San Diego to San Francisco along the Pacific Highway!

The Avis office was just around the corner from the hotel, making for a pretty easy pick up. My Avis Preferred card is good, it’s generally just a matter of showing my driver’s licence, picking up the keys and driving away. It’s a real compact this time, a jet black Ford Fusion Hybrid, that’ll be nice in the heat!

TomTom was being a bit difficult and giving me some grief not loading up real addresses, but eventually she found a target for us.

Our departure was flawless; the first stop was the Temecula wine area on the inland, over the hills route to Palm Springs. The onramp to Highway 5 South was about 400 m from the hotel so we were up to highway speed pretty quickly. First 163, then 15N, and finally 74 heading north east. It all sounds easy, and probably is with TomTom, but some of the highways are up to 9 lanes wide, the offramps often very close together and as we are two up in the car, we can travel in the express lanes on the extreme left. Good for the exit left  or bear left instructions, but a bit stressful for the exit right and bear right instructions. We departed from our intended route just twice, making the wrong response to TomTom’s edicts. Neither caused much delay or annoyance, and the second, where we left the highway one exit too early, sent us through some fascinating new development areas in Temecula. Huge homes being built on bare arid land.

The drive north was through high, stony, barren hills, and the traffic was pretty heavy all the way. Interesting country, with houses in some areas in almost splendid isolation on high peaks, or popping up as isolated structures in the middle of 40 or 50 acres of big boulders.

As we approached Temecula, an area known for olives and also as a wine growing area, there was also evidence of what looks like a bit of citrus planting on the hills. It all looked very agricultural, but there was quite a bit of evidence of failed planting ventures in the form of sawn-off stumps, lined up in forlorn rows.

Our first stop was Churon Winery, a big Spanish style building ready to do accommodation, weddings and wine tasting. As we didn’t need the first two that day we did line up for tasting. This was not without some misgivings as we walked through a shop displaying the kitschiest collection of wine paraphernalia you’ve ever seen. We did stay after being offered the early bird special tasting price of $6 for four wines. We took just one of those, as the designated driver needs to keep his wits about him for any varmints out there that might be trying to get us on the road.

This is a relatively new wine area, the oldest establishment has been set up for about 16 years. Vineyards are not large (12 acres for Churon) and they source grapes from everywhere to make their range of wines, including imports from South America. Their reds are from their own estate Pinot Noir plantings. Ann was unimpressed by the whites, but one of the Pinots was very good. Cellar door prices were US$32 to $48, so they needed to be extra good to tempt us to buy, and we didn’t.

We’d picked a different place for lunch, Ponte, just a little further up the valley. Again very big and quite impressive, lots more people at this one. Didn’t do the $20 per head tasting, but just went through to the dining area. Plenty of shade, which was good on a 28 degree day, in beautifully laid out gardens and gazebos.

Food was fine but size was an issue again, I should ask for a child’s portion. We settled on a lamb sandwich and a salad, which we would share, as the opening strategy. Then they delivered the bread, which was tasted but not totally consumed, a very nice tear-apart mini loaf flavoured with sundried tomato.   The pinot unfortunately was not as good as the one we tasted at Churon.

                   

Still many a mile to go, so we headed off on our pre-planned route, and with TomTom engaged so that we could be confident of getting to Palm Springs. The route across the mountains was not mainstream, so she was never going to get us there without some intervention. The drive back to the highway was through more very dry country, except for the now wilting green of the harvested grapevines, mostly a very arid outlook.

There was more grape planting under way, not on a  Marlborough scale, just more boutique stuff.

We had to resist a constant stream of turn right requests from TomTom as we headed back across the valley to get on to Route 74. Adamant to the end, even at the last turn onto Highway 74, she was still demanding a right turn that would take us back to the “fast lane” route up the coast. We however were heading for the hills this time, and she was eventually silent after one mournful request to turn around when possible.

Lots more of the dry and stony country as we headed north east, some high-ish peaks in the distance, around 7000-8000 feet high. Very little infrastructure here, but a surprising amount of traffic, which requires a bit of vigilance when you want to be a slow “absorb the view” traveller. The road is known as “The Pines to Palms” highway, but the pines should have a small p to be fair.

The views coming down from the “watch out for mountain goats” heights were spectacular. You are  looking down at the green of the valley around Palm Desert and Palm Springs, but the vegetation in the hills is pretty much non-existent. The hills are just rocks.

