Sandwichless

Breakfast sitting out on the balcony up among the pine trees. B&Bs do have some advantages over hotels. Nick advised us to take the scenic route to LA - via Prescott, the old state capital, and through the mountains beyond that. And it was just excellent - we didn't stop often as we'd 467 miles to cover, though memorably we stopped at Brenda as we saw the big sign for Buckaroo's Sandwich Shop; we picked up some water and enquired after the sandwiches. They'd nane! Not in this season apparently. Ice Cream Snickers bars it was. On and on we shot, across the hot plains (we whooped when the outside air hit 114F) and I've got to say it was quite wonderful. What a huge country it is.
So here we are at a funky pink motel in Santa Monica; we got here at the back of 6pm despite some heavy LA traffic, and managed a stroll down to the beach and then, following Pilipo's recommendations, tracked down a Russian River Ale (Pliny the Elder), sitting in a bar in Main Street. Cool place! You can always tell them - there's nobody within a couple of decades of us.