San Francisco to Culver City via Big Sur (Wed - Thu, 3&4 Dec)

In order to start planning for a long trip of around 4 months, I find it easier to put a few set dates in the calendar, and then plan around that (if possible, of course). One of these dates was Friday, the 5^th of December when we had to be in Culver City, where my sister Mia lives with her husband Francois and Anabelle and Magalie, our two cute princess-like goddaughters. We also had to drop off our car and then pick up my mum and her husband, Oom Frans.

So for the next few days we also had to stop off to visit my dear friends Ray and Debi Ottman, who I worked for way back when in 1993, and from there I wanted to drive down the coast to LA, stopping over in Monterey for a night. Something along the following lines.

We did not in fact take any pictures from San Fran to Monterey, but shared a wonderful meal with Ray & Debi in Modesto, before driving to Monterey afterwards.

Waking up in Monterey, the best way to start your day is with one of these. A pity they just spelled it wrong:

Sexy ass checking out Monterey

From Monterey we hit the Big Sur. Unfortunately, most of the way was covered in mist, but we did manage to get a few shots in along the way.

Almost looks like one of the bridges in the Stormsrivier / Bloukrans area back home

The beautiful Big Sur Coastline

Some random post office boxes on a cliff literally in the middle of nowhere - no house in sight!

We then decided to hop onto the big I-5 insetad of driving along teh slower US 101 via Santa Barbara and made a straight line to LA. The only interesting things along the way were these all oil pumps in this oil field.

Black Gold . . .

And then Culver City.

My whole sabbatical leave period was taken with the idea to spend as much time as possible with our family in LA, and this period included events such as Christmas, New Years and Anabelle’s 6^th birthday. 

For now, we were however only going to spend a weekend in Culver City, and then, together with my mum and Oom Frans, hit the road again via Las Vegas, Bryce and Zion National Parks in order to join the Viljoens in Lake Tahoe for a week of skiing.

During the weekend we spend some time with the fam and enjoyed downtown LA.

Whenever Brenda grabs hold of the camera, she takes pictures of these signs. 

Can't remember the name of this market now - I think it was opposite the Flight of Angels?

The Bradbury building - Famous in LA as a result of appearing in a lot of movies

We had brunch at a place called Bottega Louie, which served up some wonderful and interesting food:

Don't know what this was, but it sure looked good. 

Sweetie pies in the train home

Frankie was so kind to give us two tickets to a LA Lakers game (basketball), which both Brenda and I really enjoyed. The Lakers this season reminded me of some of WP’s past “performances” – they are just unable to win anything, it seems. It was a great evening out though!

Selfie time!

We gave back the rental Rav after having done 23 miles shy of 4000 since we picked it up in Denver. The car did us proud, but I am not convinced that I want one.