2017 CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP - MONDAY, APRIL 25TH, 2017

MONDAY, APRIL 25th, 2017

5.08 am. I was already awake when the train rolled through with a very loud whistle. I would not have thought anyone would still be asleep after that, but Gregg still is so there is hope for others. 

5.26 am. Second train came through, very loud this time. 

We left The Indigo Hotel in Santa Barbara at 7.50 a.m., and the odometer reading is 52438.  Trains and whistle or no, I would stay here again.  You can't beat its location and I enjoyed the hotel.

We drove our car onto the pier - actually called Stearns Wharf.  You can read its history here.  It was built in 1872 and is still made predominantly of wood.  In the information board below you can just make out its timeline at the bottom. 

Even enlarged it may be difficult to read so I am adding the snippets of history below.

USA Independence July 4th, 1776

Santa Barbara Royal Presido Founded April 21st, 1782

Worst earthquake in California history destroys missions at Lumpoc, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez.  Tidal wave at Refugio Canyon December 1811

Richard Henry Dana visits Santa Barbara and writes about pueblo in "Two Years Before the Mast" January 14th, 1835

Santa Barbara incorporated as a United States city, 1850

Wharf built and Santa Barbara Yacht Club founded 1875

Southern Pacific Railroad attaches to Wharf at Wye August 1888

Arrival of the Great White Fleet, 16 Battleships and 30 other escort  vessels drop anchor, April 25th, 1908

6.8 earthquake rocks Santa Barbara.  12 die, over 600 buildings damaged or destroyed, July 29th, 1925 at 6.23 a.m.

Actor James Cagney and Partners purchase the Wharf for $200,000, October 1945

Harbor Restaurant Fire closes Wharf for nearly 9 years, April 24th, 1973

Fire at Sea Center and Nature Conservancy, 1986

Fire destroys Moby Dick Restaurant, Santa Barbara Shellfish Company and Mike's Bait Shop, including 20% of surrounding Wharf, November 18th, 1998

Nature Conservancy Fire, April 2002

We parked outside the Moby Dick restaurant and had another wonderful breakfast.  

As we were early we got a table by the window.  Lovely looking at the ocean and there was lots of activity out there. 

Dozens of  Pelicans landed while we ate, but just a bit too far out for a decent photo.  This is one of those memory photos.  It's a memory.

Gregg had the Eggs Benedict with sauteed, thinly sliced potatoes....

I had the French Toast.  

We ate half and then swapped our plates. The Eggs Benedict was excellent and we enjoyed the French Toast also.  My personal favorite as they came with cooked bananas and it was like eating a Bananas Foster topping. Yum!   (Updated note 5-14-17: unbelievably after this holiday I lost several pounds. This after a month of eating wonderful meals. I think the exercise helped more than anything.  We must have walked lots of extra miles and miles).

We liked the large Whale on the outside of the building.

If you look closely you can see that Captain Ahab's whaling ship, Pequod has been painted in the eye of the white whale, Moby Dick.

Its artist is Beth Amine.  There was an interesting explanation near the Whale.  Enlarge if you need to read it, any of the photos in fact.

I also noticed a small wooden whale under the tail of the much larger one, with a commemorative plaque.  

I was curious who Karl R. Henry might be, and found information online here. It read:

In 1975, after working for B. F. Goodrich Co. building aircraft de-icers and fuel-cells for 35 years, Karl Henry retired and moved to Santa Barbara from Stow, Ohio.  He loved woodcutting on his bandsaw, and cut animals as gifts for friends and family members.  For fun he cut 30 wooden whales each week to be given to children as gifts here at the Moby Dick Restaurant.  And for that generosity he will always be remembered as "The Whale Man".

A lovely story, a lovely man and a sweet tribute to his kindness and generosity of spirit.

If you find yourself in Santa Barbara and from our own experience, I can highly recommend the Moby Dick Restaurant on Stearns Wharf.

9.28 a.m. and Gregg just noticed I put my top on inside out. Went to breakfast with the label and the seams showing. Walked out of the hotel, walked along the street. Good grief, it's come to that has it?  

Driving on 101 North. Plush green hills on my right and gorgeous ocean views on our left.  Passed hopefully a field of sure-footed cows, the hillside is so steep. 

10.00 a.m. passed plants with netting on them and next was a sign advertising a blueberry farm.

   

10.19 a.m. passing vineyards, one saying student vineyard, Hancock College.  Now another huge field full of vines, going on for what seems like forever. 

11.43 a.m. We just passed a sign for the California Men's Colony, which is a state prison.  We aren't too far from San Luis Obispo. 

At 12.40 p.m. we leave Morrow Bay. It is very windy but we had a very enjoyable time watching sea otters lying on their backs feeding, also at least one seal and lots of gulls and cormorants.  (I took a lot of photos but had a problem with the memory card and haven't been able to get those photos back.  It is corrupted. We were using a new card converter and I refused to use it again.  We bought a new one.  Gregg thought it was just time for the card to pack in.  We have had it for a long time and that may be true, but I didn't want to take any chances with my precious photos.  Thankfully I download my photos each night and only lost one day, but they were of those darling sea otters and one came in so close.  What's most important is that I had the joy of seeing them with my own eyes. Really must remember that.  Ah well, things happen. This was when using the camera card for our larger camera with the zoom lens).

We came across the Fishermen's Family Sculpture, 'dedicated to those who wait the families of all mariners', and created by artist Elizabeth MacQueen.  

We drove over to that rather large mound known as Morrow Rock.  The inscription reads:

"Morro Rock, an important mariner's navigational landfall for over 300 years, chronicled in the diaries of Portola Fr. Crespi and Costanso in 1769, when they camped near this area on their trek to find Monterey, sometimes called the "Gibralter of the Pacific".  It is the last in the famous chain of nine peaks, which start in the city of San Luis Obispo."

1.06 p.m. I saw a sign for Nitwitt Ridge in Cambria.  That night I looked it up and found that it was a house built by artist/recluse Arthur "Art" Harold Beal, who bought the hillside in 1928.  He spent the next 50 years using only a pick and a shovel, and as the website says, built his own castle on a hill, referring to Hearst Castle not so far away.  

1.16 p.m., 30 to 40 knot winds Gregg says. We stopped at a parking area overlooking the ocean. The waves are whipping up and it is decidedly chilly. 

I have a lot more to say about this day but I think I should leave that until the next post.  

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."