The Pacific At Last

New Year's Eve saw us celebrating in hushed tones in our tiny van at a campsite outside San Francisco.  We had spent the day traipsing up and down the hills of the fabulous city. In the morning the cable cars were all too crowded to board and in the afternoon we had a delicious Chinese lunch to walk off.  On New Year's Day we joined the throngs walking across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We finally reached the Pacific Ocean at Half Moon Bay, where we camped by the beach to the children's joy. They can't quite believe that we are really going to spend the next few months so close to the seaside - we have been tasked with finding buckets and spades as soon as possible.

Over the last few days we have been driving down Highway 1, including the justifiably famous Big Sur coastline. We have seen gray whales, northern elephant seals, otters and sea lions, we have paddled in the sea and built enormous sandcastles and we are now debating the merits of breakfast in "Ellen's Pancake House" at Buellton tomorrow...