Malibu via Pacific Coast Highway

It was a perfect day to see the Pacific Ocean, and so Ryan and I set out to take the scenic drive to Malibu. It involved a lot of freeway driving, and then a beautiful drive through the canyons until, alas, the ocean.

When we first arrived in LA, and first met our apartment manager, he highly recommended we take a trip to Pepperdine University and see the ocean views along the Pacific Coast Highway.

And now that it's quite likely we'll be leaving Los Angeles for the great state of Maine, we thought this may be our last chance to see what ocean views California has to offer.

And as of today we have officially been coast-to-coast.

I can't say anything looked all together that different than Maine. The Pacific Coast Highway could easily be mistaken for a busy Route One in York, ME, or Wells, or any Coastal main drag in Maine for that matter.

Sure, there's no snow here in Malibu, California, but I wouldn't say it's warm enough for sunbathers and swimmers to hang out.

Of course our blood has thinned quite a bit since being here, so maybe some people back home would find this perfect swimming weather.

But if you think about it - San Diego is an hour south of us, and if you check a map you'll see that San Diego still isn't as south as Key West, FL and therefore probably not as warm either.

Regardless, the sun was out and plenty of fully clothed people were hanging out at the beach.

There were lots of rocks, which we climbed down in order to get to the sandy beach. So really it was kind of your typical beach.

While the ocean was just the ocean when we were up close and personal with it, I will have to say the approach to the Pacific Coast Highway gave perfect, breathtaking views where you could see the ocean 

just beyond all the rocky hills of the canyons, and it looked like something out of a beautiful fairy tale.

In fact it was hard to believe it was the ocean at first, because it looked as though it could have been  a distant hill or mountain, it was so vast and expansive.

And the regular crew was hanging out beach-side - the trusty ole seagulls - dirty and fat, but less trusting than their East Coast pals who have been known to beg for food in shopping plazas, and make no bones about approaching you if there's

a chance you'll feed them something good, and of course by something good I mean it could be a chicken wing or a tin can it's all just the same to them.

The seagulls out here seemed a bit larger, and of course not quite as friendly. I think what these fellas are missing are good ole Canadians to feed them, because it seems the Canadians just don't know better than to feed seagulls (and if you're from Maine, you'll totally know what I'm talking about). 

Snobbery or not, it was still nice to be left alone by these birds.

Little mussels just about covered this

rock, and the seagulls were not trying 

to eat them. I was thoroughly confused

So the ocean views were great, the Pacific Coast Highway gave great views of the ocean front.

We saw a couple of people wind surfing maybe? They had parachute type kites attached to their surf boards - it looked cool.

There were lots of palm trees, flowers, rocks and sand. No salty ocean smell though!

And this was our fun trip to the beach.