Day 26

It was an ideal sounding setting. Waves crashing down on an empty beach, soft sand underneath us cradling our sleeping bodies. In actuality, the cove we were in seemed to channel wind into the air vents of the tent. It also channelled the sound of the waves, which seemed to increase in frequency and got louder and louder as well. While I slept soundly through it, happy with the knowledge the water wouldn't come up to the tent - Clare was a different matter. With her nerves on end, every hour she needed to check that the water wasn't too close, and that there were no creatures out there. By the time the sun started to rise, she was exhausted. We packed up the essentials and abandoned the tent for the car. Parking on the road was now legal again, so while Clare caught up on some sleep - I watched the sunrise.

Despite the early hour there was plenty to watch. The layby we were in had had a table set up at some point in the night, with crates of water placed nearby.  Soon a car came and parked up behind us. Other than using the portaloo, the occupants just sat in the car and talked, watching the sea and sunrise like I was. Or so I thought. Over the next hour, more and more people pulled up, some stopping for the toilet, others parked up.  By 7am, 1 lane of the road was closed off with orange cones. The cars that had parked started manoeuvring around until they were all taking up very little space. Banners and other promotional material came out of the boots and they started setting up. I decided this probably wasn't a good place to stay for breakfast and headed down to the beach to pack up and leave. The waves were still a good 5 meters from the tent, it was still fine and dry.

I set about packing it up and getting everything ready to go. Most important was the stove and cooking equipment for breakfast, this would be the last use of the tent so it was just going to be thrown away. While packing up, a freak wave rushed up the shore, just to the porch area of where the tent had been. High tide must be here, but it was time to have left anyway so we would have been fine. Packing up had taken 30 minutes, and the volunteers had been busy during this time there was even a band set up now with drums and guitar. The event was the Malibu marathon - what timing! I was worried now, if they were running a marathon around here, it was highly likely the entire road would be closed for some distance. Someone recently had told me a horror story about how they had been arrested after having parked and gone for a walk. By the time they got back the road was closed but there were no signs as far in as they were. They drive off thinking nothing of it, and end up getting a police escort off the road to get a good talking to in a safe areas. Not wanting to take this chance, I wake Clare enough for her to put a seat belt on, and hightail it out the area. When the cones stop, I figure we're probably clear, and we stop to take stock.

The plan for the day was to head down to Santa Monica, to Venice Beach after breakfast. Instead we opted to go to Venice beach for breakfast, giving Clare a little more time to wake up. The coastal drive was beautiful, and after a few wrong turns looking for the visitor information centre we pushed up and walked down to the beach with what we'd need for bacon sandwiches.

The beach was exactly as we'd been looking for since we arrived here. A Wide expanse of glorious golden sand, a cycling track/walkway winding along the shore front. Exercise equipment all around, tennis courts which at 8.30am were busy, and a boxing area - also packed out.

We set up on the beach, hoping there was no strange bylaws prohibiting us from doing this, especially as there was a lifeguard land rover driving up and down the beach close by. We weren't stopped though, and the greatest interest in what we were doing came not from the authorities, but from the seagulls. The bacon didn't cook quickly, the wind kept blowing at the gas flame and much of the heat was dispersed. The longer we sat there, the larger the circle of seagulls got, and it seemed like they were plotting. The bold ones would circle around, probing for weaknesses in our defence. Eventually the bacon was ready, the bread had been seasoned with sand - making it a real bacon SANDwhich. As we ate, we watched the tourists come and go. We watched locals out for a run, and surfers practising the basics on the small waves. We'd hoped to get a chance to surf, but it had fallen into a small list of things to do that we never got a chance to. It got me to thinking, about all the things we'd done since leaving Banff 4 weeks ago. We'd seen all sorts of weather from driving rain, to baking sun. We'd travelled along coast line, over mountains and through deserts.

