Day 18 – Pacific Costal Highway

Its been another long day of driving but wih extra ordinary views. We continued following route 1 up the coast to 20 miles south of San Francisco.

First stop of the day was Hearst Castle. Set high up in the hills the building is one man’s expensive and eclectic mix of architecture, decor and antiquities. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to hang around for the 2 hour tour so we took a few distant pictures and perused the customary gift shop. The saved time was used to enjoy lunch on the first Pacific beach I’ve been on. Strange to thin I was paddling in the Atlantic a few days ago!

Next stop was a beach with an area for viewing the resident Elephant seals. These beasties are huge, make loud belching noises, lay around the beach and smell – a bit like some of the locals I’ve met!

The remainder of route 1 to Monterrey was twisty and rolling leaving our Chrysler Sebring struggling in places. I was really beginning to miss the Nissan we had last week.

Our run of bad luck continues with motels even though this time we’re in a decent looking inn. After being settling in for the evening we round an infestation of bed bugs. We moved rooms and deeted the beds but it leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling, especially as we’d hoped to stay here for another night.

The plan for the next couple of days is to commute into the city via Metro and do some sight seeing.