Santa Barbara – day 1

Waves crashing against the shore all night. Sounds idyllic but I had probably my worst night’s sleep of the trip. Imo loved it, found it soothing and slept like a baby. Great to wake up 3 metres from the beach and palm trees though.

Our guidebook suggested that we stayed off the main road for the first couple of miles by taking a bike path to El Capitan State Park. It also stated that this route may be closed due to cliff landslip. With no sign saying it was closed, we assumed all ok. No such luck. 1 mile of up and downs brought us to a fence with a sign. Grrr.
Managed to avoid having to completely back track by disconnecting the trailer and scrambling over a bank and adjacent railway line – so not all lost.
An hour and a half on the bike brought us into Santa Barbara – a beautiful town. Have raised the mortgage value so we can afford to spend two nights here.

While waiting for our room to be ready, we bumped into a nice gentleman called Glyn. He was born in the Uk but had moved here in the seventies. Glyn, promptly invited us to his hotel for wine and hors d’oeuvres. Glyn owns the Simpson House Inn in Santa Barbara – and what a lovely place it was too. Beautiful historic house with landscaped gardens. We were made very welcome by Brad and Robin who worked there.

After this we popped to a pub called The Press Room and met up with Ernie who we originally met just before Cloverdale a few weeks ago. Ernie bought us a drink and so did loads of other people in the bar so it ended up being a great and blurry night for us… Ernie and his friends are lovely. Thanks for a fun night.

P.s imo will read pride and prejudice now honest, even thought she’s not met Colin Firth.