After breakfast, we had no further need of the camp stove - we'd managed the perfect amount of gas as it had run out as we finished cooking the bacon. The stove and empty gas cylinder went in the beach bins, and we headed back to the car. On our way down to the beach, we'd spotted a rental shop, and having found the quintessential Californian beach, decided to give rollerblading a go. Clare was over the moon to see this, having experienced my attempts at ice skating back in Banff during the winter. For a skier, my balance leaves much to be desired when I'm on ice, and I spent a large amount of time on my backside. I was better when playing Ice Hockey - being able to use the stick to form a tripod gave me stability that I lacked naturally - so roller blades would hopefully be a similar laugh for her.

As we got kitted up, the popular item to rent seemed to be bikes - and when we finally got out onto the track it would be clear why. The first challenge was getting to the track - skating through the car park was easy but the track did not intersect. After some initial wobbly steps I walked through the sand to reach the track. Clare went around, hoping that somewhere in the outdoor gym area there was a cut through. As I skated along waiting for her, I'd just picked up a little speed when the obstacle appeared. Sand had drifted over the path, which didn't bother the bike in the slightest, but played havoc with roller blades. The sand acted as a unreliable brake, slowing you unevenly and causing all sorts of twisting. Just another challenge to overcome, and eventually Clare came out to join me on the track, having given up and walking over the sand.

As we headed down the beach, it was great to see that despite the early hour there was plenty of people out and about making the most of this amazing playground. All the other skaters flew by with no hassles, and I started imitating their technique - Check out the video! Clare was highly disappointed I was better at this than ice skating, falling over would have been far more entertaining for her.

Soon, our hour was up and we returned to the rental shop. There was an easy entry from the track right behind the hut - we'd just missed it when setting off! As we'd skated we had spotted a market of sorts setting up and wandered along to check it out. The shops along the front here were clearly aimed at tourists, and were making the most of the local laws. The most frequent shop was a "green" doctor - about 4 or 5 of these shops were dotted along the 300m stretch. The fee for a consultation varied, but marijuana was legal with a medical prescription and they were capitalising on the tourists up for experimenting. The real doctors may have been hidden inside the building, but by the looks of the visible staff they all had a regular prescription!

The market we'd seen being set up was barley a market, more a collection of homeless people selling what ever they could, rubbish paintings and tacky name stencils seemed to be the most common. We gave up and wandered back to the car. Our plan for the rest of the day was to relax. It would be our last day on the trip, and we'd managed to get a good deal on a upper class hotel. Despite being barely check out time, we were able to check in and went up to our 10th story room - offering fantastic views of the downtown Hollywood area. Despite the great view, the tiny Hollywood sign was barely visible - what was the fuss with this thing!

After exploring, we headed down to the car to unload all our possessions and pack everything up for the flights home. This required a very delicately balanced and loaded porters trolley and by the time we'd unloaded it into the room it was definitely time to hit the pool. Before we did we checked out the high room levels only lounge, which had some massage chairs in. These pummelled and pinched and gave a fairly similar impression of a bad Chinese massage, giving me more aches than I'd started with! Down at the pool, there were plenty of seating options and we chose a very laid back lounger to catch the rays. I'd planned on catching up with some blog writing and maybe read my book for a bit, but the soothing sun soon had us both napping and before we realised, it was 3pm and the sun was starting to dip.

We headed back up to the room for a light lunch. We relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually it was time for dinner and we wandered down the street to a small Italian restaurant. The service was slow, but we were in no rush - the family at the table next to us was far too entertaining to worry about the food arriving. Dinner was delicious and combined with some good Californian wine we were very relaxed. We headed back to the hotel to pack, Clare would be on the 11am shuttle to the airport in the morning, marking the end of of our Californian road trip.

We'd travelled approximately 3778 miles, using 3 different cars. We'd hit up 4 of the states and 2 provinces of Canada, and still hadn't seen everything there was to see in our 4 weeks of travelling. We've overcome challenges, and have skirted the edges of luck. Despite the close proximity and lack of breathing space, we were both still alive too! It's been an experience, one I would gladly do again.

I hope you've enjoyed reading the adventures we've had, spelling mistakes and predictive text wording and all!