Day 31-Thurs, 29 Jan 09-San Diego to Malibu, Calif

Well, we had ourselves a day today! We h’mmed and hawed about whether or not to stay in San Diego for one more night and then decided we would head up the Pacific Coast Hwy to Santa Monica, wander the pier and stay there. After what seemed like hours going through one, long, town after town, stoplight after stoplight, we decided to go to Malibu Beach and that’s where we’ve bunked down.
The first few miles out of San Diego were very peaceful and scenic but because it’s only 75 miles to Los Angeles, it doesn’t take long before some of those towns we all know and love from television, start to appear…Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and Redondo Beach…they are all suburbs of LA. Laguna Beach is where the money is and I’m not sure where the ‘Housewives of Orange County’ live but it wouldn’t be hard to believe they are there. It was beautiful..lots of galleries and restaurants, BMWs, Ferraris, Jaguars, etc. It was much the same for Newport...long beautiful beaches and few people on them—rather few tourists. Huntington Beach was spectacular and we ended up stopping at one of the State Parks, making lunch and taking it down a huge bluff to eat on the beach. Huntington hosts the world surfing championship every year in August and there were a quite a few in the water a little further down from where we were. On each of the balconies of the apts/condos facing the beach was a least one surfboard.
Long Beach was a bit of a hole—at least the portion along the hwy was but it’s getting pretty close to LA and certainly not as trendy as those areas leading up to it. It gets dark very quickly here so we were able to see the sun going down as we drove through the town of Malibu. We are staying in an RV park, high up on a hill, and when we open the doors of the van in the morning, we will have an unobstructed view of the ocean as well as the most amazing sunset ever! It’s going up to 81 degrees tomorrow and nice all week. We’re within walking distance of the beach so may stay for a couple of days and just enjoy the sun.
I know we got this far when we were here a few years ago but it was long enough back that everything is still new. I read in People magazine that Matthew McConaughey likes to jog and surf on this beach so I plan to be up early, on the beach, tanning lotion in hand, looking for ‘someone’ to apply it.
Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx