Los Angeles

The last stop of our USA road trip was three nights in Los Angeles before our flight home to NZ.

Graffiti at Venice Beach.
Even the trees are spray-painted.
Homie J with his skater friends at Venice Beach.
Venice Beach.
We spent one of our three days in LA at Six Flags themepark, filled with awesome rollercoasters.
Baywatch!
Sunset on Venice Beach.
Santa Monica beach.
Beverly Hills' most famous street.
MC doing a little (window) shopping on Rodeo Drive.
Bugatti on Rodeo Drive.
View of the Hollywood sign from Hollywood Boulevard.
Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, where the Academy Awards ceremony is held.
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Even John has a star.
Foot and handprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

So after a fantastic few months in the USA we are back in New Zealand and loving the early summer weather and catching up with everyone at home - next step is to find jobs and a house!!

Pacific Coastal Highway, California

From San Francisco we headed south along coastal Highway 1 for a very scenic drive down the Californian coast.

John on the rocks around the town of Monterey.
We stayed the night here in Monterey.
Craggy coastline and Pacific ocean views from the highway around Big Sur.
John suggested we take a 'scenic detour' he found on a map. Unfortunately this nice view of a bridge on the main highway was the best we got. After that it took us an hour to drive 12 miles through a bumpy, winding forest track. We even had to get out and clear fallen tree branches off the road. Thanks John.
More scenic vistas and a robot.

Elephant seal colony at Point Piedras Blancas, just outside San Simeon where we bunked down for the night.
Sun setting on the seals.
Scroll past the next several photos if you don't think seals are cute!!






Whimbrel on the beach at Morro Bay.
Morro Rock, a volcanic peak jutting up from the ocean floor.
Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve.
John on the dunes.
Silliness on the deserted dunes.
We stopped for another night in pretty Santa Barbara.
Pelican at the wharf in Santa Barbara.
Pelicans roosting on the restaurant roof.
Spanish-Moorish style county courthouse in Santa Barbara.
Pretty bougainvillea-covered buildings in Santa Barbara.
The beach at Santa Barbara.

From Santa Barbara we continue on down the coast towards Los Angeles, where we will spend three nights before finally flying home to New Zealand!

San Francisco, California

After saying goodbye to the last of the USA's fantastic national parks on our itinerary, we began our drive towards San Francisco.

The Good Luck Parking Garage in Chinatown, where every parking spot comes with a stencilled fortune. San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest outside of Asia and, established in the 1840s, the oldest in the USA.
View of the city from the Coit Tower.
Murals inside the Coit Tower.
View of San Francisco Bay from the Filbert St steps.
Alcatraz.
Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf, home to hundreds of sea lions.
Sea lions basking in the San Fran sun.
Golden Gate Bridge.
MC...
...and John crossing the bridge.
View of the city from the Golden Gate Bridge.

1970s political murals lining Balmy Alley in the Mission district of the city.
The murals are painted on people's garages and walls.

Alamo Square, lined with brightly-painted Victorian houses.

We also got to see another side of San Francisco thanks to the dodgy location of our hotel - crackhead, drunk and homeless central...

Having now driven coast-to-coast, we are setting off south down the Pacific Coastal Highway towards our final destination - Los Angeles!