A Transparent Eye: California Dreaming

Huntington, Malibu, Santa Monica, Ventura, Laguna........the list of seaside towns along the Southern California coast is endless and each with it's own unique sense of Californian charm. In many way's the coast fulfills the California sun and surf cliche with rollerbladers, volleyball courts, palm tree's and endless miles of flat, sandy beaches as standard. In many ways, these towns all merge into one collective memory and as we only had a day or so at each place and the proximity to each other can be as close as 20-30 miles, it almost felt like a continual stretch of quintessential Cali experience. We shorebreaked in Malibu, watched junior surfing competition in Huntington, walked the Santa Monica pier, 'hakkie-sacked' in Ventura and breakfasted in Laguna Beach. Our bikes, as always, allowed us to venture into the streets and suburbs and take in as much of the surrounds as possible. One could easily spend a month touring this stretch of coastline but we had a rendevoux with San Diego and although there were many times when we would have opted to sink another at the beachside bar or soak in a few more hours on the beach, we kept moving South - eye's wide at the craziness of Californian beach culture.