California 2018 : Road Trip Day 1

Weirdest urinal and sink I've ever seen

People went to Laguna Beach the day after Disney, and had a good time there. I was having a rest day, and was relieved that no-one was left at the beach.

People started to go their separate ways after Disney. Jamie and Roz shot down to Sally and Brian's. Alyson and Alan went to Utah. Obviously David and Shannon went on their honeymoon to Mexico, and Neil and Maggie went to Yosemite Park. There had been some ideas around having a road trip up to San Francisco but didn't quite pan out as a group thing, but we decided to split the drive over two days. We had a bit of an unplanned diversion to a couple of landmarks in Los Angeles as we were driving by. We had phones and plenty of data so just trusted Google Maps quite a lot to get places.

We stopped off briefly at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. It was July 4th so it was pretty busy, but Sarah managed to stop the car briefly so we could get out and take a couple of photos.

We found ourself on Santa Monica Boulevard, so we stopped to grab a burger for lunch. It felt pretty dodgy. This feeling was not helped by me witnessing a guy come in off the street, grab a cup from one of the bins and use it to help himself to a drink.

The drive up was beautiful. Unfortunately the Big Sur road was closed, but we still drove past Malibu. We had great weather, and at Dorothy's suggestion had downloaded a book to a phone so we could listen to it as we drove. We listened to a Percy Jackson book where he gave an account of ancient Greek heroes, which played well to everyone.

The car itself was a seven seater and was very well stocked, so was more than comfortable. Sarah loved all the things it could do like radar locking you to the car in front so you kept the same distance from it and flashing a light when there was someone in your blind spot. It came in handy, as there seemed to be little in the way of lane discipline in California, and there was a lot of crazy drivers just swerving across the road.

We had planned to stop off in Solvang for a little while, but all of our diversions meant it was a very brief visit. It was a lovely place, though. Dorothy had some memory of it as she had spent some years in Atascadero as a child. It was a lovely little place settled by Danes which retained much of its Danishness. Somebody in a shop said that they loved Michael's hat, and asked him if it was from the film Monsters University. He replied that it was from Disneyland. He'd bought it there a couple of days before. I tried hard not to laugh.

We had a meal at the Madonna Inn, which was an interesting place to eat. Dorothy's family knew the people who had set up the place when they lived in Atascadero. The decoration was totally over the top, but it was exciting to see a place that was so unbridled by common sense. As noted above, the urinals in the toilet were the weirdest ones I'd ever seen, and it wasn't exactly pleasant using them when the water falling down the waterfall type thing was splashing onto your shins. The steak I had, though, was probably the best steak I'd ever had, and it was a fantastic place to eat and experience to have.

Staying at the Madonna Inn was a little too expensive, though, so we stayed at a Best Western in Atascadero instead. It was a nice place, and the kids really enjoyed the pool. They got all excited when they spotted a possum roaming about when they were in the pool. I was a little weirded out by the fact that the car park when we got there was filled with about 50 identical white trucks all reversed into spaces. I thought about taking a picture, but when the lady at reception advised it was some kind of Government Department outing, I decided it was better not to risk landing on some watchlist for photographing state assets.