A slow travel journey around the world without flying
Getting to spend some time with Naomi, Ned, Kai and Isan in their North Hollywood home was a really great way to end the American leg of our journey. Having started and finished the first cross-country part of our travels by staying with friends and…
With a bit of time left on our side in the US, we decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport and OC Country to San Diego. Despite the obvious 'cultural' link with Josh Schwartz, we found Newport to be far less 'OC' than…
Small World Books (407 Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA 90291) The entrance to this great little bookshop is almost hidden among the jumble of restaurants and stalls which line the busy Venice Beach boardwalk. Its shop front is entirely obscured by the seating area of…
Santa Barbara Roasting Company (321 Motor Way Santa Barbara, CA 93101) Located a little way off the main street, not far from the beach is a small roastery with a great selection of international coffees. The smell of fresh brew oozes down the street and…
On Cabrillo beach, near the yacht club and port of San Pedro, the Pacific Voyagers had moored up their seven Vaka Moanas on the beach for a short break before their onward journey to San Diego. These were the same boats we had see n…
San Pedro is a working port town and we struggled to find much accommodation here apart from rather large chain hotels frequented by businessmen, cruise passengers and strangely rather a lot of Mexican wedding parties. It was in a café here that we estimated that…
Santa Barbara may be the official Californian home of the annual ' Earth Day ' festival (first started there back in 1970) but Santa Monica is proud to have been surfing the sustainable movement wave for some time before the word sustainable 'beca me a…
Like many Californian towns and settlements along the coast, Santa Barbara bears the mark of Spanish occupation in the form of its Mission (definitely worth a visit for the view from the tower alone - Santa Barbara's was the tenth to be built in California…
Leaving behind Morro Bay and its rock, we made our way slowly further south to Santa Barbara, arguably one of the last relaxed oases before you hit the urban jungle of LA. Santa Barbara prides itself on its smart, chic - with a hint of…
After initially getting lost, and driving up and down the same main road in Cambria more than a few times, we finally found our hostel tucked away down a quiet road in the 'East Side' of the village, next to a church. Although part of…
The concept of the Great American Road Trip has been immortalised in song, speech, film, on paper and canvas and probably many other mediums over the last century or so. Highways more famous than the land that surrounds them slice through dirt, desert and rock…
Carmel is as it sounds: a gentle, sweet seaside town which reminded me slightly of certain pockets of the Isle of Wight (especially when the sea mist was in). We stayed in a cosy bed and breakfast, complete with porch and rocking chair, just down…
Monterey Bay Aquarium Restaurant (886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA) The restaurant at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is well worth a visit, if not for the reasonably priced food, then at least for the panoramic view, enhanced by the placement of table top binoculars which help…
Nepenthe Restaurant (48510 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA) Nestled in the hills above Big Sur is Nepenthe Restaurant and café. Once an infamous bohemian hang out, famously patronised by Henry Miller, Steve McQueen, Kim Novak and the like, some remnants from those days can still…
New Leaf Community Market (1134 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA) Community markets, such as the New Leaf, are another big feature in California. This store had a great range of produce, with local food being the priority next to organic items from further afield (including…
We arrived in Santa Cruz just in time to catch a stunning sunset. Living up to its 'free and easy' reputation, the beach was filled with barbecues and the air of wood smoke as people began to light the first beach fires and open their…
Due to the delays with the train getting into San Francisco (see Chicago ) we only had a few days left on our hostel booking and further accommodation bookings down the coast meant that this visit would have to be brief. After catching a connecting…
Terrapin Café (1580 Eastshore Road, Bodega Bay, CA 94923) A short walk from the bay itself, the Terrapin Creek Cafe sits in a quaint egg-blue building. It was set up by two restaurateurs from San Francisco (who married each other and moved here) and serves…
The Phoenix at Nepenthe, Big Sur (48510 Highway One, CA) Though technically not a bookshop in its own right, an interesting books section has been created at the The Phoenix store which is attached to the (once) b ohemian restaurant Nepenthe. The majority of books…
Farmer's Market (Ferry Pier, San Francisco, CA) You can't set foot in California these days without bumping into a farmer's market. They are as popular as coffee houses and have fast become weekly events in many towns along the West Coast and beyond. The Ferry…
Descartes Coffee ( 327 N Michigan Ave , Chicago , IL 60611 ) Descartes Coffe e is the antithesis of Starbucks (despite playfully hijacking their logo style and lights). It's a small, independent coffee shop that is located in a few places around the city,…
Bookshop Santa Cruz (1520 Pacific Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95060) The future looks bright for this great, not so little, independent bookshop in Santa Cruz which has been going since 19 66. Earli er this year, the Santa Cruz branch of Borders shut its doors,…
We finally boarded the Amtrak train after a minor delay but were just glad to be on the move. We opted for a sleeper car this time as we'd be on the train for three nights. The room in our carriage was small but comfortable,…
We took the overnight train to Chicago, not getting much sleep but passing through idyllic-looking rural farm land along the way. The Chicago stop-over was supposed to be brief - a one night stay in the downtown hostel with a quick visit to Lake Michigan…
City Lights (261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway, CA 9413) This independent book shop/publisher needs little introduction being one of the more famous names in independent book selling across the wo rld. It was started back in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who was famously charged…
New York had been experiencing a heatwave when we arrived and although we apparently missed it at its most brutal, it was still around 101 Fahrenheit whic h made the rubber soles of my shoes feel as if they were melting into the already baking…
Housing Works Bookstore and Café (126 Crosby Street New York, NY 10012) This is a great second hand bookshop/café where all proceeds go to Housing Works, Inc (the largest Aids activist group in the U.S. and a general 'lifesaving' service provider for people going through…
