Venice tends to be the best place to meet up with kids, but sucks for most everything else. I made fairly decent money busking in pomona ($30-60 in four hrs or so), but don't try to sleep there. SLO can be really fun, but also dead certain times of the year. I was there in december and didn't run into any travelling kids period. Highway 1 from SLO all the way up to Carmel is fucking beautiful and the people are hard to beat. I've always had a ball in big sur, you can't really busk or panhandle, but the locals seem to go out of their way to take care of hitchers. I've been kicked down beer, weed, awesome food, and even just straight cash ($70 one memorable day) just for walking down the highway. The best bridge I've found to sleep under in america is in gorda just south of Big Sur, there's also a beach on Hway 1 that the hearst family just gave to the public that people couldn't walk on for like 120yrs. Oxnard is awesome, just don't be high profile.
