Its been a couple of weeks since we arrived in the States, time seems to mash together when you travel. Josh a friend of ours, arrived the other day its been over 2 years since we last saw each other so it was a good catch up. Edgar and Newlyn, 2 other friends arrived the the day after so our little trio grew quickly. We didn’t waste any time organizing a road trip up the west coast to see more of America, the 5 of us, excluding Newlyn headed off to the coast. Santa Barbara was our first stop, it was a chilled out city with a decent beach and quite an impressive pier that stretched out into the quiet harbour.

We found a campsite that was 60 miles north of Santa Barbara located right on the beach far away from any town or highway, which meant it was almost empty and untouched. As the sunset we started a camp fire and enjoyed the most spectacular sunset. The stars didn’t waste any time coming out in all their glory, there was no moon that night which made the stars look even more impressive. I took my first time exposure shot of the sky to see all the stars that the naked eye can’t pick up and it was incredible!

Although we didn’t feel like moving on, a motel had been booked at the end of the Big Sur coastal drive, so we headed off early to make our way up the coast. The Pacific coast highway has a range of different landscapes along the way, the climate is similar to the Mediterranean coast so a lot of the same trees can be seen growing along the highway. Along the way we noticed a massive castle up on a hill top, the famous Hearst Castle as it is commonly known. I had been told about it’s impressive construction and architecture and was keen to check it out. I was not disappointed.

The house was owned by Hearst, who had made huge money as a newspaper tycoon amongst other things, he had a dream of creating something truly spectacular. He collected art, sulputres and an entire entrance to an old temple. It was like a museum that was used as a functional house, a party house. The best way to describe the antics that took place there is the plot to the Great Gatsby. Mr Hearst was only interested in giving people incredible experiences, a weekend at his house rubbing shoulders with the movie starts, Nobel prize winners and millionaires of the time. I could go on, but instead here are some photos.

Just down the road from Hearst castle we saw this cheaky guy

Next was San Francisco, a short drive up the coast, unfortunately the weather tuned on us, for the first time on our trip. We couldn’t really see the bridge unfortunately, but we went over to Alcatraz and saw Lombard street which were both interesting to see. As we walked through the streets at night, it was incredible to see the number of rough sleepers along the streets, like I’ve never seen before.

Our amazing view of the Golden gate bridge, we were all pretty stoked as you can see

The weather didn’t permit us to go to Yosemite national park as there was ice and snow on the roads, so we decided to head back on a 11 hour drive back home. Along the way we saw the Google head quarters in Silicone valley, and tested our skills on a go cart track!