our hotel in a direction that even we knew was wrong, so we opted for a cab instead.
More photos from San Francisco.
The next day, it was back on the road to Santa Rosa, again chosing the coastal route rather than the 101, this one known as the Shoreline Highway, and yes it was. At times the water was only feet away. Another beautiful drive.
On Thursday Mum's sister, and my Aunt, Jackie (who Mum met a few years ago for the first time, and I had never met) drove over from Sonoma (where she lives) and took us for an awesome full day tour of San Francisco and the surrounding counties. We had lunch at Scoma's on Fisherman's Wharf, where we received a meal for $75 that would cost around $200 (at least) at Harbourside back home.
Today we started off domestically, heading to WalMart first up. Mum was taking a photo of me in the carpark with the WalMart sign behind, when a lovely man driving by said "Do you want a photo of both of you?" We said yes, he obliged, asked where we were from, and when we said New Zealand he said "No way, get out of here!" He coaches the Santa Rosa High School basketball team and about seven months ago they received a Kiwi kid on a scholarship - and we remembered seeing the news item about it on TV3 back home. Small world. Gave him some Kiwi stickers, and he was beside himself with delight.
Walmart was sooooooooooo cheap - Americans must DIE when they come to NZ and see the price of everything. I wish I could have filled up a container to take back home. Just ridiculously cheap. From there we drove up to Sonoma and spent a lovely few hours wandering around, and having lunch at a Himilayan restaurant where they served real food at normal sized portions -brilliant!
And that pretty much brings us up to date. Probably not very wittily or excitingly - this is a bit of a drab post, but I really am too tired to write anything more than "We did this, we did that." Maybe I can catch some zzzzzzzz's in Vegas and get back to writing something that is interesting to read.
More photos from Sonoma and Santa Rosa.
You would have to be the first person in the entire history of the human race to actually be looking forward to Vegas for quality sleep!
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