From San Fran to LA

No, not from New York to LA (we didn't have Patsy Gallant as a passenger) but here's some shots of our journey down the Californian coast on our recent-ish SF/LA trip! Lots of people had recommended taking Highway 1/the Pacific Coast Highway and this is what we did! It took over a day to get there - well, due to waiting in line at the car rental place we didn't depart SF until midday. We stopped over in Santa Barbara for the first night (remember the cheesy 80s soap?) then the next day set off for LA and we were there within a few hours. Here's the evidence...

Starting the long journey...I should add that Gustavo did all the driving while we there. In spite of my motoring "skills" I just felt too nervous about driving on the other side of the road and was worried I might take a turning and forget which side I was meant to be on...whereas to him it was all normal.

Have you ever driven past houses on the motorway/freeway and thought "Yuk, I'd hate to live there?" Quite nice places here actually but not such a nice vista and what about the noise...? Stating the obvious I know.

Love this great big US truck we passed...you don't get many like this over here. The map reflection is me attempting to navigate...

And here's the car we hired for our trip!! Did you know, the car hire company classed it as a "compact"?! I thought my Ford Focus car at home was big, but this took the biscuit. Americans' idea of "compact" is obviously vastly different to ours - but then as I've said elsewhere, everything over there is on a bigger scale. The car could have seated an entire family to be frank. Admittedly it drove very well and was tres comfortable (tons of leg room in the front). One thing that freaked Gu out to start with was the fact it was an automatic, which he'd never driven before (yanks don't "do" manual cars, at least not in vast quantities). However he soon got the knack.

A genuine Californian numberplate.

This was the first stop we made on the trip - Monterey. A bit desolate actually but maybe that's cos it was a weekday. Quite a lot of fishing going on...

Driving through the Californian hills...

Can you see the bridge in the distance? This was the "classic" part of Highway 1 that went on for miles and miles - the road ran very close to the sea/beach with great views. It was also kind of hair-raising in places though - very sharp bends with literal drops down to the sea which meant you really had to slow down - in places the speed limit was 25 mph or less. Most drivers were good at observing this though and I saw very little reckless driving. Thank the lord!

More coastal road views:

There were also several "vista points" where you could stop your car along the way, get out and just take in the scenery! Great stuff! At one vista point we happened upon a charming hippy couple and their friends who were very chatty - they insisted we posed with their "lucky cat" which they take with them wherever they visit:

Miaow!

And this is Santa Barbara, where we stayed the first night. A motel to be precise - we didn't really get to see the city itself properly as we didn't have time.

It really made me think of your classic US motels - all that was missing was Norman Bates. Probably a good thing...

I have to say our motel room was decidedly shabby/run down, but we were only staying one night and slumming it was part of the appeal. And the Fresh Prince of Bell Air was playing on TV...doesn't Will Smith look young?

A little further down the line we stopped at Malibu Beach - roughly 27 miles of beach to be exact! It's a preserved area and very unspoilt. Also loads of celebs and film stars live around here. At one point when trying to reach the beach we took a wrong turn and ended up in a "private residence" area - very impressive houses, though we sadly didn't run into any famous folk. Babs Streisand apparently has a huge compound somewhere around there. A pity we couldn't have dropped in for a nescafe, Matty would have been very jealous.

Some real US school buses! Like, wow!

We stopped and had a burger and chips here...

Some Malibu homes. Pity I didn't take more snaps...

Heading into Santa Monica...the weather got hotter and hotter the further we headed down the coast, yay. As much as I loved San Fran, a downside was the colder and sometimes foggy weather.

And finally we were at our destination - Santa Monica!

The Cheeser's Choice: Deceptions

I've got crapper and crapper at posting updates and I can only apologise.

However by way of recompense...

Do you remember "Deceptions", a mini series from the mid 1980s, based on the story of Stephanie and Sabrina, twin sisters who swap lives with "interesting" consequences...? Due to the original date of transmission - i.e. 1985 - only people of my generation are likely to recall it ...I've been watching the first ep on DVD tonight (a pirate version that I found and purchased on the net, but not bad quality nevertheless) and totally loving it!! It might help that this is Friday night, it's the end of the working week and I've had more than a few beers to compliment my viewing... But it's classic, deliciously indulgent cheese all the same. In fact, dare I say Stefanie "Jennifer Hart" Powers gives a damn good performance as the two sibling sisters in this...? If you wanna see more then just visit the other episodes posted by the self-same You Tuber!!

