Padre Oaks Hotel Monterey

... to shop much. But still it was fun to get out a bit!

Well Wish us luck on our next passage. This is the longest one that I have done so far and nearly the longest passage the boat has done. it is 400 miles from Monterey to San Diego and I don't think we will be stopping - provided we get decent winds it should take us around 4 days. I hope Mr. Roboto is up for the challenge (knock on wood)!

... were hardly any people there, we were oftentimes all alone! The beach was pristine, and the rock formations impressive. It is difficult to argue with such art created by nature. Most interesting was the sand.... it was purple!!!

I could have stayed at the beach forever, but we had to move on eventually, where our next stop was the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State ...

Waking up in the middle of the redwoods in the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park was really something else. We had a nice shady spot, and were greeted to streaks of sunlight peeking through the giant redwoods. Awesome!

We headed for brunch at Cafe Kevah, along Highway 1, which is also ...

... But what on earth was going on??? There were several fire engines, ambulances, police vehicles and even a helicopter! We continued further down to another turn-off where we could see the Bixby Bridge from afar. Naturally, this is where most of the other cars stopped as well. A man was watching the activity with his binoculars, and according to him, a van went over the cliff just there, before the Bixby Bridge and what we were seeing was the end of the rescue effort. Oh my goodness ...

We went to Point Lobos State Reserve, not knowing much, except that there are plenty of sea lions in residence. However, we found out at the park entrance that sea otters are also in residence! So it became our mission to spot some sea otters.

We walked the Sea Lion trail, the trail at Whaler's Cove, the Cypress Grove trail and started the Bird Island Trail, without any luck. Shucks! I ...

We left Mike and Sharron after breakfast at their local restaurant.  Again we had had a great time with them and it was sad to leave.   They had recommended that we stopped off at Nepenthe for a coffee so we headed off to San Francisco via Route 1

What a view (for me as Ian had to keep an eye on the driving).  Cyclists and joggers were successfully challenging the route.  We were overtaken by about 30 octogenarian Harley freaks, this road rocks.  We found ...

... Landschaftsvariationen. Leid** hatten wir heute we***** Glück mit dem Wett** direkt am Me** (kurios** Weise war das Wett** ein Paar hund**t Met** weit** im Landesinn**en bombe), denn es war sehr neblig. Auf dies** Route lag das schöne, typisch kalifornische Küstenstädtchen Santa Barbara, unweit entf**nt von L.A.. Hi** v ...

... May 22 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas May 23 Drive to Flagstaff, AZ Flagstaff & SedonaMay 24-26Exploring the New Age in Flagstaff and Sedona, Meteor Crater, Energy Vortexes, gila bend solar project TusconMay 27-June 2 Volunteer: No More ...

... the sea otters which are a whale of a time! We also enjoyed a good long seafood lunch at the fisherman's wharf...very touristy but the fish is quite good in any case and the prices not that bad. Anyway, we will probably spend a few days in the woods from tomorrow onwards, so don't expect updates until next Friday or so. We will be hiking around Yosemite National Park. Cheerio

I am currently sitting in a hotel lobby at 8am in the morning watching the last day of the Premiership football on the internet - pressing refresh every five minutes - whilst Lou is still in bed recovering from a knackering week, not sure who is missing out, but come on Everton. The week has been brilliant, but exhausting - we seem to be walking everywhere and probably have done 10 miles a day minimum at the moment. We arrived in San Francisco after a pretty cool flight on BA from ...