Driving Highway 1 - 1

After a very nice stay with my cousins, it was time for us to take off for a trip on the highway 1, THE highway that runs along the Californian coast. According to many, Hwy 1 between Carmel and San Simeon is one of the mots beautiful roads in the US. Promising!
Given it was Labor Day week-end, both Janet and Evan told us to book first a motel as the likelihood we would not find any place was high. And they were right. It took us 1 hour of joint search on Internet before we found a Motel 6 with vacancy and at a decent price. All the places on the coast were full and the few available had rates at 200$ a night...
Having secured accommodation we packed and drove to Berolina Bakery for breakfast. Apparently at some point they must have been German (on their website they claim it's owned by a European couple. Yes, but what nationality?). Pastries were good, better than in most places in the US, but still far away from Europe. Any way you don't go to the US to eat the perfect croissant, do you?

Traffic when leaving LA was pretty bad (can't imagine what it would be later that day when everybody is leaving for their long week-end). For the first time I have to admit I enjoyed the traffic as it meant be active behind the wheel. No cruise control!!!!

A few hours later we arrive at the Motel 6 in San Luis obispo where we dropped luggage and drove to Pismo Beach. My first stop on the Californian coast.

Pismo Beach reminded me of so many movies at the beach side in the US. There is a beach (obviously), a pier on which people walk, the life-guard cabin (yep, like in Baywatch) and surfers. Almost like a post card.

After a late lunch with view on the Pacific, we walked the pier.

Looking at the landscape

PS: find the un-invited bird on this photo

Watching the birds playing

Observing the sea fog coming up (just imagine a huge cloud of fog coming from the sea towards land).

Getting one bad picture of us after the other (why are we always in the shade...):

Later on we walked along the beach and put our feet into the water. Brrr that water is cold, colder than in Brittany. I could not believe that the Pacific would be so cold.
On the way back we were fortunate to see pelicans on top of the seagulls earlier.

Later, towards sunset, we tried to find a spot to watch it over the sea. But the fog had pretty much invaded the whole area, and after 1 hour driving up and down the coast, we stopped at Avila Beach. But too late, the tiny mini bit of sunset we could have seen was already behind the hills :(
Sun being down, temperature dropped significantly as well. Sunny California is not as warm as one could imagine.
Some cold tourist: "It's so cold. I wish my shorts had legs"


Note: some surfers are not as young as one could imagine :)