Day 87 - Pacific Coast Highway & LA

It was a struggle to leave San Diego, we love this city and could have easily stayed for a couple more days. It was also difficult to get out of the super comfortable Stay Pineapple beds, especially as we knew we had a lot of camping ahead of us on either our camp cots or the ground.

When we finally left, we headed on Interstate 5 towards LA. It wasn't long before we hit the LA traffic and the boringness of the road started to get to us. No amount of up beat music or audio books made it any better so we decided to come off and take a little detour.

We picked up Scenic Highway 101 at Cardiff and traveled along the coastal towns until we had to rejoin the Interstate as there was no more coastal road. The traffic on the interstate was a little better but nothing could be done to make this road feel even a little interesting so as soon as we saw a sign for the Pacific Coast Highway, we hopped off again.

We stopped off a Laguna Beach for lunch. Parking was difficult at first, we drove around the town trying to find a spot among the beach goers and tourists. We finally found a small car park down a back street that didn't look too dodgy so paid our money and walked 5 minutes to the beach. The beach was heaving with people and I had a lot of fun watching the life guard walking around telling people off, mainly for sunbathing in his cordoned off area. I waited for the Baywatch style rescue but it didn't happen.

We'd spent too long stopping off for lunch, mainly because it took the restaurant so long to cook my salmon and Lee's pasta so we were forced to jump back onto the Interstate for a few miles to make up some time.

We left the Interstate for the final time at Santa Monica. We have been to LA before and didn't really enjoy this place so we didn't want to spend too much time revisiting it on this trip but we couldn't pass by without a quick visit to Santa Monica beach and then a drive down Santa Monica Boulevard. Whilst this is one of the most famous beaches in LA, it still doesn't come close to the amazing beaches we saw in the Florida Panhandle.

We headed towards Malibu where we picked up the Pacific Coast Highway again and this time we stayed on it until we reached our campsite at El Capitan State Beach. Driving through Malibu was a disappointment. You can't see the beach from the road due to all the houses that block the view. I am sure given the size of them and their location, they are pretty expensive.

After a quick stop off at a grocery store for food, we reached our destination El Capitan State Beach Campground. The campsite was full but luckily we had reserved our pitch. We put up the tent, had a light dinner and then headed to the beach to watch the sunset. There was no fire ban in this park, despite the rest of California being on fire, so Lee bought some wood and we sat by the fire before bed.