Down and out in Santa Barbara

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Road trip

For our last week in California Jen and I decided to get ourselves some wheels, hit the road and head down the coast. We'd taken up a very kind offer from Tom the driver on our Yosemite trip to meet us and help Jen get to grips with driving in America and all the different laws and to talk us through the route to Highway 1 from the car hire place, with Jen driving he took us on the route and then we took him back into town and dropped him off. I don't know how far we would have got without his help, but once we were going Jen picked it up really quick and drove like a true pro, only occaisionly veering towards the edge of the road towards the cliff edge......

No strip lighting please, we're British

We headed off down the famous highway 1 stopping to take in the views along the way although it was pretty misty all the way down along the coast line, it didn't take long to get to Monterey and so we headed out for a few drinks in town. We'd been warned that it was a pretty quiet place, very pretty but not much going on. There were a few bars, nearly all of which claimed to be traditional 'English' pubs, I'm not sure why there is such an 'English' theme in Monterey? - Answers on a postcard please. We came across what we thought was a bar and chatted to the folks on the door and they said there was a burlesque show on and as we were on holiday we could get in for free. Very chuffed at our good fortune we headed in to see what sort of show it would be........Oh dear lord. It was basically a very poor strip club, one room for women and one for men, but as we were there we thought we'd better take a look..... The first bloke was new, it was his first night, he couldn't dance and obviously didn't have a clue what he was doing, the next one wasn't much better, and they rather oddly stripped down to a g-string and then quickly put on some boxers over the top to carry on dancing. It was also one of the darkest clubs I've ever been in, not one spotlight was aimed at the stage, but to be honest this was something we were rather grateful for given the standard of the entertainment........ One of them came over and tried to give me a massage and then saw my face and made a sharp exit..... After checking out the other room, which was really just a club playing bad music - there didn't seem to be any women strippers, the blokes were just happily standing around watching the girls on the dance floor - a much cheaper option for the club than employing actual professionals obviously. Having got in for free we couldn't demand our money back but we were considering charging them for our time, it really was a truly terrible club.

Searching for the sun

Monterey and Carmel is a nice area though, Carmel coastline is beautiful and filled with little Hobit-esque style houses, not what I expected at all. We saw some Brown Pelicans that were huge and a whole variety of other birds on the sand dunes and by the water but with our limited knowledge we didn't really know what we were looking at. We also saw a better side to Monterey the next day, its a really clean and pretty place and there was a big market all down the main street and lots of friendly folk around. But it was still misty, we'd headed down the coast to find the sunshine, but alas, Monterey beach didn't step up to the task, we had to drive inland to Carmel Valley Village to find some sunbathing weather. You only have to go inland a little way and you get to the baking heat, its just this strange mist that hangs over the coast line blocking out the sun and making it feel cold.

Elephant spotting in California...??

After a couple of nights in Monterey we head off down the coast again to Santa Barabara. it took us nearly all day to do just over 200 miles, We drove all along Highway 1, along Big Sur where the roads are really narrow and winding and the views are amazing.....apparently. We didn't get to see so much due to.....yes, you guessed it, the mist and fog. But occasionly we manged to catch a glimpse of the sea below and the cliffs and beaches and then we began to climb higher and we ended up above the cloud level, it was like being in an aeroplane looking out at the cloud line. It felt like we stopped every 30 mins so we could try and get a better look at it all, but as I say the views were pretty limited. But we saw an amazing sight as we got to lower ground further along the coastline, a beach filled with Elephant seals! The area is cordened off so the public can't get to it as its an area the seals come back to every year. They were all just lying on the sand, stinky and big and blubbery, one would occaisionly try and shuffle a bit further up the beach or flick sand over himself and there was a few in the water fighting each other, but it didn't look like they were too serious, just a bit of inept rearing up and attempts at biting each other - it all looked a bit tricky without the aid of actual limbs though. Of course there was the cute little baby as well which I ooohed and aaaahed over, they are much cuter without the big elephant stylee noses. It was all very cool and besides the the smell we could have stayed for ages watching them.

The littlest Hobo's

As we travelled further down we were getting more and more worried as the cloud wasn't lifting at all, there was no sign of the famous sunny Califoria beaches, just as we were about to give up we drove into Santa Barbara and the sun was shining everywhere! There were palm trees along the beach and the sandy moutains in the background, finally we had reached the sun!! We'd overspent a little in our first week in San Fran, mostly on all the amazing food and so we had to try and do Santa Barbara on the cheap - which is pretty hard. Its quite an expensive place and there's only one hostel, which we'd been warned about staying in.... So we spent our evening sitting on the beach drinking wine out of paper cups and feasting on cheese and crackers and one of the nights we parked the car up near the hostel and joined the bums of Santa Barbara and slept out in our car. There was quite a community of people sleeping in various beat up vans and opne particularly odd van completely cpvered in what mostly looked like the free toys you get out of cereal boxes...but when you put it all together it was a pretty amazing sight. Unfortunatley the hostel was also right next to the railway track, we managed to sleep pretty well - the bottles of wine may have helped - but when the trains went past they sounded their horns and it was VERY loud, it felt like the train was actually driving through the car at some points. On our last night we gave in and stayed in the dorm in the hostel and it was pretty much as bad as we'd been told it was, bad service, bed bugs, grubby and flimsy, not good at all, the car had been a much better option.

