After leaving the Getty Villa, we had lunch in our fold out chairs overlooking Malibu Beach while watching the surfers battle it out for a fairly small set of waves. Then we drove to Santa Barbara. Derived from a Spanish mission, Santa Barbara has a real Spanish / Moorish style about it and the town planners have done well to keep that even throughout Downtown. The old courthouse is beautiful, filled inside with colourful tiles and thick walls and with lovely 360 views from the clocktower.
The pier is also pretty stunning with seals and see lions to keep you company. It is the longest serving pier in the world (apparently).
I took a boat trip in the Condor Express while Pete went for a cycle ride. On the boat we were fortunate to see a mother humpback whale an get calf. So stunning! We also saw three minke whales and also a really big mola mola fish (sunfish).
I loved it! Unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins but there are a few around town to enjoy.
I was entertained by a fellow tourist from USA who asked a Russian couple why people don’t ever say that they are from Russia but instead say they are Ukranian. The Russian girl tried to explain that they are two different countries but it didn’t seem to sink in – bless!
Next was a recommendation from Michael and Annette to go to Solvang. It is a town create in 1911 by three Danish American educators. Everyhing has a Danish theme about it and they even have a miniature Little Mermaid. After wandering around the town we headed to the Solvang Brewing Company for a sunset beer and started talking to a lovely couple, called Mark and Linda, who were from Nipomo. They shared their huge nachos with us (well, at their insistance we probably ate most of them as their huge burgers turned up) and even bought us a drink. Linda loved our English accents and kept asking us ro repeat words again for her to enjoy. They gave us some great tips of places to see and we hopefully inspired them to not wait too long to retire and start their world travels.
The next day, from there we headed through Pismo and on Linda and Mark’s recommendation we stopped at Avila Beach for lunch.
Next into the Montana de Oro for some mountain biking. This is the local stomping ground of a guy we may just outside Yosemite and a great recommendation. After an hour long climb with our walmart gears grinding away we reached Hazard Peak. And then descended with a very rattly pair of bikes.
We drove into Morro Bay just as a load of old classic cars where parading around the town. We rushed over and watched the hundred, or so, cars cruise past to kick off the car show weekend. Pete took a lot of photos. What great timing!
Then as we sat at the harbourside eating our tea a little otter swam past. Ahh – so cute! We followed him off downstream but couldn’t really get a good photo. We even saw a mum and baby swimming together through the binoculars – so gorgeous.
After a night up in the hills we headed back to the coast to visit Hearst Castle.
Last valued at $195m this is an amazing place not least for the two amazing swimming pools. Considering he started off wanting to build “something small” on the land, the resultant house and three cottages finished 28 years later are just crazy.
