We arrived at our hotel in Goleta, a neighboring city of Santa Barbara, for our next night stay. We were pretty disappointed with the place (it was old, dirty and miles from anything worth seeing), but as it was only for one night we sucked it up and got on with things. We headed into Santa Barbara old town for a look around. The city centre is gorgeous, old Spanish style architecture and really upmarket shopping area, including some lovely restaurants. We then got some Chinese take-away and headed back to the hotel room where we ate dinner and drank our lovely bottle of bubbly, we had bought in Sonoma, from plastic cups!! We decided we would spend another night in the area and looked for another hotel to check into as the one we were in was SHIT! Next morning we headed off toward Lake Chumash and then on to a little town called Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley (the Santa Barbara wine growing area). This quaint little place was established by the Danish in 1911, and replicates a Danish village. We stopped here for a while and had coffee and a walk around. Then we traveled on to La Purisima mission, which dates back to 1787 and was home to the Spanish and the native Chumash people from the area. Due to an earthquake in 1812 and many years of neglect the mission deteriorated, but was restored in the 1930’s to its state today. It was really interesting to see how these people lived and survived all those years ago.
Next we headed back to Santa Barbara and our new, and very much improved, accommodation at the Inn by the Harbour. It was a lovely little hotel and we had a great room and the staff were amazing – why couldn’t we have found it a day earlier. After getting settled we walked (the very short walk) down to the main harbor and Sterarns Wharf to have a look around. Unfortunately the haze had not cleared for the whole day so our visibility was almost non-existent! That night we had dinner at a little restaurant called Bouchon, which had been recommended to us by the chef in Sonoma that we had met. Dinner was pretty good, but we both agreed that some of our restaurants in Melbourne would leave it for dead. A nice night out anyway.
Next morning up early and on the road again, headed for LA! A stop on the way at the Camarillo Outlet mall for more shopping and lunch, and then on to Tinseltown. We arrived mid arvo and checked back in the the Holiday Inn Century City, where we had started from two weeks earlier. That night we made our way to Santa Monica. The sand area is so wide, not like anything I have seen before. The historic pier was lively with the typical tacky souvenir shops and restaurants and an amusement park. Originally built in the early 1900’s it was partially destroyed in 1980’s due to lack of management, but in the past 20 years had been restored (so to speak) to how it is today. We walked around the Third St Promenade (another shopping/eating area) which was very lively, had some dinner (Mexican) and then back to room for bed.
Saturday, did a bit of car swapping first up this morning, then of to Universal Studios, which Bron had always wanted to do here in LA. We hopped on the studio tour first up, which takes you around the studios and has some cool “re-enactments”, like Jaws and Earthquake and a new King Kong simulator. We spent the rest of the day just walking around checking everything out, finished on the Jurassic Park ride and then headed back. We stopped at the Beverly Centre and then picked up take away dinner again, which we enjoyed with a nice bottle of Californian red.
Mothers day here today. Did a bit of real Hollywood sight-seeing. First, made our way to “The Brady Bunch” house – very cool to see. Next past the Capital Records building and on to Hollywood Boulevard, the real tourist hot-spot here. We walked along the walk of fame, Kodak Theater, Graumans Chinese theater and saw the hand and foot prints. Had lunch at Soul Daddy (a restaurant that won a TV competition that we had been watching prior to coming over, called “Americas next great restaurant”, which coincidentally Curtis Stone was in, and we had seen him in Vegas). Next to the Farmers Markets (which is just a big restaurant area) and the Grove. Mark had organised a photo shoot with a model and we met her later in the afternoon in a gorgeous Beverly Canon gardens at the Montage hotel on Wilshire Blvd (near Rodeo Drive). After that we had some dinner at RockSugar, an Asian restaurant at Century City, then back to the room after another very full and tiring day.