We stopped for the view and pictures at the signposted viewing point, where it looked like every feral from Palm Desert had stopped to eat a takeaway dinner and had just thrown the rubbish out of the window.

This spot was where the memorable accident scene from the opening of the movie It’s a Mad Mad Mad World was shot. I remember seeing it as one of the early movies shown at the new technology multiple screen, Cinerama theatre on Queen St, Auckland in 1963.

Our motel in Palm Springs was a classic designed by William Cody and is about 50 years old. It is on the Modernist walk, and is regarded as an architectural icon, reflective of Palm Springs boom days in the 40s and 50s.

This is an adults-only establishment, not for any salacious reasons, but the courtyard is dominated by a much-used swimming pool that is unfenced. They provide a happy hour each day between 4 and 5 pm, and for our stay it was Margaritas plus wine and beer by the pool. The continental breakfast provided appears to be the norm in American motels. It certainly makes for an easy life. One fewer decision to make each morning, and a lot less hassle.

The heat was high 30’s as we arrived; it was nice to know it has cooled down a bit as fall approaches, but as we retired to the pool it really didn’t matter. I ventured out on one of the motel bikes to look for dinner, and Ralphs provided some nice steak, asparagus and mushrooms for a BBQ by the pool.

We did a walk in the heat next morning to look at the homes owned by some of Palm Spring's early rich and famous. This took us first to Liberace’s home, then Sir Laurence Olivier, then Elizabeth Taylor, then Dinah Shore and finally Dean Martin. That’s about half the prescribed walk but the heat was oppressive, so the second half went begging. The buildings are predominantly one level, and low to the ground and very sprawling. The photos capture just some of the house in each case. Sir Laurence’s house was going on the market that morning, a two storey, three bedroom two bathroom house on a big block, likely to fetch US$1.3 million and then be knocked down and replaced by a one level sprawling affair. Strong security  was in force - note the sign!

This place was a refuge from LA, with clean, dry air. It is quite impressive with the massif of the San Jacinta range rearing up from the end of the street.

Shopping at the outlet shops was on the agenda and the 30 km drive west was notable for the hundreds, probably thousands of wind turbines, some tall and new, some short and built on steel lattice constructions like old power pylons. These things may be good for the environment, but they are a blight on the landscape in my view - there should at least be a rule that keeps them off the skyline.

The outlet shops at Desert Hills are apparently impressive, and we wished to be impressed so headed there for the rest of the morning, for a bit of retail therapy. It was not out of the weather, but the shops in the open mall-style layout are all air conditioned. Some success and for me, there were a couple of new gym shirts, a polo or two, jeans, and new Asics and some very light cups for the boat. For Ann a top and new Asics, but we drew a blank on a replacement carry-on bag for my disintegrating one.

We did think about doing the cable car trip on the way home. This takes you to 8500 feet in a 10 minute ride, but we felt we’d had that experience on the drive in yesterday so settled for……..yes…… Margaritas by the pool again!

We had a leisurely departure for Santa Barbara, this one was all freeway driving out to the northern side of the city, just north of LAX. We did a bit of express lane travelling, traffic was heavy all the way, columns and columns of trucks but also lots of RVs, big utes and trailers and cars. Plenty of atmospheric grey haze ahead and around us on the way in. The countryside still impressively brown, but now with a few more trees and green patches. The Fusion provided a bit of entertainment for the driver and it had me trained to try and recover as much energy as possible from any braking or downhill events. Crash stops are bad news and you get less than 60% recovery of energy, a slow deceleration works the best and I achieved 100% recovery a few times, and regularly in the 90’s. Clever car rewarding you for good behaviour!

Our initial destination was Beverly Hills, and we got to the destination through plenty of dense traffic and lots of switching across freeways. Some of the exits are very close together and it was not entirely stress-free driving, even when you get the exit right, the next left/right choice often comes very quickly. But it would be much more difficult to do what we wanted to do without a car, so it’s all part of the experience. In Beverly Hills, Carolwood Drive North showed us Barbara Streisand’s house, Walt Disney’s spread next door, then George Harrison and Rod Stewart’s homes. Ann braved the security cameras for a photo of Rod Stewart’s, and the security guard at the house I stopped in front of came out to see if he could help me. Nice helpful gentleman!!

