Day 6: Santa Barbara

After a busy few days, we decided to spend the whole day in Santa Barbara...do a bit of sight-seeing, some wine tasting and a spot of shopping. We arrived on Shoreline Drive and thought it was just beautiful. The ocean was full of people doing different kinds of water sports and looked very inviting indeed.

Sterns Wharf Pier

The Mediterranean architecture of the city gives it a great holiday feel.

In a very un-seafood-mission-like fashion (I was on a seafood mission - afterall, we were right by the ocean!!!), we decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a Mexican Holiday) by eating in a Mexican Restaurant. The food was great...the margaritas, even better. My friend, Yummy Mummy, has been telling me for yonks about how fabulous the Mexican food is in California...and she was right - the food was awesome. (I've become quite the Mexican cuisine lover here in America - South Africa is missing out on some truly fabulous food).

On the Pier

Sterns Wharf is quite an interesting pier - with a few restaurants and little shops. You can drive onto the pier and park right by the shopping area, but even walking on it felt slightly dodgy, so I was very happy for the nearby parking area (next to the small skate park).

We did some wine tasting at the tasting rooms in Santa Barbara and I must say that I was not impressed with any of the wines that I tasted that day. After a few days of tasting the one after the other great bottle of wine, Santa Barbara was a bit of a let-down on the wine front - but still a fun place to visit.

In the afternoon we went back to our hotel and rented a little pedal car for an hour. We pedalled all around the harbour - it was fun, at times a bit hysterical and just all-in-all really enjoyable.

Yummy hot seafood platter

That night, we walked around the restaurant area and could not decide where to eat...in the end, we did the boring thing, and went back to Brophy Bros. What can I say...our experience had been so great the previous night, that we couldn't decide on any other place to go to. Our second visit was not a disappointment at all. We shared a hot mixed seafood appetizer (baked oysters, clams, mussels and calamari) and for a main course hubby had the seafood pasta (to die for!) and I had sword fish with a garlic lime sauce (Divine!!!).

Our Ventura hangout - Brophy Bros.

Our second day in the area was just as fabulous as the first, and I'm sure our 3rd will be just as great. Now...when can we come back...???

Day 5: Paso Robles to Ventura and everything inbetween

On day 5 we got up and off course, the husband had to do work for about 3 hours (on MY holiday!!!!!). We just made it downstairs to breakfast in time and afterwards we headed south, in the direction of Santa Barbara.

En route, we did a bit of a detour to see San Luis Obispo. It is such a cute town - next time we'll stay here for the night - in the Madonna Inn. Each room in the Madonna Inn has a different over-the-top theme and people rave about it. The hotel has appeared on several tv shows including The Bachelor and Girls Next Door.

Pismo Beach - as seen from the Pier

We drove past Pismo Beach and just had to stop. It is a great coastal town with an awesome beach and a huge pier.

Santa Barbara is just FAB! Its easy to see why they made a show about it and also why many of the extremely rich own property there. We visited State Street and really enjoyed it. Great shopping and a fabulous farmers market. The market is open on Tuesdays and Saturdays and I must admit, it warmed my food-loving heart to see some chefs (in their chefs' coats) buying fresh farm produce for their restaurants - those are the type of places I'd like to eat at. I also enjoyed the World Market that boasted some great South African wines and a few products like Nando's cooking sauce and Mrs Balls Chutney. I definitely recommend going to Santa Barbara.

The View from our hotel

We stayed in Ventura, about 25 minutes from Santa Barbara - also a coastal town, but smaller and less expensive. The hotel we picked is situated by the harbour, which turned out to be a great location, because you could walk from the hotel to the little shopping/restaurant area in about 15 minutes. Our pick for dinner on the first night in Ventura was Brophy Bros - a great no-nonsense casual seafood restaurant with a huge bar inside and a fabulous patio outside. You can get a table right by the patio wall and look right onto the harbour. Off course we had to try the clam chowder (included with the main course) and I had Seabass with Grand Marnier & lobster sauce while the husband enjoyed his blackened halibut. Yum-yum! Great view, great food, great service...what more could we ask for.

Ventura Harbour