DRIVING CALIFORNIA ROUTE 1 - THE PCH DAY 9: The PCH coastal drive; San Luis Obispo to San Francisco via Big Sur and Carmel Today was going to be a long drive, but hopefully a nice one from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco. We had plenty of time to do it and plenty to see along the way. Or so we thought! For a lot of the journey we had thick, low-lying fog along the coast but there were enough breaks to still make it the fabulous drive it is and the roads a n...

WATCHING THE SURFERS RIDE THE HIGH ROLLERS AT PISMO BEACH DAY 8: Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo We decided that we should maximise beach time today as this will be the last opportunity for a good 10 days, so Pismo Beach was our target, about 10 miles south of San Luis Obispo. Before breakfast we decided to look for accommodation in Yosemite National Park - our destination after San Francisco. The first and most centrally located accommodation we checked was Cu...

SLO FANNY WRAPPERS DAY 7: Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo, via Santa Maria After trying to book some accommodation for San Francisco on the slowest internet machine ever (I ended up phoning them), we left Santa Barbara and headed up Route 101 to San Luis Obispo - our base for the next two nights. I can see why people rate the California coastal drive so much; the views are just so amazing. And add the sunshine, clear blue skies and some classic all-American...

"WHY LIE? NEED BEER" DAY 6: Santa Barbara After a couple of hours researching the next few days, we headed down to the beach again, just in case the sun did a disappearing act on us. It's been great to just chill in the sun as there was a danger of not relaxing with so much to pack into our three weeks in the US. California has the most honest tramps I've ever seen. I went for a walk on the pier and some homeless guy had laid out his blanket with some coins ...

TIME TO START WORK ON THE TAN DAY 5: Santa Barbara Today there were no clouds in the sky so we hit the beach with one aim - chillaxing. We spent the first few hours reading, listening to the iPod and generally enjoying the sun and the lack of people on the beach. It's amazing how quick time goes when you're doing nothing. Soon enough it was time for lunch. We headed to the Natural Cafe in search of some fruit, vegetables or something vaguely healthy. Cue a sa...