Lying here in bed at 9:26pm, after our best meal of the hols by a country mile!
We’re now in Santa Barbara, so wandered down to the harbor [sic] front, a block down and west.
We tried to eat at the place recommended by our host for the evening, Ben, which was to try the Brophy Brothers Bar/Café, but with an hour wait, we bailed and went next door to the Waterfront Grill. Seated almost immediately, we ordered drinks and perused the menu.
On the way down, which I’ll cover shortly, I asked two questions:
- Best accommodation so far (with two to go)
- Best meal (with three to go)
Answers to 1) we’re pretty unanimous, the last few nights at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, and Zion.
Answers to 2) we were also pretty unanimous – “We haven’t had any”!
To be fair, not true, as we had a great Italian meal in Page. But many evenings we’ve just not either needed or felt like having a “nice” meal. We also agreed that sometimes the portion sizes are just off-putting, leaving us to have starter or “snacky” things.
We made up for it tonight, though! Charlie had an amazing Burger – ground-steak, medium-rare, and he reckoned it was top-two lifetime Burgers!
I had to try a small cup of their “award-winning” clam chowder, but followed this by their special of Shrimp Linguine.
Meanwhile, Jane pulled no punches and went straight for her all-time fave, a whole Maine Lobster tail. Served plain-grilled, with a baked potato, scooped and re-filled with added cheese and spring onions.
The meal was phenomenally good! And weirdly cost about the same as last nights thoroughly dreadful meal. More fool us!
It’s a massive harbour. Most are relatively small/medium “pleasure craft”, but there is still a pretty big commercial fishing industry here, albeit, not on a “mass” scale. I’m hoping for a nice, slightly misty, but not foggy early morning. I could get some interesting pictures then.
So this morning we all very belatedly got up, even me – it was almost 7am when I showered, packed, and cleaned and then loaded the car.
That late start was going to cost us later. It’s a hefty drive today, albeit down one of the most scenic roads in the world. It’s 151 miles door to door. Which google and Sat-Navs will tell you is a 2h38 trip. Absolute nonsense. For lots of reasons.
We left Monterey on Highway 1, and immediately hit the traffic jam caused by roadworks near Carmel. We darted off and meandered through Carmel and then Carmel Heights. Bloody hell, those properties are stunning!
We then got back on “PCH” (read yesterday’s for background), and travelled the 55mph road, like everyone else at around 30-40mph. And stopped at nearly every turn-in, even though it was misty.
It’s part of the attraction actually. The sea mist blankets the ocean, rolls onshore and up the steep hills as far as it can and then rolls back, just like the sea is doing below it. Simply fluid dynamics, plus orographic uplift, plus the moist adiabatic lapse rate, kicking in. But we know that. Charlie was unimpressed.
Lots of stops later, we got to Ragged Point. This is the point where TomTom wanted me to turn around, drive back to Monterey and take an entirely different route, to move 3 miles up this same road.
The reason is that the road around here got washed away in a massive landslide, about 14 months ago, and they had to not just rebuild the road, but invent and build a new route, slightly higher up the steep slopes.
TomTom freaked for a while and then readjusted on the other side. Now we could actually pay attention to her (it’s a female voice) and follow her lead to the Franciscan Inn, Santa Barbara.
Next stop was a funky one! The Elephant Seal viewing point. Just off the road, there’s a beach. And it is jam-packed with male and female elephant seals. Those bulls are beasts! Massive and right feisty! I know it’s all to do with the ladies and being an alpha male, but their behaviour was akin to the Bamboo Club in Hazel Grove on a Saturday night around midnight!
After another “while”, the road kicks inland and you drift away from the coast. By now, we’d been driving & sightseeing for around 4 hours, so Hearst Castle may well be brilliant, but we were happy to see it from a distance.
We did carry out a brief and minor detour, to check out Morro Bay. We stopped, had a quick look around, realised that the place to eat seems to be Giovanni’s Fish Market And Galley, which had a queue outside longer than Anthony Scaramucci’s term at the White House. (My attempt at belated ‘topical’). It looks a funky place, does Morro Bay. We’d spend time there.
Back on Highway 1, or had it become the 101, by then? Not sure.
Next was Pismo Beach, but we were having a bit of bother by then. The traffic was horrific. It was now 4:40pm and rush hour had kicked in big time. We were averaging around 20mph. Not good.
So by the time we turned off to take a look at Pismo, in reality, we just drove through very quickly, and got back on the Highway and into the traffic jam a couple of miles further on. We didn’t see enough of Pismo to form an opinion, sadly.
After that, the drive became a chore. The traffic didn’t abate, and all the delays meant that we were looking at close to 7 1/2 hours between hotels. Not a great day for anyone, especially Charlie. Sorry, lad.
We finally arrived in Santa Barbara at around 6:30, having spent the previous hour, driving through fields of wine-producing vines, and estates (well, one) of monkey-loving, affected pop-stars with lots of personality anxieties. Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos, was “MJ’s” home to Bubbles, and sleepovers with his friends, some of whom happened to be minors, allegedly.
Ben checked us in to the Franciscan Inn. He’s very, very good at his job. Bearing in mind we were all a tad frayed around the edges after our drive, he was really welcoming, funny, and usefully informative.
After a good chat about the World Cup and Man City (he’s a Spurs fan from Tunisia), we threw our bags in the room and headed straight out for something to eat.
Which I’ve already told you about. But it’s now 22:54. So, I’ll call it a day. We really, really do need to be out earlier tomorrow!
I can only hope! Night folks.