We woke up today and got ready to head off again, and after a quick chat with everyone we got in the car and followed them down the street.
The five of us (Taylor, Eric and Rainie) went to a little cafe called Porch and ordered some coffees, and breakfast for Darren and I.
We drank our coffees and had a chat with the guys until our food was ready, then we had to say our goodbyes and get back on the road.
But at least it's not too long until we'll get to catch up in Australia!!
I started the days driving today and we headed off inland a little bit to head back down to the highway.
As we turned onto Highway 101, the song on the radio said the lyrics "getting back on the 101".
I'm not even kidding. The radio has just been creepily accurate this trip!!
We weren't on the 101 very long before we exited to get down to the coast road, which was now Highway 1.
On the road between the two highways we were driving through a little bit of wine country and some very pretty rolling hills.
After a quick photo stop we got onto the coast road.
Our first stop for the day was a place called Piedras Blancas where there was a lookout over the beach and rocks and water where there were a whole bunch of elephant seals just chilling on the beach!
Some of the males were showing off and fighting each other in the water trying to impress the ladies, but most of them were just soaking up the sun on the sand.
We spent some time watching the seals then jumped back in the car.
The petrol was getting pretty low, and we were thinking we should have filled up before we left...
So we kept driving along the coast and came to a petrol station/tourism/hotel area to fill up.
It took us a while trying to find the button for the fuel cover, and we ended up having to ask the guys in the store!
Embarrassingly enough, we only had to push on the cover...
So anyway, we filled the car up and when paying for it, we bought some beer and found some stickers for the guitar case then headed back to the car.
There was a young couple sitting on a bench, who looked like absolute hippies, holding a cardboard sign. We thought they might have been looking for a lift so we went over for a chat.
Their sign was basically asking for any help (a ride, food, drinks or money), but they were heading south so we couldn't help them with that.
The guy asked for a beer, which we gave him, then we said bye and headed back to the car.
They were nice enough, even if they were a bit crazy!
From here the road turned absolutely beautiful as we entered the region known as the Big Sur.
This is an area of California that reminded us a lot of the Great Ocean Road at home, with cliffs on one side and the ocean on the other, and stunning scenery everywhere.
We stopped at a few different places for photos (including a pretty bridge) and stopped at a cafe for a bathroom break.
The cafe was half art gallery and half cafe, with a pretty view and cool ornaments for sale everywhere.
There were these really cool percussion instruments which looked like a pretty ornamental box with slits cut into the top in tongue-like shapes, which had beautiful tones when hit with a mallet.
When I came out of the bathroom Darren had found them and was playing around with them. I gave him the "we-just-bought-a-ubass-yesterday-there s-no-way-we're-buying-a-tongue-drum" look, and after playing it for a few minutes we left the shop and got back in the car.
A little further up Highway 1 we came across the picturesque Bixby Bridge and pulled over for some photos.
It was so pretty with the cliffs and the ocean and the bridge all working together to make my eyes happy!
After a little stop there and a bunch of photos, we kept heading up the coast.
We tried to stop at the next place, Pfeiffer Beach, but the carpark was full down there and the rangers at the top were turning cars back.
It would be about a 40 minute walk down as well so we just kept driving, as we had a time limit to get to San Francisco and return the car.
We hit some more traffic around Monterey as we headed back towards the 101.
Once we were on there, it was quite an easy run with the traffic, and we actually made pretty good time getting into the city. A very welcome change from LA!
As we got into the city, we stopped at a petrol station to fill up before heading in to the rental returns. Darren drove the rest of the way, as it was his name on the hire, so we wouldn't get charged an extra fee.
The returns was in a parking garage, so we drove up to the Alamo section, parked and cleaned everything out of it. It's amazing how spread out all our things were in just two days!
We sorted that, grabbed our bags and walked down the street a few blocks to our hotel.
We were checked in by a nice Russian girl then went up to our room for a shower and some wifi, then thought we'd better go get some food before we got too comfortable and it got too late!
As it was, most things were closing, so we wandered around a while then just ended up going to a late night diner called Mel's Drive-In where we got some ok food, then headed back to the room for some sweet sleep!