2017 CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP - APRIL 24TH, 2017 - SANTA BARBARA

MONDAY, APRIL 24TH, 2017

Leaving Victorville, California with an odometer reading of 52250.  It was 8.57 a.m. when we left the hotel.

We didn't get that far because at 9.19 a.m. we are in Richie's Diner next door to the hotel, eating Pecan Pancakes (me)..... 

and eggs, hash browns, sausage and biscuits (Gregg).  

It was a great stop.  

Gorgeous views of snow on the mountains and a cloud bank from the freeway. We're pretty high up still in the high plains desert. 

10.05 a.m. We are driving through those clouds. We have come downhill to 3,000 feet. We must have been up at 5,000 to 6,000 feet in Victorville. 

 11.29 a.m. and we just passed a sign for the college of hypnotherapy.  Gregg is now acting like a chicken for no apparent reason, a little difficult while driving. That was his joke.  Now you know his sense of humor, and I am still laughing at his corny jokes even after all these years. 

In each state we have been fascinated how the scenery changes.  By this time the skies have cleared, and we are going through very pretty hill country.

We are driving over the Santa Monica Mountains, and have about 60 miles to go before we get to Santa Barbara.  

 

If the video won't open, you can see it here.

 This is our first sight of the Pacific Ocean.

12.15 p.m. we stopped for lunch at Neptune's Net on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. 

Gregg found the place on Yelp and it had great reviews.

I had scallops, fries and coleslaw.

Gregg had fried clam strips with his.  

Funky, fun and their food was good.  On their website at the home page, if you scroll down below where it says blog posts, you can read how it has been shown in a few movies and also as I saw later, has appeared in one video game.  

I liked the place, different to anything I have been in.  The only thing that gave me pause was that they had a line of porta potties for restrooms?  Okay so I can be a prissy girl at times and didn't touch them with a barge pole.  No port in a storm was needed, thank you very much. I read a review here which I found interesting, I guess I'm a square.  But it was a very, very popular place at the foot of high cliffs. 

There was a cute almost white Golden Retriever tied up near the entrance, ready for a bit of fussing. Such a cutie!  And that was our experience at Neptune's Net.  Would I go again?  You betcha!

Spotted this lizard as we were leaving.

And we are on our way again.Another video driving along the Pacific Coast Highway.

 

1.16 p.m. we stopped just south of Point Magu. Watched the ocean splash over the rocks for a while. 

Further along there were strawberry fields all around.  We saw many workers out in the fields.  We also saw people selling strawberries out of trucks, blueberries also.  I remember how fresh our produce was when we lived in California all those years ago.

Lemon orchards on our left, large business buildings on our right.

2.02 pm stopped off at a very nice shopping area in Oxnard. We bought a few things from Target. It had a second floor and a special escalator on the outside just to carry your shopping carts, one side up, the other side down, while you used the people escalator next to them. I haven't seen that before, but then we don't have any two-story targets near us. 

We are still on the Pacific Coast Highway. The hillsides are blooming.  

3.53 pm and Gregg and I are in our hotel room at the Hotel Indigo in Santa Barbara.  It is right downtown, so you don't need your car to get around.  Also not too long a walk from the Pier, where we found ourselves in the evening and in the morning.

The rooms are small but modern, and frankly we don't need much.  All we wanted was a comfortable bed for the night.

The bathroom reminds me of ones I have seen in Europe, in that it has a shower with no step in, no tub.  Everything you need in a compact space.

There are no elevators, except for a very small one just for luggage. There is one wide staircase to get up to the second floor, where all the rooms are. 

As it is downtown it is on a busy street. There is also a railway line across from the hotel, and I heard the train go by when we were booking in. Right next door is where we dropped off our car, where a young man took our keys and parked it for us.  

We went for a great walk along the pier. It was on the brisk side, very breezy but I loved it. I was very tired again today, we both were, but the walk did us good. There were cars driving on and off the pier. New one to me. There were restaurants with parking spots outside them.  

Gregg was doing his best Captain Ahab impression, and Moby Dick was nearby.

We stopped for an ice-cream. Butter Pecan for me and pistachio for Gregg. They came in a nice crispy waffle cone.  No pictures but here's the place we got them from.

We saw grebes swimming just off the pier, there were pelicans flying overhead and also gulls. 

We sat for a spell and enjoyed them.

The sun was getting lower.

We took side streets on the way back to our hotel. It was quieter than the main street.  Several strands of palm fronds slapped me in the face at one point. A man walking by said now that was not very nice was it?  Bits were blowing off the palm trees because of the wind.  The flowers, however, were welcome companions along our walk.

Back in our hotel room and tucked up in bed now, I can hear cars going up and down outside.  Tourists voices are heard from the street below our room - we are on the main road.  The train rolls through at intervals and I find its whistle oddly soothing.

Gregg is already asleep.   Here is a quote from Moby Dick, "I turned in and never slept better in my life."