Next stop was Petersen Car Museum, which wasn’t far away but we had a bit of difficulty identifying the right building, when we arrived. No labelling! The museum has a few themes that it celebrates, innovation in the automotive industry, famous cars, and contribution to lifestyles. One of the first exhibits was the Indian motorcycle from the 40’s, similar to the one that Dad had, and sold to pay for his wedding and honeymoon in 1947, so that deserves a mention.

The third floor displays started with the first of very early models, the Benz 1886 Patenwagen (128) and took you through to the famous or celebrated vehicles like the DeLorean Back to the Future model, Batman’s Batmobile, cars from the Bond movies, the Great Gatsby yellow Duesenberg….. and many more, best done in pictures I think.

                           

 The next floor focused on innovation and the development contribution of motor racing. Oddly the first car you bump into here is Lightning McQueen from the kids’ movie series. But also there is a McLaren from the Canam series dominated for many years in the 70’s by Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme. 

The display of the build process for a Maserati Quadroport 4WD gave a good insight into how some of the technology is applied. Some beautiful and fanciful cars are displayed and the place is well worth a visit.

The driving simulator was pretty cool. You could select your vehicle and the course you wanted, so I had the McLaren Canam car on Nurburgring circuit. I finished, 24th  out of 24, but was happy not to have stacked it into a wall.

The museum store looked like a good place to start a model car collection, but as I have no plans in that direction it was just a quick look.

We headed off to the Getty Centre, TomTom in charge and she took us back over some of this morning’s freeways which we found a bit strange, and on the very close exits and post exit choices we had probably our worst TomTom experience. It was also very frustrating that she took us off the freeway well before the designated signposted off-ramp, and then delivered us to the service entrance of the centre. However no real harm done, just a longer journey to get there and a bit of wasted angst.

The Getty is a fabulous complex with some great art displayed in some grand galleries. The views out over LA and the coastline are as fantastic as the haze will allow. The buildings and surroundings are worth a visit without visiting the galleries. 

The water features are all dry as a consequence of California’s drought, as they are in other places we have visited, so that’s a perspective that we missed but it is still an impressive place and worth a bigger time investment than we were able to afford it on our California coastal tour.

The Travelodge motel at Santa Monica was fine, kitchen in the unit, laundry in the complex and good outdoor space with barbeques. Dinner was at the Baby Blue BBQ not far away on Lincoln Boulevard, we’d seen it reviewed in the local rag when we arrived in LA a week ago and were tempted by the menu. It’s a pretty grungy venue, but the food was good, and again plenty (ie too much) of it. Rib and pulled pork combo for me.

We had to visit the pier at Santa Monica. It’s the official end of Route 66, the highway celebrated in the Rolling Stones' song and lots of movies over the years.

The pier was built initially as a sewage outfall, but has morphed past that over its hundred years of development. It’s been the scene of many a battle in the Municipal Chambers of the city, but has survived that, and tempest and fire as well. It’s very long, and record-breakingly wide.

It offers all sorts of entertainment and a bit of refuge for some of the many homeless of the area, some of whom are pretty confronting in their anguish with themselves and the world. There was a little community of fisherfolk providing some entertainment, and the pier has a police station, RIB ready to launch, and friendly policemen with appropriately equipped panda car. Part of the pier was wrecked at one stage by “huge” 10 foot waves, and it seems strange for this coast exposed to the might of the Pacific Ocean that’s all the height a storm can deliver!

The beaches are very wide, well groomed, lots of walkways and boardwalks for access to the sea without too much tangling with that messy sand.

                             

Venice Beach was the next stop. Grunge plumbs a new depths here, but this is a part of the world that got into low cost, affordable living in the 60’s alongside the canals we didn’t get to. It also houses the celebrated Muscle Beach.

                                         

                            

The back of the beach is wall to wall stores. If you want tacky you’ve come to the right place in terms of the merchandise. But there’s lots of other good stuff happening, the small court, small bat tennis area was well patronised, and there were plenty of places to hire bikes for a cycle along the beach.

We had the experience and enjoyed a stroll in the area, but I find it hard to imagine that this is a place you’d want to bring the family for a day at the beach.

So next stop Santa Barbara, and we headed along the beach north. Some nice houses, especially in Malibu, and good views of the ocean and the offshore beds of seaweed which run in an almost continuous band a little offshore from the beaches. We stopped for a break and a picnic lunch at Point Leo Carillo and watched the surfers catching a few waves. There wasn’t a big surf around but the waves formed up well at this spot and gave the surfers some pretty good rides.

