Vac Day IV - Drive to San Francisco 1 of 2

Tuesday - August 31st, 2010
Los Angeles - Santa Barbara - Solvang - San Simeon

We got the rental for our one way drive to SF. Started driving out around 11AM, stopped by at pharmacy looking for squirt bottle for cellfood, ended up getting ice-creams too. Reached Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) around 1PM before our journey actually begins.

Along the PCH, we encountered with this runaway car speeding blindingly next to us, next thing I saw and heard was sirens of two patrol cars behind me. Coming around a bend, we saw the same car, an Audi crashed into the side of the cliff and two person running to the opposite direction into the ocean trying to escape. It was wild -- felt like we were part of a movie. PCC took some pictures of this, I think.

First stop, about two hours or so into our journey - Santa Barbara. Coincidentally a Farmer's Market was about to be set up at the promenade. It was pure luck because I didn't really plan on going to that specific place in SB. Photo-ops follows:

Since parking is free for the first 75 mins, we took advantage of it and proceeded to the beach for our lunch picnic. Mom, Papa and Sien Ee made porridge for breakfast with omelet, and miscellaneous leftover from previous day's dinner. They also made fried rice to accompany all those dishes.

After finding a nice spot right by the beach, we settled down and started munching away.

With back view of the ocean

With back view of the palm trees and mountains

And here's an attempt of panoramic view of the beach of Santa Barbara:

After our late lunch, we continued our journey to the next town - Solvang, which is about an hour's drive away.

Just pakai hantam see wherever there's a windmill and a Solvang sign for photo-op hehe

We shopped around for about an hour or so and a friend recommended visiting the Santa Ynez (Inez) Mission and we saw it on our way into the town. The colors of the mountain looked spectacular as the setting sun shone onto them. This is where we parked and as you can see there were a lot of cars parked alongside ours, I'm guessing a mass was about to take place at that time... that's also where impromptu qi-gong took place...

After taking this shot, we continued on our journey to the last destination of the day - San Simeon which is about halfway from LA to SF. We reached San Simeon around 9PM and it was pitch dark along the coastal highway which was unfortunate because the coastal have the best views.

After loading all our luggage into our rooms, we still have leftover lunch which we ate for dinner. It was plentiful for the five of us. After that, Papa and Mom showed some qi-gong moves for us to follow. It was great relief for me since I've been driving most of the day.