By 9am this morning we were mostly packed and heading down to eat breakfast. We thought it sensible to have the meal at the hotel and we sat on the small terrace and chatted to Keith and Mike who were at home. The weather looked beautiful in the UK! I didn't dare touch the waffle machine again so I made myself some toast and had a mini muffin.
We checked out and plugged in the SatNav to get us back to the airport but avoiding freeways as I wanted to drive up Highway 1 which hugs the coast. She did a bit of a freak out, so we turned her off and followed the road signs, it wasn't difficult!
The weather was overcast and cloudy again which was a disappointment as the road we were travelling on was supposed to be beautiful. We passed the aptly named Seaside, and Moss Landing and decided we could stop in Santa Cruz for a coffee. I had imagined the town to be small and strung out along the road but when we arrived we would have had to turn off the road to get there and I just didn't fancy leaving the car where I couldn't see it.
We carried on, both hoping we would come across a lovely little coffee shop where I could park directly outside. By now the weather had improved a bit and we were treated to blue skies and sunshine. After Santa Cruz, the road wound its way along the coastline and we saw three towns mentioned on the signs - Davenport, Pescadero and Half Moon Bay. This area is sparsely populated and the towns are few and far between. The coastline was beautiful with wide sandy beaches, rocks, cliffs and crashing waves. A lot of people were out surfing.
Davenport and Pescadero were tiny but Half Moon Bay was bigger and had a string of fast food restaurants and cafes. We stopped at one small shopping centre and went into the independent cafe but it was packed and neither of us really fancied staying. It didn't help that today was Mother's Day in the US!
We drove on and saw a Dunkin' Donuts where we could at least use the loo and have a coffee. Better still, I could see the car out of the window! It wasn't the most pleasant of places and to our dismay, we saw a Starbucks a little further along!
Neither of us were really hungry and our plan to go to a BJ's near the airport had been abandoned because of the terrible reviews. We made the decision to push on and get to the airport and maybe have something to eat there, or even try and get into one of the lounges.
We turned the SatNav back on and she took us straight to the airport with just one small mistake when I came off the freeway an exit too early. Very soon, we could see planes taking off and we followed the rental car return signs.
We said goodbye sadly to our little Hyundai and made sure we'd taken everything out! I was handed a receipt for about $60 which was for fuel (the full tank when we'd picked up the car) which I thought was a rip-off.
At 2pm we were able to check in and it took us 40 minutes to go through security. It was pandemonium and the staff were rude and hectoring. Once through, we looked for somewhere to eat and picked a restaurant serving pizza and burgers. Sophie trudged off to look for a lounge and came back to say the Air France one was $50 each which included food and drink. We did a quick Google search to look at reviews and after sharing a pizza and some fries, we decided to go. The restaurant we ate at was serving cocktails for $16 and normal beers for about $9 so it was worth it!
We couldn't pay cash at the desk so I got my poor old credit card out again and we were in. The lounge wasn't small, but it had a lovely choice of spirits and wines, snack foods, fruit and desserts. We sat at a table, I brought over two whisky and lemonades and we made use of the wifi and the chargers everywhere!
We tried not to think of the long flight home!
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