The drive up the coast..

along Highway 1 is beautiful apparently. I don't think we'll ever quite work out how we lost the sea and ended up on little known and lot less pretty highway 34. 

What I didn't expect from LA...

What I did expect from LA...

Jammed even at 6:30am!

We stopped in Malibu for a record-breaking hike. Record breaking in its brevity. No photos I'm afraid. Shutter speed not quick enough. 

Eventually we made it to the well known home of the scooby doo and flintstones cartoons, Santa Barbera. OMG, it's amazeballs (a word btw that I have introduced to the local populace here - Sandra, please let me know when you start to see it crop up in the Kardashians, Laguna Beach, Real Housewives of the OC etc.). I feel like I'm in a movie. Pleasantville or the Truman Show or something. It's too perfect. I finally got to eat at the Savoy. The hot pastrami sandwich was just to die for. Dad's Gibraltar sandwich was pretty darn good too. An innocent passerby stole a glance. Seriously, I thought it was going to get nasty. 

Before long he was back to his cheerful rule-breaking self. 

We explored the town, nearly knocked ourselves out with some super-strength beer, and brought ourselves back to life doing something neither of us have ever done before - riding a tandem!  

You'll have to take our word for it. 

BTW the motel is gorgeous. It's like I'm on honeymoon again. Great choice Steveho! Did I really just write the sentence before last?

This place can't be that perfect. There has to be a catch. Off to dinner at the brewhouse, and then beers at the Barbarians and the James Joyce to try and scratch below the shiny surface. Got to dash. Happy hour.