The opening sequence on the boat is an 80s classic...the Pointer Sisters (except it isn't if you listen carefully...must have been copyright issues), lots of boozed-up partygoers frugging wildly on the yacht (epitomising the height of 80s hedonism), Stef on the prow of the boat holding court....and then lots of naughtiness below decks resulting in...a bang of more than one variety.

I'M SO EXCITED....AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT!!!

The Cheeser's Choice: Mark Ronson and the Business INTL - Bang Bang Bang

I love this!! Yes, it came out a little while ago and as per usual I'm behind with the times, but who cares....!



The album cover is cool too:

More San Fran....

And now ladies and gents, I present ... the famously crooked section of Lombard Street! Amazing eh? And very pretty too, I hope you will agree. You may well recognise the location from a good few movies and shows, including What's Up Doc (a favourite of mine and Matty's). In the aforementioned film, there's a high speed car chase street down the ziggy zaggy street, however, in real life drivers are only permitted to drive down it at 5mph max! Much more sensible really... while we were there, the place was very popular with the tourists with people constantly snapping photos up and down the street. This led me to think what a pain in the a*se it must be to actually live in one of the houses there! A sight worth seeing, nevertheless.

Who's the blonde diva trying to get in on the action on the right? Honestly!

I love the bougainvillea growing on the side of this house on Lombard. SO pretty! It's very common in California and we also saw lots of it growing in the Hollywood hills. More on that later.

View from the top of the crooked street. That's San Francisco bay in the distance.

Just to prove I was actually there.

Me and my man, happy we made it to the top.

Now another well-known SF attraction: the Painted Ladies! Actually, to be precise the term "painted ladies" applies more generally to "Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings painted in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details", but the most famous of these in SF is the row of six abodes you can see in the pic above, close to Alamo Square. Gorgeous, aren't they? Again they've featured in a lot of media, I recall Glenn Close jogging past the houses with her backpack in "Maxie" for instance (nice location in an otherwise pretty dire movie).

Up close and personal... again the place was overrun with sightseers, some of whom this time were even bolder. I spotted a group of German girls who went up to the doors and windows of the houses, even opening up letterboxes, trying to peer inside to see what was there! Ever so slightly invasive and rude. Similar to Lombard St, if I lived there I'd probably get wholeheartedly sick of the tourists and vacate to some back room in the house where I was invisible to all and sundry! Either that or go out all day.

Nice shot of us, once again proving we were there! Oddly enough I think there's a bit of a weird photoshop effect to this pic though which makes it look like the houses were stuck onto the background! We did go there, honest!

And here's us with lovely Matty and boyfriend Byron!

Yay for us! So good to visit all these places with residents Matty and Byron ... and great of them to drive us round!

And moving on: here comes Haight Ashbury! If you've never heard of it, it's a district of SF famous for "its role as a center of the 1960s hippie movement, a post-runner and closely associated offshoot of the Beat generation or beat movement" - now you know! Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix once resided there, at one point ... These days it's more gentrified but the counter-cultural influences are still in evidence ...
Loving the mural...spot the aforementioned musicians...

It figures that wacky baccy would be available in the neighbourhood...

Here's me and Matty again ... you can't see it from the photo but we're sitting in a fabulous creperie called Squat and Gobble (!! interesting name - who masterminded that one?!) which he took us to. Good choice Mr Stanfield!

Peace man! Now let's get nicely stoned...okay perhaps I'm stereotyping slightly here...

More great street art.

Whilst in the Haight, we did quite a bit of clothes shopping ... I was impressed.

Feeling up the footwear or should that be sizing up the shoes...sorry, I mean sizing up the sneakers (get the US lingo right...)


Legs akimbo! Don't you just love this pair of gams?! All done in the best possible taste, of course.

Some musical, erm, raisins, livening up a shop!

Rockin'!

And that is that ... hope you enjoyed and now fancy visiting even more ....