Day 42-44: La Jolla

Woke up and drove to Intelligentsia to grab a bag of delicious coffee for the road.  Even Steph has come around to the virtues of a good lightly roasted coffee done in the french press.  She isn't even putting her moo moo's in it.  That's a big step.  Anyway, on to La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) for our one long stretch of warm beach pampering.  We arrived at La Jolla Shores around one o'clock, scored an early check-in and headed straight out to the beach.  There's not much to say about it other than it was beautiful, the water was brisk but felt great, and Brett tried unsuccessfully to surf.  Other than that, it was your standard beach vacation and it was ohhhh so needed.  This trip has always been fun, but its also been long and uncomfortable at times......always moving and going to a different place.  We really needed some time to just lay around and recharge and that's exactly what we got in La Jolla.

Day 40-41: Santa Barbara to Santa Monica

We slept in because the Santa Barbara hotel was sooooooo nice and the shower was soooooo good.  Like we gotta have one good.  We grabbed some pastries at the continental breakfast and then took the hotel up on their complimentary bike rentals and hit the beach.  Santa Barbara is a beautiful city with white sand beaches and gorgeous Spanish style houses set up into the greenery of the hillsides.  It would be a nice place to stay a few days but for us it was just a convenient stop along Hwy 1.  Off to Santa Monica for us.

The road to Santa Monica took us through Malibu and its pretty. About how you'd picture it in your head.  Mega mansions set into high hillsides with panoramic views of the pacific ocean.  Must be nice but that's not really our scene so we just shot on through.  We arrived at our hotel around 2ish and hit the beach for the afternoon.  The water was ALMOST.....ALMOST warm enough to swim in, but it was too windy and we would have been freezing coming out of the water.  That's the thing about the Pacific Coast.  It's water and beaches are some of the most beautiful we've ever seen and a swim seems sooooo inviting, but as soon as your feet hit the water .....no sir.  Never really out of the 60's and the water in Washington beaches had to be closer to the 40's.  That will kill you without a wetsuit.  Ohh well, there's always another beach on down the highway.

That night we were looking around Yelp for a place to eat and found one of our favorite things. A ramen shop.  Yuuuuuummm.  The noodles were cooked to perfection.  That perfect chewiness and the broth was delicious.  Nashville needs more Ramen.  Unfortunately we ate too much AGAIN lol.  I guess all that time camping, eating freeze dried food and hotdogs makes us want to pig out when we get the chance to eat some real food.  We gotta keep this in check.

The next day we woke up with one goal.  Rent some bikes and ride down to Venice Beach and see what all the fuss is about.  If you're noticing a bike trend here, you're right.  Bikes are an awesome way to see a lot of a city for cheap and enjoy being outdoors without the hassle. Highly recommended.
As for Venice, what a cool place.  Bustling with activity.  Full of weird people, fit people, muscular people, homeless people, all KINDS of people.  Unfortunately one of the first things Brett found was the skate park and it was hard to drag him away.  There were some really talented skaters there and it is super cool to watch them do their thing.  They make it look so easy.

After that we rode on down, did some shopping, went to Muscle Beach and just took it all in.

After leaving Venice we had a bit of extra time so we rode down to the famous Santa Monica Pier.  The one with the roller coaster on it.  When we got there we were more excited about the beach park than the pier so we hung around for a bit.  Right there in the sand they have huge swing-sets.  Ropes to climb.  Long chains of Olympic rings right in a row so you can swing between them.  This would be so awesome to have near your house.  There were also some guys and gals bouncing around on some weird combination of a tightrope mixed with a trampoline.  

 Brett couldn't help himself and just had to get on the swings and swing super high to jump out of them into the sand like he used to as a little kid.  This ended when on the last jump the swing caught his shorts and almost ripped them clean off right there in front of everyone.  Man, if he had to ride his bike back 2 miles down a super crowded beach walkway with his bare butt hanging out......well, lets just say he would have never heard the end of it.  LOL!!!

After returning the bikes it was time for a bite to eat and tonight it was sushi time.  Can't remember the name of the restaurant, but they did a roll where they must have pan fried a square of rice until it was SUPER crispy and then topped it with spicy tuna and mayo and some Sriracha.  Talk about delicious.  Finally we did NOT eat too much so going to sleep would be so much easier that night.  But before hitting the bed we decided to have dessert on the hotel rooftop deck and work on the blog.  Shortly after getting started I (Brett) had to go to the bathroom.  As I was returning Stephanie came running down the stairs with her arms FULL of all our stuff. "Brett I have to go to the BATHROOM" she yelled the look in her eyes was one of panicked desperation. "I ALREADY STARTED!" she yelled.   As I tried to hurry her to the bathroom she looked at me with with terror as she started to squat in a bush right in front of someone's hotel window without even pulling her dress up.  LOLOLOL.  I asked her what the heck she was doing and insisted she run to the room.  "DON'T LOOK AT ME" she yelled as she flew by.   Poor thing.  Afterward we laughed about it for quite a while before winding down for bed.

Day 39: Six Flags

OHHHHHH YEAH!!!  Been waiting for this change of pace for a while.  One of Brett's co-workers is a hardcore roller coaster afficionado and said that Six Flags Magic Mountain is one of the best parks in the entire world.  Neither of us has been on a roller coaster since high school so we were excited and a bit nervous.

