It is a BP gas station. Only in LA, eh? The signs above it really make it spectacular. Then I headed north along the PCH along Santa Monica Beach. For the first time in the trip there was actually sun!
I headed north through Malibu to a little place Larry had told me about: Neptune's Net. This little beach bar/seafood shack has been rated #1 for its food, but even better was the atmosphere--it is a total biker bar. I admit I was a little intimidated to walk in!! I drooled a bit over the Harleys out front and finally went in for some fish and chips (when in Rome...) which I ate looking out at the ocean.
Down below there was the typical crowd of surfers, along with two oddballs who stood on their boards while waiting for a wave instead of lying on them like normal people and paddled around with a long oar. They actually surfed this way! Very strange....
Next stop up the coast was Santa Barbara, by far one of my favorite spots in California (thus I have lots of pictures of it). It is mostly a vacation town, with beautiful Spanish mission architecture overhung with bougainvillas and other flowers (being far enough north to be out of the LA desert). Here are views of the beach and the pier:
Next to the pier there was this interesting display--a cross for every soldier that has died in Iraq (it was an awful lot of crosses).
I also took these pictures along the boardwalk... an art car covered in trinkets (the hippies do start that far south) and palm trees (there was a bit of an art fair going on... I had to try my hand at it!)
I headed away from the water and up the mountain toward the old Santa Barbara mission (apparently the most frequently photographed mission in Cali... and there's a lot). I didn't bother going inside, just snapped my picture and headed up into the hills for a vista of the town.
On my way back down I took my tour book's advice and went to a little Mexican shack called "La Super-Rica," apparently raved about by Julia Child herself (yes, i know, i travel by my stomach). I got their especial--basically a plate of beef, cheese and green chile... mmmmmm. (Highly recommended!!!!)
I headed north out of Santa Barbara as evening approached, trying to get as far north as I could before stopping for the night in San Luis Obispo. (note all the previous entries posted on the 8th and 9th... that was what I spent the rest of the night doing at my hotel!)
No comments:
Post a Comment