PCH Day 4: Santa Barbara

Day 4

Wednesday was our longest driving day if I remember right. We had to drive from Monterey to Santa Barbara. It was a beautiful drive though. We got a bite to eat at Lily Mae's--a cinnamon roll place on Cannery Row, then we headed out. We started with the 17 Mile Drive that took us through Pebble Beach. The real estate there is incredible. Incredible! I love dreaming about living in some of those homes! From there we made our way down the 1 toward Santa Barbara. Our big touristy spot along the way was a visit to the Hearst Castle. It was a very wealthy publisher's home that he built. Amazing!






We took one of the tours, which was very interesting. The funniest part was that you can't touch anything in the castle or even the pillars or anything! And you have to stay on the "tour carpeting." Several times people would accidentally step off the "path" or rest against a pillar or on a ledge and the tour guides were right on them and said, "Please don't touch the ancient marble" or "Don't touch the ancient Egyptian artifacts." Brian and I got a kick out of that for some reason. We would tease each other throughout the rest of the trip or joked that we would say that to our kids at home: "Please don't touch the ancient tapestry." It was probably only funny to us, but it made us laugh. We drove through Solvang, but it was around 6 and most everything was closed for the evening. So we just drove into Santa Barbara, which is a beautiful city. We stayed at the Four Seasons. It was a nice property. Our room was really nice--another one with a fireplace. After we dropped our stuff in the room, we drove down State Street to find something to eat. We opted for a little place called California Pasta. The food was great! I had a chipotle pasta, which I loved even though it was quite spicy.

The next morning we got up and took a run along the beach and into a neighborhood. I found a couple houses that I would love to own. We got back and got ready for the day. We spent our time in Santa Barbara shopping on State Street. I got Libby a birthday present at the Billabong store and we had lunch in the cafe at Nordstrom. It's on the third floor, so the view was nice. I found a purse in Nordstrom, so I decided to get that instead of do something at the spa in the hotel. It'll last longer for sure! After we were done shopping, we drove to our last stop--Laguna Niguel.

Pictures from our hotel in SB: