Second Leg- to Santa Barbara

On Monday Sept 28, we left Cambria and headed down the coast again to Santa Barbara. The drive from Cambria to Santa Barbara isn't as stunning as the drive from the bay to Cambria, but it's still very scenic. The coastline changes from rocky and craggy to more conventional beach. We drove by Morro Bay, which is famous for a big rock. Also thorough San Luis Obisop, Ventura and Oxnard (shout out!).

We stayed at the Orchid Inn, which actually didn't have many orchids, but it was pretty and central to everything. Going to Santa Barbara was like coming back to civilization after being in Cambria for 2 days. Lots of people walking around and they don't care that you're there to visit their city. But we had fun there, and it is a really beautiful area with lots of good food.

There's a mission, gorgeous (expensive) hillside homes, nice beachfront, and plenty of restaurants. We visited the botanical garden, but most of it was closed to repair damage from a recent fire.

Perhaps my favorite thing was LotusLand, another wacky place build by a really, really rich person, this time a lady named Madame Ganna Walska. She spent the last half of her life gathering and arranging specimends for her dramatic gardens. There are seven or eight different areas, and some have rare species of trees or flowers brought from overseas a hundred years ago. The cactus garden was especially cool.

While in Santa Barbara, we also celebrated our THIRD anniversay. Yay us.

For pictures of the second leg of our road trip click here.