We woke up about ten minutes before the complimentary continental breakfast at the Best Western Inn at Oxnard. They had little tubs of peanut butter like we'd have jam at home, as well as sachets of honey! Score! The most interesting thing available was, wait for it, ROOIBOS tea, and it was even labelled ROOIBOS! Apparently the founder of the hotel (or the chain) is South African, so I guess his influence has rubbed off on their facilities!
I took my first stint at driving on the "right" side (not right as in NOT WRONG, but right as in NOT LEFT). My very first absolutest first ever moment on the road was driving out of the motel and into a funky FIVE-WAY intersection with a railway track down the centre. Yeah. Go figure.
Successfully navigated, I even had to handle a roundabout, before hitting the Pacific Coast Highway.
We travelled through some spectacular scenery of misty ocean speckled with the occasional oil rig (that's what they looked like, but I think they're shrimp stations), and even more rarely a wave. I wasn't that impressed with California until we witnessed the truly beautiful ocean. There's something mystical about the way the ocean fogs up near the shore and it's just a vast expanse of still seas reflecting the midday sun while encompassed by the various Channel Islands and borders of the coastline.
Typical view outside our window for the WHOLE drive up the coast...
Santa Claus!!
Our first stop off during the drive.
The beach.
There was some canoe race going on when we arrived.
They can row a boat... canoe?
Fancy Corvette
Fancy Porsche
Fancy Lamborghini.
Fancy Ferrari.
We drove through to The One (the I-1), and through Guadalupe, amongst other places.
The beach and ocean weren't the only spectacular scenery we got to enjoy!
... at the car wash ... Kat shouldn't quit her day job though :)
(we take this sort of stuff for granted in SA)
We had to do self-service on our Dodge which was weird. We take some things for granted back in South Africa, that's for sure!
We stopped off at San Luis Obispo's Monastery / Mission
This is made out of real human hair!!
We finally ended up in Morro Bay, where we eventually decided to stay for the night. We caught the farmers' market in the middle of town (nope, no whimsical banjo's, violins, or dancing midgets unfortunately, this was pretty standard fair... Pun intended), and then did some hunting for a place to stay.
After we inspected about five places and rooms, we eventually settled for a place called "the Masterpiece Motel" at a discounted rate of $90 for the night (you just tell everyone you wanted the cheapest they can offer and you can be surprised what they'll come up with! Also, this town must have at least twenty motels/hotels on one stretch of road alone, so there's plenty of competition).
Our hotel is adorned with art on all the walls and rooms (the place even includes a list of exhibits in the hotel), a Roman-esque big spa-pool / jacuzzi, and what swayed me was the free cheese and wine from 5pm - 7pm! We met a lovely couple from San Diego who've been married 44 years and we got to chatting. They travel a lot too, and Art and Donna Barbee were their names. They took to us kindly, and gave us their AAA travel guide to help us! It was great to meet people and to chat :)
I have to admit, the free cheese and wine from 5pm to 7pm swayed me to book this motel :)
The romantic couple cheesing and wining...
We tried out Big Boy's diner in a hope to experience genuine US dining, but it was far too commercial (it's a chain), and the food was bleh. Kat ordered chilli spaghetti but it tasted like tinned spaghetti and that sloppy low-grade cheap mince stuff. The waiter asked if we wanted it binned and when we said it was crod he laughed and said he knew that, and then he gave us the bill while I was still eating! Humph! What a trashy joint, and we wasted $18.50 on the place (we didn't tip). Definitely going to www.bigboy.com to complain!
CAPTION: more like ALLUCANTEAT because it was TERRIBLE! AVOID!!!!
We went home after that and attempted to get an early night so we could start off early in the morning, heading up to Monterey Aquarium (look it up!).
The motel's library upstairs.
Exploring the corridors.
Exploring the stairwells.
This is a masterpiece! I should have it published!
Kat's attempt was a photo-bum... I mean, photo-bomb.
This is our SPA room!
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