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Published: September 22nd 2011
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After a long day of walking yesterday we treated ourselves to a nice lie-in this morning, waking up at about 11:00am. Since we didn't have to be up and out for any reason at all, we took our time getting washed and changed and didn't leave our hotel room until about 1:00pm.
We started walking from our room when Emma mentioned a courthouse just around the corner that is open to the public. It has an elevator up to a viewing tower that gives you spectacular views across all of Santa Barbara. We took a detour from our walk down State Street and found the courthouse pretty easily. We headed inside and took the elevator to the top. It really does give you a great view of everything, from all the local churches, to the mountains and trees surrounding the town, and even the beach in the distance. We took some photos and looked around a bit before coming back down and continuing our journey.
Since it was dinner time, we walked around a little looking for somewhere to eat. Since we'd checked out most of the eateries yesterday, we knew there were only a couple of places that
were relatively cheap and healthy so we headed to the nearest one, which was Quiznos. They are a bit like Subway, basically making a range of different subs, sandwiches and flatbreads. Emma went for (literally) the most healthy sandwich they offered, which was the Road House Steak on flatbread. It was basically slices of roast beef, with onions and a spicy steak sauce. (Fairly cheap aswell, only $3). Craig went for the Chicken Carbonara, which was chicken, bacon, melted mozzarella, drizzled in in a creamy bacon Alfredo sauce. Delicious. (Craig didn't know before ordering that the sub had cheese on it. He's trying to stay away from it a bit now as the lactose intolerance is kicking in more and more).
After eating we decided that since we had only walked down State Street on one side of the road yesterday, we should cross over and walk down to the beach on the other side so we could see all the shops Santa Barbara has to offer. We did almost exactly the same really; stopping at a few interesting shops, checking out the restaurant prices etc. We walked through another little shopping precinct and noticed a fountain full of
turtles, so we stopped to take a few pictures there. We also passed a 'London Pub' with a sign on the door saying 'No Wankers', which we found particularly amusing, mainly as American's don't really use that term and most probably don't really know what it means. Craig was also amazed when a tour bus passed us that was a bus/boat hybrid (they literally drive from the road onto the water, so people can have tours on both land and ocean), so he snapped a photo of that too.
After about 2 hours we finally reached the beach, and had a little walk around. One thing we didn't do yesterday whilst in this area, was walk along the pier, so we figured why not do it today? It's very similar to piers back home; a big wooden walkway with a couple of shops and restaurants along the way (and an EXPENSIVE icecream shop!) but right at the end the hand-rails stop (you can literally fall off the edge into the ocean!), so that people can fish from the pier. As you can imagine, there are about a million seagulls trying to get in on the action, but what surprised
us the most was turning around to see a massive Brown Pelican staring us clean in the face! After sitting down on a bench for a while, it became apparent that there are TONS of massive pelicans around - all waiting for a fish from the fishermen we bet!
We sat and took some pictures, including Emma's great candid shot of a seagull, who just as she pressed the button on the camera, started yawning it's head off - the picture is hilarious! We chilled on the pier for about an hour in all, before deciding it was too cold (due to how windy it was at the end) and that it would be much warmer back on the beach. So that's where we went!
We didn't really do a lot on the beach, just relaxed for an hour or so, discussing how awesome it would be to live here forever! Unlikely, knowing the property prices in this area - Expensive!
After sitting around for a bit longer, we both got a little peckish and walked back onto State Street. We had seen a British "Fish & Chip" shop yesterday whose prices didn't seem too bad, so
we thought we would give it a go since we were at the seaside. Who knew that we'd travel five and a half thousand miles from England and end up eating something we can get on Hydes road?! The portion was quite small (we did ORDER the small though, so we can't moan), but it was very delicious. The fish was so soft and flakey, and the chips were twice-fried for extra yum-factor! The chip shop was very cute, with pictures from cities in England lining the walls (Blackpool, London, Birmingham, Newcastle etc), and your order was served in a basket with fake newspaper like back in the old days in England. We did notice that the staff were British, they must do well out of providing the Americans with something so typically British.
After we had finished (about 5:30pm), the idea was to get a bottle of water from the nearest Pharmacy (it appears this type of shop is the cheapest place for snacks and drinks!), then come back and catch the shuttle bus to a stop closer to our hotel. However, after walking further up State Street to get to one, we realised that we were only
about 1 stop away from the shuttle's final destination, so didn't bother.
We popped into 'CVS Pharmacy', grabbed a bottle of water and also a packet of 'Milk Duds' to satisfy the chocolate cravings we both had. After paying, we headed back out to complete the rest of the journey back to the hotel. We reached our destination at about 6:15pm and decided that tonight would be a relax-in-the-room-and-watch-tv-night,giving our feet a rest from yet another day of walking well over 5 miles.
We watched the usual shows, such as King of Queens, Friends, a couple of CSI-like shows and something about Coca Cola, before noticing that 'The Italian Job' was on, so we watched that too. Emma ended up asleep by about midnight, and Craig watched a few more things before falling asleep at about 1:30am.
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