Driving up the West Coast of the USA

Have gone from this...

View from Havaika Pearl Guest House beach bungalow

...to this...

View from Best Western - Pismo Beach

Travelling up the coast in California.  Arrived on Monday morning - and after about 2hrs of queuing to get through immigration and customs, we finally made it to the rental car place by about 10am.

Swung through Hollywood on our way out of LA - back to a big city and Nick wanted to escape as soon as possible.  Managed to miss taking a picture of the Hollywood sign...

Not the Hollywood sign

...but got a taste of our first big American meal - breakfast at a cafe on Sunset Boulevard.

However, we did manage to get as far as Santa Barbara in time to catch a couple of tasting rooms before closing time on Monday afternoon and enjoyed a chat to a few people and a few good wines.

Dinner on the pier at a sea food place - Santa Barbara Shellfish Company - clam chowder and crab cakes.

After sitting up for most of the night with ear ache - we went looking for a pharmacy on Tuesday morning for some advice.  Looks like I might have picked up an ear infection in Tahiti.

But we did manage to drive north in the afternoon, caught a tasting at the Gainey Vineyard around lunch and had a picnic in the sunshine afterwards.  After getting a motel for the night, we also made tasting at two of the tasting rooms in Solvang as well.

Another vineyard on Wednesday morning, then back to Solvang's Farmers' Market and then a drive up Highway 101 to Pismo Beach.

Enjoyed a slap-down meal - literally the food is emptied out on the table in front of you - at the Cracked Crab.

Loads of food...

Half eaten bucket of two types of crab and crawdads

...and very trendy bibs to wear.

Nick in a crab bib