After around 1,900 miles of driving and two weeks of sightseeing we have at last reached the beach. There won't be too much to write about so I'll combine reports.

Pismo has a great, white, sandy beach. Lots of RV travellers though. We spent a couple of hours there before a bit more sightseeing for the parents. We went to visit Hearst Castle, leaving the girls to their own devices (pun intended!) at the hotel.

The Castle was built for a newspaper magnate back in the 1920's. It featured 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres (0.5 km2)[3] of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theatre, an airfield, and the world's largest private zoo. The ornamentation is borrowed from historic European themes. Mr Hearst must have spent the modern day equivalent of $100m building it and importing 'furniture' from European churches and other parts of the world. It was like a Roman emporer's palace. Truly amazing.

Having returned rather late from the Castle, we went into Pismo for dinner only to find that most restaurants close at 9pm. We decided to order a Thai take-away which we took back to the hotel room. That's definitely a first!

Second day at Pismo and, as I sit on the balcony and look out over the Pacific Ocean, I still can't quite believe the day we have had! Firstly, a quick shout out for Dad who has gone way beyond the call of duty in ferrying around the most expensive child bike ever. Now onto the day...

It was a misty start, fleeces were required and a hearty breakfast. We drove to Avila beach for our last organised event of the holiday - a morning of sea kayaking. The organisers were very thorough and we were given all the kit we required. We joined up with an American family and were led by Gina. The promise was to see sea lions, otters, harbour seals and some fun with taking the kayaks close to shore. OK - reasonably exciting. Gina mentioned that sometimes whales are around but none of her groups has been near one this season.

So, off we went. The sea was like a pond partially due to no wind and partially because the cove was protected by a long jetty. Within about five minutes, and after eating some kelp and getting very close to a seal (which at the time I thought was exciting), Gina looked out to sea and pointed to a jet of water blown into the air. 'I think its a humpback'. We headed in the direction of the jet. Gina explained that there are two signs for whales - birds circling in the air and fish near the surface of the sea as they try to get out of the way. We saw the birds and after a few minutes we saw dark objects breaking the surface - definitely humpbacks - around 200m away. Excitement scale 7/10. There were definitely two - perhaps three. We drew closer and soon could hear the water coming out of the blowholes as they surfaced. 50m away. Excitement factor 8/10. One was around 10m long, the other much shorter.

Then we followed them but they sort of doubled back. We stayed put. It was eerily quiet except for lots of small fish breaking the surface. It sounded like raindrops hitting the surface of a mill pond. Suddenly 30m behind us, the fish got even more excited, and one of the humpbacks broke the surface as they came in our direction and their head went around 6ft into the air as they gobbled up the fish. It was amazing. Excitement factor 10/10.

However they continued in our direction. Jo and I were slightly apart from the rest of the group and literally the two whales slipped past us. I had to move forward to let one of them past. Excitement factor 25/10. Unbelievable. It took a few minutes for my heart rate to return to normal. Gina was supposed to be taking photos on the tour but she got so excited I think she forgot!

The rest of the tour on a normal day would have been very good. We got near to sea lions and otters. We saw pelicans and herons up close. We rowed between rocks. All the girls were very impressive in manoeuvring the kayaks. Nearly five hours later we returned to base still buzzing. Gina described it as 'magical' - difficult to disagree.

We spent the afternoon on the main Avila beach which is much preferable to Pismo. Clean white sand, better class of sunbather and better shops if you like that sort of thing. We saw the whales again as they passed by - perhaps they were waving us good-bye!

Top tip - harsh I know but Gina, next time, remember the camera!!