From Solvang we spent a few hours at Vega Vineyard & Farm outside Buellton. Back on the coast we stopped at Carpinteria State Beach, where natural tar seeps out of the rocks onto the sand, and caught the sunset at the Malibu Pier before arriving at our hotel in Los Angeles.

From Cambria we worked our way down the coast through the tiny town of Harmony, Cayucos and Morro Bay, where sea otters were floating in the kelp. Then it was inland to San Luis Obispo for a stop at Libertine Brewing, a luffa farm in Nipomo, and on to Solvang for the night.

From San Francisco we drove south, passing the Apple campus and Steve Jobs’ old house where Apple got started. We picked up the PCH through Monterey and into Big Sur, making it as far as Nepenthe for a late lunch before our planned turnaround just before Lucia, where the road was still closed from a rockslide the year before. We looped back north to Monterey for the night.

A low layer of clouds hung over the coast the whole way, obscuring most of the views, but it made for an amazing view at Nepenthe restaurant. The next morning we did the 17 Mile Drive out of Monterey, then cut inland and headed south to Hearst Castle (part 3!)