Given excellent advice on traveling south on Freeway 1 which is the road right along the coast of the Pacific - bit like the great Ocean Road in Aus but a lot longer and closer to the water, it really is a suberp road with very little traffic so you can stop whenerever you want to. Went through Silicone Valley which I always thought was a fantasy name!! and it was gorgeous. Several small towns which were perfect. Stayed in Montery for a few days which has a great history and was a fabulous place - really loved it. From there went over to Carmel which was absolutely picture perfect. A very wealthy place with Art galleries and antique shops, grass perfectly cut, town immaculately clean, pretty little hansel & gretal shop buildings but no Clint Eastwood! Moved on from there down the coast which was a superb drive. Scenery outstanding and weather wonderful and stopped just North of Santa Barbara. That was to be my next stopover and exploring place but looked in the meantime for somewhere to stop, bought myself a sandwich and holed up for the night. The place and the sandwich were excellent so I decided to look up the company that made them and I am so glad I did. I met a very like minded lady who showed me around (bit smaller than us) and invited me to stay. I had a great time with them - they were so hospitable and generous and could actually understand my accent!! Course just had to get involved with sandwich making!! Even I saw the funny side of that but enjoyed be part of it all. Maybe we can become partners!!! She lived in a gorgeous house right on the Ocean and spent a lot of time showing me around. Definately one of the best times in California.