We are now in Pacifica on the coast just a few miles outside San Francisco.

This morning we drove into Half Moon Bay village and strolled around some of the shops and galleries. We saw this beautiful mosaic on the outside wall of one gallery.


South of the town we walked up to an overlook of Half Moon Bay by the side of the Ritz Carlton Hotel golf course.


At the north end of Half Moon Bay, at Pillar Point which is a working harbour with fishing boats as well as leisure craft, we walked along the wharf and saw people buying seafood directly from the fishermen on the boats.

On the other side of the headland we stopped, climbed down to the beach and spent some more time relaxing in the sunshine.

This beach is famous for its strong waves and in winter professional surfers come here to ride the 40 foot waves.

Approaching Pacifica the road cuts through hills in an area called Devils Fall because the land has collapsed into the ocean. They are in the process of creating tunnels through the hillside to bypass this hazardous section of the road but the views are dramatic.

As we travelled down the hills into Pacifica the scenery changed dramatically and we drove through these eucalyptus groves.

The hotel in Pacifica is just on the edge of this beach.

We have only travelled a short distance up the coast but had a very full day, seeing lots of things but still having time to relax on the beach. Unfortunately Glenys broke a piece off a tooth this morning, so we will have to spend part of tomorrow looking for a local dentist.

We are now in Half Moon Bay, still by the coast.

This morning we drove through forests back into Santa Cruz to visit the Boardwalk which is celebrating its centerery this year. It has one of the oldest wooden roller-coasters in the world.



We came upon this competition on the beach with many teams from all over California. Each tems did a two minute turn with dancing, balancing and gymnastics. Families watched from the boardwalk and the beach and cheered VERY loudly.


We moved on to the wharf (pier) and underneath on the wooden supports were lots of sea lions honking loudly.

Half way down the wharf we discovered the 10th Annual Thunderbird Car Show was taking place with models from the early 50's to more recent times.

In the afternoon we drove to Natural Bridges State Beach to relax and enjoy the ocean.

As we drove north we saw this strange sight. More than 40 kite surfers had taken over this beach and were skimming across the waves at great speed.

This is an important pumpkin growing area and we passed many displays on the side of the road including this one next to our hotel.

We have had an interesting day seeing and taking part in many of the activities enjoyed by the local people as part of their weekend.

We are now at Scotts Valley, just inland from Santa Cruz.

This morning we drove to Marina State Beach to explore the largest sand dunes on the coast. Part of the route was on sand and part on a boardwalk. It is a conservation area with quite a few endangered species.


This is the beach species of the Indian Paintbrush which is able to colonise large areas of bare sand.


This is a Californian Poppy and we were only able to find this example in the whole of our walk.

Now we are further north we are seeing the first signs of Autumn.

In the afternoon we visited Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park and walked the circular path around an area of giant redwood trees. We had forgotten how big they really are and how dark it is underneath them. Some of these trees are getting on for 2,000 years old.

Today has been a cooler and cloudier day so was a good time to walk some of the trails.

We are in Marina for the second day.

This morning we drove into Monterey past Fishermans Wharfe to Cannery Row. John Steinbeck made the area famous with his novel 'Cannery Row' based on the characters working in the sardine fishing and canning industries.

At the end of Cannery Row one of the old canning factories now houses the renowned Monterey Bay Aquarium. One huge three-story tank holds a kelp forest and the fish that would live in and around it. Twice a day a diver enters the tank to give a feeding show and information about the fish.

Everyone loved the playful and cute California sea otters.

The largest tank is the 'Outer Bay' exhibit which shows the fish from that area including sharks, tuna, barracuda and this strange thousand pound sun fish.

In the 'Jellies Gallery' were marvellous jelly fish which constantly pulse and drift in the largest exhibits of their kind in the world. We had no idea that they existed in such a range of colours, sizes and varities.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

After walking the length of Cannery Row we followed 17-Mile Drive, a scenic tour around the coastal peninsula. One of the most well-known landmarks is 'The Lone Cypress' which has lived on this small rock for more than 250 years.

These sand dune plants, Heather Lupine, seem to form a waterfall over these rocks.

When the trees die they are bleached white by the wind and sea spray.

On the final part of The 17-Mile Drive we passed Pebble Beach golf course, venue for four US Open Championships. This is a photo of the 18th green.

1972 - winner Jack Nicklaus

1982 - winner Tom Watson

1992 - winner Tom Kite

2000 - winner Tiger Woods
It is a public course and anyone can play, but the daily rate is $500.

http://www.pebblebeach.com/

We had a lovely day today with interesting places to visit and a relaxing drive around the coast. We even did some shopping at Pebble Beach Golf Shop.

We are now in the small town of Marina, just north of Monterey.

Just a few miles out of San Simeon we pulled into a view point and saw lots of elephant seals in the water.

We were setting out on the 90 miles up Highway 1 which are considered to provide some of the best costal scenery in the USA. These are some of the views we saw along the route.

http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2301/

We took a break at Nepenthe Cafe which had a sun deck with these views of the mountains, the coast and Highway 1.

The road dropped to sea level at some points and the sand dunes were covered with these dark red plants. The sand here is very fine and white.

This is Bixby Bridge, famous for being the longest single-span concrete bridge in the world, built in 1932.

At the end of this scenic route is Monterey Bay with its beautiful deep aquamarine water.

We had been told by many people that we would see spectacular scenery today but nevertheless we were overwhelmed on many ocassions by the views and amazed by the variety of landscapes.

This is our second day in San Simeon.

This morning we set off for Hearst Castle and arrived at the Visitors' Centre well in time to see the IMAX film about its creation before we began our tour. It was built on the top of a hill with only a twisting five mile track leading up from the coast. Everything had to be hauled up from the bottom.
http://www.hearstcastle.org/



Here are some pictures that we took during the tour showing the Spanish/Italian style architecture. Hearst was influenced in this direction by a European tour that he took with his mother when he was ten years old but was in his late fifties when he began to create this place in a spot where he had enjoyed camping as a boy.

For ten years, up to 1941, Hearst had a zoo at San Simeon and the descendents of some of the zebras still live wild on the estate.

Later in the afternoon we visited Cambria, home to many artists, art galleries and boutiques, and then we followed Moonstone Drive to the nearby beach. We found that there was a boardwalk, with lots of friendly creatures like this ground squirrel.

We climbed down steps to the beach and were able to get close to this colony of harbour seals basking in the warm late afternoon sunshine.

Even the seaweed is colourful along this rugged shore with big ocean waves rolling in.

Today has been a day of contrasts, seeing something totally manmade and then seeing the natural features and animals of this beautiful coast.