Santa Monica to Paso Robles, CA

We checked out of our hotel and headed to the J. Paul Getty Museum in West Los Angeles.

It is situated high in the hills overlooking the city and a computer-operated tram took us from the street-level entrance to the top of the hill.

View from tram.

A unique destination, the Getty Centre combines the modern design of architect Richard Meier, with beautiful gardens, open spaces, and spectacular views of Los Angeles. The art collection is on view in four pavilions and some wonderful late 19th and 20th paintings are on display.

The Getty Centre features several beautifully landscaped gardens including the Central Garden designed by Robert Irwin.

We left the Getty Centre and headed to the Pacific Coast Highway and made our way up to Malibu. The views along the way were wonderful.

Paradise Cove, Malibu

We had lunch here - beach side restaurant and our feet in the sand. Then half an hour later and unbelievably, we found ourselves driving through very heavy rain replete with thunder and lightning This quickly passed as seems to be the norm these days in this part of California.

On our way to Santa Barbara we passed acres and acres of strawberry fields filled with workers harvesting the crop by hand.

Santa Barbara proved to be a picturesque town with some quaint features!

We left Santa Barbara and headed inland to the Santa Ynez Valley - a wine region featured in the movie "Sideways". We stopped in Solvang, a town founded in 1911 by a group of Danes who were tired of the cold Midwestern winters and decided to recreate a piece of their homeland in

California. This can be seen in the architecture and ambience of the town.

We then headed back to the coast, drove through Pismo Beach and reached our destination of Paso Robles around 6pm.

Pismo Beach.

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Holbrook, AZ to Peach Springs, AZ

We left Holbrook in bright sunshine and continued our drive along Rte 66 which once again had us driving on the Interstate at times. Our first stop was in Winslow made famous when The Eagles recorded "Take It Easy" whose second verse starts with "Standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona". We then drove on to Flagstaff but didn't stop in the city. Flagstaff has a beautiful forested location high up on the Colorado Plateau and it was a change to be driving on roads lined with tall ponderosa pine trees. We had a picnic lunch off the beaten track in Buckskinner Park, Williams, AZ. We followed a dirt trail to the picnic area which really tested our car's tyres. They survived, thankfully. We soon found ourselves in Seligman (pronounced Sligman), a sleepy town which maintains a lot of its historic character together with a few unexpected twists - eg Santa in a Chevvy outside the wacky Snow Cap Drive-in. Our destination for the night was th

Seattle, WA

We left Everett on Sunday morning and headed south to Seattle, our final stop on this trip. We drove to our hotel and dropped off our cases before we headed to SeaTac to return our car. After the brief stop at the hotel we drove to Kubota Garden, a 20-acre Japanese garden in one of Seattle’s southern neighbourhoods. It was started in 1927 by Fijitaro Kubota, a Japanese immigrant. It is an urban oasis with Japanese and native trees and plants, ponds and waterfalls. It was beautiful with its fall colours. The following morning we headed down to the waterfront to the historic Pike Place Market where Starbucks first opened its doors to the public in 1971. Then we wandered through the market which opened in 1907 and strolled by the numerous stalls of seafood, fresh produce, crafts and flowers. On Tuesday we took the monorail, which was the first commercial monorail in the USA and built in 1962 as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair. It still uses the original cars. The monorail

Volcanic Country

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we headed back to the airport to pick up our car. We got a very nice car, a Ford Edge, fairly large for what is described as a small SUV. Then it was off on the road trip part of the holiday. Our first stop was in a cabin in Ashford, a very small town near the entrance to the Mount Rainier National Park. Thursday morning saw us head to Mount Rainier NP. Mount Rainier at 14,410 ft is the tallest mountain in Washington State. It is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. We drove up to Paradise which at an elevation of 5,420 ft. is famous for its stunning views. We then walked to Myrtle Falls and the views all round us were just stunning. After lunch we drove to Reflection Lakes along a road with hairpin bends and precipitous drops to the side. While in Ashford, we ate at the quaint Copper Creek Restaurant which opened in 1946 and is the oldest, continuously operating restaurant in Washington State.

On the Road with T and S

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