Drinking, dancing and dodgy facial hair

But Santa Barbara was lovely, a really nice, clean, pretty town. Lots of little boutiques and funky second hand shops and restauraunts and bars. It's obviously a place with money, very well looked after and even the homeless guys seemed better dressed and more polite...... We made the most of the beach and lazed around and thanks to our night in the car we headed out for a meal out on the town on the Friday night. On the Saturday we headed back up the coast to San Fransisco stopping off for a night at a little place called Cambria, we weren't expecting much from this little town but it turned out to be a fantastic time. The population is only around 6000 so there's not much there excpet a few shops (although its a lot bigger than the nieghbouring town of Harmony with its 18 residents). When we arrived we had just enough time to walk down to Moonstone beach and catch the end of the sunset and watch the stars start to come out. Heading back we stopped in pretty much the only bar, saloon style, for a quick drink before an early night. However, we quickly got a taste for the very cheap wine we were drinking and we got chatting to the locals who were all very intigued by us and wanted to hear all about England in exchange for many more glasses of wine, people were practically queing up to buy us drinks and ask us about England and what we thought of America. I ended up dancing with some bloke with a very dodgy moustache to the American rock band playing in the corner. At the end of the night we were desperate for some chips or a takeaway but were laughed at when we asked where the nearest kebab shop was, there is pretty much one street in Cambria so there's not much going on, but we were saved by Mitch the window cleaner who had cold pizza in his pick up truck - what classy ladies we are!

3 countries in one day....

So on the Sunday Jen had to tackle driving back up Big Sur and the twisty tiny roads with a stinking hangover, we took it very steady and took frequent stops, there was a little less cloud and mist around this time so we did see a bit more. Stopping at Whale Watcher Cafe we stared out to sea for a long time and nearly saw a Whale, but then realised it was some rocks........We also drove to a little Danish town called 'Solvang', it was like a toy town, it looked like someone had just planted a whole Danish townin the middle of the Califonia hills, complete with windmills. But apparently it dates back to the 1800's when some Danish settlers chose the area for its fertile farming land and it developed from there, its a bit of a tourist trap now, but very cute. We also came across some lovely vin yards and popped in to the 'Blackjack' winery where they filmed some of the film 'Sideways', but didn't get the chance to sample any of the wines unfortunatley - prices have obviously gone up there since the film came out. So after visitng the traditional Greek festival in Santa Barbara for the morning and tucking into a kebab and then demolishing a huge Danish Ice Cream in Solvang we had quite a continental day!

Solitary and sad

Going back the Green Tortoise hostel in San Fran was like getting back home, we even had the same little room looking out onto the street and down into the city. We only had a couple of days before Jen got her flight back so we did the last few things we wanted to before she left - like having dinner at the House of Nanking again - the best chinese food, my mouth is watering just thinking about it, and we headed up Coit tower to take in the views of the whole city and had ourselves some cocktails and a few drinks out in our favourite little bars. Vesuvios, next to the City Lights book store where Jack Kerouac and the Beat writers had hung out all those years ago, they were great little atmospheric bars filled with memorabelia all around you and the book store itself is crammed full of fantastic literature, you could spend all day just looking around the shelves at it all.

So Jen left me all on my own on the Tuesday 2nd August, she had a really early start and so we said goodbye with bleary teary eyes, I was very sad to see the hair straightene......ahem, I mean Jen go...... It felt very strange to be on my own after that and I was pretty keen to get out of the city and get to New Zealand, it didn't seem right to be there without Jen. To cheer myself up I went to the cinema and then headed to the Cheesecake Factory at the top of Maceys and sat out on the terrace with a HUGE piece of lemon and raspberry cheesecake and a large glass of bubbly, it cost far too much but was more than worth it for the rather lovely waiter who served me. I had a new room mate for the night before I got my flight. A 60 year old Transvestite from New York who was training to become a nurse, she had some stories to tell!

Off to pastures new

I have to say I loved America, well, the bit I saw of it anyway, it has changed my opinion about a lot of things and has made me re-think a lot of the preconceptions I had about the place. The people were so friendly and helpful, nearly everywhere had re-cycling bins - in the parks and hostels, etc... It was pretty clean and everything seemed really well looked after, we both really took to San Fransisco, it seems like an easy place to live in and pretty diverese. We were lucky to be staying a few doors down from a historical monument; the 'Condor' bar - the worlds first topless and bottomless club - what more can you ask for??! But even though we were staying right in amongst a load of strip clubs and a shop claiming to sell the cities 'nastiest' videos, it still didn't feel seedy somehow. Driving through a lot of the small towns they seemed a bit souless, custom built and practical, one place even had road names of A through to Z rather than actual words - inspiration really must have run dry in that place.... But others were full of character and looked lovely, and I was very chuffed to see my first proper drive in movie theatre!

I would love to see more of the country, to see how different California really is to the rest of America, as I've been told, I'm sure each state is different, you'd could spend a long time there trying to find out. Anyway, time to leave the land of the free and head to the land of volcanoes, glaciers and sheep, oh and winter...............brrrrrrrrrrrr.

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Photos

...not a view in sight.......
too misty for me to see, but apparently its beautiful out there....

not a whole lot of activity.....
Elephant seals lazing in the sun on the California coast

fight!!
Elephant seals havin' a go.

Beach bum
time for wine in Santa Barbara...

wearing actual dresses for once
(note the red wine in the plastic water bottles....classy girls)

Santa Barbara coast line
looking back to the coast from the pier

still the mist hounds us...
looking down the coast at Santa Barbara

Comments

[Tom Monaghan]

Some people have all the fun!!!
Anna, Glad to have been a little part of it...see you again I hope...Tom