mattAfter the excitement of the whale watching we headed south once more, inland as the Pacific Coast Highway was closed due to mud slides earlier this year just passed Big Sur (Highway 1 South of Monterey County Fully Closed From Mudslides – NBC Bay Area).
Day 11 – Driving to Santa Barbara
There isn’t much to say about our eighteen hours in Morro Bay. We stayed the night in a perfectly functional Best Western and got up to see the “Rock” of Morro Bay…. I promise that this is the last time that fits into the names of places we go to see…
A lot like the rest of the coastline the views in the bay were obstructed by the never ending mist rolling in off the Pacific. We drove down from the hotel to walk around the rock. We were greeted by the local wildlife… Squirrels or squrrls as the locals pronounce them. They were incredibly tame and came and begged for food in front of you (clearly the visitors before us were not heeding the signs that said to not feed the wildlife). Apart from letting the squrrls pose a bit for a photo we largely ignored them and went for a walk around the rock… Except you can’t walk around the whole of the rock, so that’s all we did.
On our way back to the car the fog was clearing slightly and revealed the eyesore of Morro Bay that is the local power station and it’s three massive cooling towers sat on the shoreline. It’s the one time the fog and mist had helpfully obscured the view for us.
Firing up the muscle car we headed out of town on the way down to Santa Barbara, back on Highway 1 and no longer restricted by closed roads we were road tripping. The driving was hugely uneventful and we pushed on through to the small Danish town of Solvang.
Yes, that’s right, back in the early 1900s a Danish American colony settled here and built a city that reminded them of home. Getting out of the car the first thing that hit us was the heat, Solvang is much more inland than anywhere we had stayed in California to date. The architecture and shops are very Scandinavian in their names and appearance.
In our brief walk around we saw several micro breweries and bakeries, it would be rude not to sample them unfortunately as I was driving we only stopped off for a quick Danish in Mortensen’s. It was delicious.
Back on the road we finished the drive into Santa Barbara and arrived at the very picturesque Lavender Inn by the Sea. Our room wasn’t quite ready but we checked in and headed down to the seafront to get some lunch. In traditional Jen style she had found a well reviewed Mexican restaurant which we went to for lunch in Flor de Mais. As with all her research this was a great find if a little on the posher side than we were expecting.
The meal was delicious and only slightly spoiled by the overly friendly birds that decided to help themselves to a bit of our chips, salsa and queso starter!!!! Back at the hotel we checked in and got to the really important job of laundry (two weeks in and we’re running low on the essentials). The sister hotel to the lavender inn had a coin-op washer and dryer so we sorted whites and darks and got to washing and writing some of our blog Driving in America was mostly penned whilst waiting for the wash to finish.
Shattered after the long day we ordered in take away to eat in the room and got some sleep.
Day 12 – Bikes and Beer
Breakfast was included at our hotel and after a bowl of cereal, a bagel and some coffee we headed back to the sister hotel to find out about the free bike hire they offered to guests.
My expectations were appropriately managed and there were no expectations of a carbon road bike sporting the latest Shimano electronic gears. What we did get were two town bikes with a 1×7 Shimano Tourney groupset, baskets and padlocks. Having set the saddle to the right height we headed back to the seafront and promptly stopped as my saddle had slowly “deflated” to its lowest position. Small roadside maintenance job later and we are back in business.
Santa Barbara has a beach front bike path that takes you from the harbour / west beach all the way along to Butterfly beach (just under five miles each way). We joined the route at the bottom of Castillo Street and set off for Butterfly Beach. The ride there was pleasant and I attempted to keep up with some road riders out for a morning group ride – I managed about 1 minute before I ran out of gears/energy. Regrouping with my teammate we rode together until we got to the far end of the trail.
We went for a stroll along the beach and saw what looked like small muscles/moules on the beach. Upon closer inspection they were in fact By the wind Sailors – a type of jellyfish which are supposed to be harmless but we erred on the side of caution and decided to check them out from a distance using a stick.
Heading back to Santa Barbara itself started with a small climb which I tackled with the might of Remco Evenepoel riding into Ortona (he’s just taken the pink jersey in the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia as I write this). Jen took the safer option and walked her bike up the hill before joining me for the descent back into town.
We headed into the centre of town to check out the pedestrianised main Street which is full of bars, restaurants and micro breweries. Continuing our bike themed day we stopped at The Cruisery and sat outside in the sun for lunch. The Philly Cheese steak and the Nashville hot chicken sandwiches did us well although the intensity of the chillies used in the hot hot sauce were a little too much for Jen.
After lunch we explored a bit more of State Street in Santa Barbara and did some essentials shopping before returning the bikes. That evening we continued the search of one of Jen’s must-have items for the trip – a Stanley Cup (not The Stanley Cup, we haven’t become professional ice hockey players in the last month). Unfortunately the local REI didn’t have the exact cup that Jen wanted and whilst the Yeti mug we bought earlier in our travels was good it wasn’t a Stanley cup. After much deliberation we agreed to take our Yeti mug that we had and consider getting a second one (but without the straw lid).
We explored the food market at the top of State Street for dinner but it was overcrowded and loud. Instead we opted for an Italian a few blocks away. Tired of the large meals that we had had so far, I picked a fresh bowl of pasta with asparagus, peas and mint and Jen picked two starter (platters). Polishing off the pasta and one of the platters we sent the other back and got the cheque and went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep ahead of our drive to Los Angeles the following day.
