Tuesday 26th July: Left LA and took the Pacific Coast Highway south. Thought it would be a nice Coastal drive but most of the way is 8 lanes of concrete. Passed Huntingdon and Laguna Beach but both were so commercial we decided not to stop. Now Dana Point is a odd..... Very clean.... Very nice..... Very Stepford! We stayed at the Blue Lantern Inn, a very nice timber frame hotel over looking the marina. Everywhere in Dana Point feels like a gated community but saying that you are quite happy to walk at night and it is very.... nice.

There is a small public beach down by the marina and a sea conservation society that runs summer camps. It has a couple of large sailings ships that take out groups of kids on week long adventures. Would have loved to do that when I was growing up. The odd thing about the Marina is the total lack of any commercial ventures. No fast food, no selling of tat. The only place you could buy a sandwich was from the lady selling the whale and dolphin excursions. So if you are going to Dana Point, get a packed lunch..

Don't eat at Cannons, it is truly weird. They are determined to put cheese with everything. Carrots with sweet stem ginger and raisins. What were they thinking.
Do eat at Luxe, it gets terrible reviews but don't worry about them. This is assuming you also enjoy an adventurous martini... Try the ones with chilli in them, bloody genius. So impressed, I had two. That's two more after the first one.