We were too early for check in at Santa Barbara so we went for a marina, beach and Stearns Pier walk. Lovely big wide beach with very fine sand that was being picked up in clouds by not much more than a breeze, but we are at the beach after all.

The pier is an interesting walk, the usual tourist stores and restaurants, but with plenty of interpretive stuff on the wildlife, geology, the pier’s history and the history of southern California. The display of flags that have flown over the area showed its development and occupation, including even parties who put in small bids! The flags were from Imperial Spain, the republic of Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Russian interests, the Californios, and the USA. USA took the area from Mexico in about 1846 and to a degree that was the end of the dispute over who owned this quite barren, but agriculturally important part of the world.

All along this dry coast there is a history of dairy farming from the early years around the Gold Rush time when the price of butter went through the roof because of the lack of supply. Small dairy farming operations were set up and coastal shipping took butter to San Francisco and other ports. Coastal access was by piers, cranes, or lighters in sheltered bays.

Brophy Brothers restaurant provided dinner, very cheap and lots of food in the normal fashion. Seafood was good, Ann had the local version of scallops, which are about marble size but with plenty of them, and my calamari was pretty good. We had a short wait for a table in this very popular restaurant so wandered around the adjacent fishing wharf while waiting to be buzzed. We had a chat to a local fisherman who was unloading some sort of fish trap from his boat. He picked us straight away as Kiwis and was interested to talk about what was happening in the local lobster fishery here (it is under huge pressure), and was interested in what was happening in NZ. He expressed a tongue in cheek view that we were being paid too much for our crayfish in Asia. Turns out he was trialling (unsuccessfully to date) a system to catch hagfish in commercial quantities to export to China. This is an alternative to the failing lobster industry. We call hagfish blind eels in NZ, the dreaded catch over deep-water reefs, which make a real mess of your terminal tackle. Good luck to him.

Construction in this part of the world looks a bit different. We saw it in Palm Springs, San Diego and in other places, construction which has a composite board attached to the building frame, then the building paper wrap goes on, then chicken mesh, ready for the plaster to go on the outside. In NZ we'd call it a potential leaky building, but they do get a lot less rain in this part of the world.

Onwards next morning to San Simeon, and our tour of Hearst Castle. The way north took us over the  San Marcos pass, a good road, great views, all drought affected still. Lake Cachuma looked to be about 80m below its full capacity.

The viewpoint stops had really good interpretive signage on the ancient history, the original inhabitants and the wildlife. 

                                

                             

                               

There were lots of turkey vultures, and a reasonable size raptor in the skies as we headed down from the mountains to Solvang, a Danish village established around 1911. This is a grape-growing region (Santa Ynez) and supplies grapes down into the Santa Barbara urban wine tasting trail businesses.

                             

These have been established in the resort town for about 12 years. They have just sliced off the wine manufacture and wine tasting end of the supply chain. Seems to be a very good business model, built on the huge number of tourists who flock here year round. Our motelier claimed to have full occupancy 365 days of the year; that surely must be a licence to print money.

On up the coast to Morro Bay, another crowded, small inlet-type harbour with a big rock headland, and through Cambria and on to our next overnighter in San Simeon.

Not much in this place, just a few motels, but its major advantage is its proximity to Hearst’s Castle. Pretty ordinary motel, the San Simeon Lodge, where the restaurant distinguished itself by presenting the bill with the 15% tip added in already! It’s about the expected tipping level, but I object to having it added automatically and prefer to operate on the basis that they don’t get it as of right! In another little irritation the shower in the unit was about as good as having a shower under a water-filled tin with nail holes knocked through the base, however the tin would have been better as you would have constant water temperature. The general décor was tired too.

Hearst Castle was an impressive sight looming up on the hill. The Hearst fortune was made by some investments in mining companies by George Hearst, who had failed to make his fortune in the California Gold Rush but did find silver and started to build a pastoral empire. He did much better with his mining investments in the mid-west. His son William, born in 1863, established himself as a media magnate and built the “castle” after his mother died in 1919. His father had died in 1897. Inspired by early trips to Europe with his mother, Phoebe, William was a voracious collector of art and antiquities, many of which are displayed in the castle. The castle is really a village with three guest houses and the Casa Grande, which is built in the style of a European mediaeval cathedral.

