Day 5: Santa Barbara

This will be a less exciting update, simply because it wasn't much of an eventful day compared to the rest. After packing up our car in San Simeon, we started our drive to Santa Barbara. Since our hotel didn't offer free breakfast, we relied on our trusty supply of granola bars and water. Obviously this didn't hold us over for long, so naturally we stopped at a Taco Bell not too long into the drive. It was a good decision. But then again, Taco Bell is always a good decision.

One thing to note about the PCH is that, while most of it is coastal, there are a few stretches that are more inland, therefore, less exciting to drive on. The stretch from San Simeon to Santa Barbara happened to be fairly inland. We decided early on that we wanted to go to the beach but with the majority of the trip being fields and farms, we had to wait till we were almost in Santa Barbara to actually see a beach. Unfortunately, you had to pay to have access all these beaches. Growing up in Florida, I have never once paid to go to a beach. Needless to say, we kept driving. 

Originally we were going to stop in Santa Maria and do a wine tour on a vineyard, but after a bit of research we found that there wasn't really a lot to do in Santa Maria. That, combined with one of us needing to abstain from drinking so we could continue our drive, lead us to cut Santa Maria from the trip all together. And as we passed the exits for SM on our way south, we both agreed that we had made the right decision.

Once in Santa Barbara, we headed to the Santa Barbara Waterfront and finally got our time at the beach. It was another day spent on the sand as the water was still arctic, despite the temperature outside being in the high 90's. We walked up and down the beach for a bit, and then headed to the Breakwater Restaurant for a late lunch. Service was great and the food was pretty good. I had Fish n Chips and Naomi (being from Europe) said the tartar sauce tasted very authentic, so kudos to them. We headed to our hotel shortly after and got ready for another night in bed with a movie. The hotel was nice, with wood floors and a massive TV. At $45 a night each, it was a pretty good deal close to a lot of restaurants. We decided we wanted ice cream (okay, it was mostly my influence) and walked a mere two blocks to a Baskin Robins and took one of the only pictures of the day:

I now want ice cream. Who am I kidding, I always want ice cream.

And that's the end of our thrilling day. Driving, the beach and ice cream. After a bit of messing around with the AC in our room, we finally got comfortable and headed to bed.

Next: Santa Monica

XO,

Casey

Activities mentioned in this post: 

Santa Barbara Waterfront; beach access: free, parking: hourly

Sunset Motel; Nightly rate: roughly $90, free wifi, free parking, breakfast included