We check out of LA today and Ben and I went up to Avis this morning to rent a car. While we were away Bron and the kids went down for a couple of games of bowling. Emily got her stride and was leading till the last frame when Matthew got 3 strikes in a row to just pip her to the post.

We are driving up from Los Angeles to San Francisco via San Luis Obispo along the American coastal highway (101) which is meant to be one of the most scenic in the world. Traffic was quite heavy as locals were heading to the beach to celebrate Independence Day. Cars were decked out with flags and banners and every available space along the road was full of cars. We stopped at Malibu for lunch and slowly made our way up the coast. We had an audio tour guide which played interesting stories about the coastline as we went.

We are staying in a small town called San Luis Obispo tonight which is known as the “Happiest City in the Country”. It is quite near Pismo Beach which has a big fireworks celebration today. If getting to Pismo was easy, finding a park was anything but. With people camped out since lunchtime we struggled to find a spot when we arrived at 6. We drove around the city a couple of times and then ended up going up the hill in the suburbs and finally found a spot about a 20 minute walk from the beach.

I had bought tickets for dinner and fireworks at the pier and we had a table to ourselves. The kids enjoyed the various drinks on offer and playing with the glowsticks. Dinner was a buffet, as is the preference in the US and it was quite a lot of fun sitting in the open. Finally the fireworks started at 9pm and went for almost 30 minutes and we had the best vantage spot to watch it.