Building took 28 years and was in fact never finished as Hearst kept coming up with new ideas, and they say his pleasure was in the building, not the completion. The whole project was run by SF architect Julia Morgan, who must have been a most patient woman.

The castle was given to the state by the family after he died aged 84 and is owned and run by California State Parks. Both the interior, including the dining table that seated 22, and the gardens were filled with treasures Hearst had collected. In a relaxed manner the table had bottles of ketchup and mayonnaise at regular intervals. This was ranch living, not haute cuisine. Gardens led down the slopes to the villas, and the view out to sea, which was Hearst’s reason for choosing the site was impressive, even on a hazy day.

The estate here was once 240 000 acres, but bits were sold off at various stages, and Hearst suffered a bit during some of the Depressions. Part of the tour shows old B&W movies taken of guests staying at the castle. Those who stayed were a who’s who of Hollywood, world politics, and the movers and shakers of the world. The place was well worth a visit and our guide certainly brought the place to life with anecdotes and details.

Our next leg took us through the centrepiece of this coastal drive, the Big Sur. We left the beaches and coves at the elephant seal colony at Point Piedras Blancas, just north of San Simeon.

The bulls are impressive in size and the species is making a comeback from a remnant group of about 500 that were found living on an island in the Baja gulf. They were nearly wiped out by sealers harvesting the copious quantities of oil these animals can yield. There are now about 15,000 in a number of colonies up this coast.

The Big Sur provides great views and although we had a bit of fog around the peaks, the sea views were pretty good all the way north.

Some hardy pioneers established farming operations here in the early days, but access was a nightmare and the road was slow to arrive, so everything had to be taken out by sea. 

Doesn’t pay to be in a hurry here, it’s a twisting two lane highway with plenty of rises and falls, ideal in fact for the hybrid, the fuel gauge hardly moving as the energy was harvested on the downhill runs.

We stopped for a picnic lunch overlooking an empty sandy beach. It was nice to sit watching five or six dolphins parading up and down the beach on a fishing expedition.

There were plenty of photo opportunity stops for us, some great views and some impressive engineering feats, particularly some of the bridges to span gullies, and the odd causeway designed to allow the constant glaciers of rocks and debris to journey on towards the sea.

The plan for us was to do some bush walking on the way, but State Park after State Park was closed and in many places the entry points guarded to make sure people complied with the bans. The bans are due to the drought and the extreme fire risk.  We did see the remains of a big fire on the hills above the Big Sur township. We then passed a very large firefighting encampment with lots of accommodation, trucks and other equipment, and a little further on a helicopter pad, and a camp for support crew. There was an active fire not far away, fortunately contained and the services just waiting for it to burn out. Access in this country is impossible. It’s very steep, rugged and water availability very low, so they are keen to keep people out to avoid further damage. Lots of signs by the roads thanking the firefighters and their efforts

Just before Monterey, the Point Lobos State Park was open, so we did some walking here. This was an old whaling station and has a very good little museum covering that aspect of its history including many of the people who were involved.

An abalone harvesting industry was also centred here and many huge (by NZ standards) shells were scattered around the place. There are many walks around the coastline, none very challenging but with great views. Lots of seals in evidence, and divers enjoying some of the bays. We would recommend the place for a family visit.

The next one night stand was at Pacific Grove, and we had booked a meal at Taste which we had visited in the past with Bruce and Alan. The Alaskan Halibut was a real treat.

We arranged to drop the rental car back at San Jose airport near Bruce’ work, and planned to spend an hour at the outlet shops at Gilroy to try and knock off a couple more of the items on the shopping list. The drive north from Monterey, once we left the extensive coastal sand belt, took us through the Artichoke Centre of the world (and they were very big paddocks, like 20-30 acres at a time), with plenty of other agricultural activity in evidence.

TomTom got us to Gilroy Premium outlets, but I really couldn’t figure out why she insisted on stalking them. We approached, then drove through and past and around in a large circuit, like a couple of km out of town, before she suggested we turn in. We were there for opening time and did the shopping by car, driving between the four blocks of outlet shops. More success here, a replacement carry-on bag, replacement Ecco shoes at very good prices, and some Under Armour gym and walking gear for Ann.

We made our rental car return timeslot OK, and met up with Bruce. It’s always a bit of a relief to drop a rental car off in this hemisphere. I don’t mind the driving but it does require more concentration than a drive at home on the left hand side of the road.

But the drive up the Pacific Highway was a great experience, well worth doing.