The rides here were straight up epic.  Lets just say roller coasters have come a long way since back when we were riding them.  We rode pretty much everything in the park including Tatsu, which suspends you face down UNDERNEATH the track.  So its kind of like you'er flying.  On one of the loops you actually do a nose dive and then end up on your back upside down pulling mega G's.  Pretty insane.

We rode the Lex Luther Drop of Doom two times.  Its one of the Freefall type drops, but its only really got a lap bar holding you in.  And the sick SOB's that created the ride made it fake like its going to drop you before it actually happens.  

Brett's favorite was Goliath which has a 285 ft first drop and Steph's fave was Twisted Colossus which is an old wooden coaster that they've retrofitted with steel tracks.  That thing was insane.  What made the trip better was the "Flash Pass" where they give you a little keychain thing where you reserve the ride you want to go to next and it buzzes when you're ready to ride.  You then just go jump on without having to wait in line.  This is a must do if you're lazy like us and don't feel like waiting hours for a 30 second ride any more.  All in all it was a really excellent day at the park and we'd definitely love to go back.
 

After the days festivities it was time for some Del Taco and off to Santa Barbara.

Day 37 -38: Wine Country

Day 37
Woke up hongry for a good breakfast and ready to hit Paso Robles which is some prime-time wine country, not just for California but worldwide.  Our final destination for the day would be Morro Bay so, to keep things interesting, Brett found a route where we wouldn't retread the same ground.  As we started off, the road was twisty and headed over a mountain range destined for the next valley over where the vineyards are.  As we got further in, the hills got steeper and the road turned from pavement to gravel.  Hmm, that's not good, but the steed can handle this so we kept going.  Not 5 minutes later we had to pass two massive tanker trucks on a road so thin that we had to almost pull off in the ditch.  Ok, things are getting dicey at this point, but its all about the adventure right?  Wrong.....  Not one mile further down the road it turned to dirt and then shortly after that, mud.  Time to stop.  Today is not the day to get stuck in the mud and have to call someone to drag us down the mountain.  On the way back down the winding twisting road Steph got car sick.  This day is not going as planned lol.  Ohh well, gotta carry on. 

When we FINALLY arrived in Paso we had pretty much lost two hours, but we still had plenty of time to see what wine country was all about.  We ended up visiting Jada, Brecon, Halter Ranch, and Oso Libre.  All the wines were using grapes from the region but they tasted so different.

After a great day of wine and beautiful countryside we headed out for Morro Bay and checked into the Estero Inn.  After chilling out for a while and taking in the sites of the bay we headed out for dinner at The Galley for some excellent locally caught seafood.  Great way to end the day.

Day 38: Santa Ynez
Woke up this morning and walked around Morro Bay and then left for Santa Ynez Valley for some more of wine country.  If you've ever seen the movie Sideways, this was where some of it was shot.   We stopped by Brander,  Bridlewood, Vincent and Roblar.  In comparison to Paso Robles the wineries in this region were much larger and produced much more wine.  This also meant they were more commercialized and crowded.  It made us miss the backyard dinner party vibe of Paso Robles, but it did not stop us from tasting many delicious wines and buying a few bottles to take on the road.

After four wineries it was time to get to the hotel which, in this case, was a place called Pea Soup Anderson.  It gets its name from a similarly named restaurant that specialized in Pea Soup way back when.  We got back just in time to go for a dip in the pool and relax in the hot tub.  We chatted with some interesting folks and then walked down the road for a bite to eat at a place called Industrial Eats.  The food was delicious, but we ate way too much and the food was heavy on the garlic.  The combination had us both with upset stomachs.  Not the best way to go into an impending trip to Six Flags!

Day 36: Carmel to San Simeon

Day 36

After leaving Carmel we were on our way to one of the most anticipated stretches of our trip.  The best section of Hwy 1 and Big Sur followed by wine country.  We were originally supposed to camp at Pfeifer Beach State Park, but unfortunately those plans got cancelled because the Sobranes wildfire burned a large portion of the park, some 60,000 acres at the time we passed.  So, we decided to just wing it and take our time meandering down the coast and end up wherever we ended up for the night.

On the way out of Carmel we stopped at the absolutely gorgeous Point Lobos state park for some of the most stunning coastline we'd see the whole trip.

Next down to McWay falls which is pretty much iconic at this point.  A rare waterfall that actually empties right on the beach.

We then headed on down the coast to a beach that Elephant Seals return to every year.  These suckers can get up to 18 ft long and 5000 lbs.  Its crazy to see them laying around and fighting over females all day.  Not to mention the odd snorting sounds they make.

After all this excitement it was time to find a place to stay for the night.  As we arrived in San Simeon we knew it fit the bill so we checked into The Sands hotel and went into town to get some grub.  With a good meal in our bellies we headed back to catch the sunset at the hotel.

Since the coast is so cold at night The Sands lights bonfires near the beach at night so we wound down next to the fire hoping to meet some interesting fellow travelers.  Later in the evening two fellows named Bill and Ted(no, not THAT Bill and Ted) strolled up and we knew we were in business.  After some great conversation and a few rounds of smoky scotch courtesy of Ted we headed to bed.