Our final full day on our anniversary trip to the Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara started with a short walk to Chad’s for breakfast. Three straight breakfasts, three straight ocean/beach views.
We used Cal Coast Adventures for our ocean kayaking. I do a lot of kayaking, but got advice to take a tour because a guide can get us to the wildlife faster. Well, at least that was the plan. I didn’t realize Carol had never sea kayaked before so she had some trepidation. Our guide, a young man whose name escapes me, said, as we dragged our kayak through the sand and wind to the powerful incoming waves, “hmmm, these are the biggest swells I’ve seen in the six months I’ve been working here.” Good to know. A great guy, his best service came holding the kayaks steady in the waves as first Carol, then I, hopped onto our single kayaks (we passed on a divorce kayak) before paddling safely through more crashing waves.
We cut through the incoming wind and waves, but it was work. We made it out to a buoy sea lions like to hang out on, but none were on it. Our guide surmised they were looking for a calmer place to hang out. Even to me, the idea of paddling up the coast while the waves smacked the side of our kayaks was not very appealing, so instead we cut around the wharf.
In doing so, I paddled myself into an adventure. As John Passacantando says, “It’s not an adventure till the first thing goes wrong.” I’m used to seeing fishing lines along a river or creek at the last moment, and quickly paddling around them or simply lifting over my head. Well, I never saw the lines coming out a long, long way from the wharf.
Somehow I managed to get the hook, or two, as lines were tangled, snagged on my kayak. I’m paddling, paddling, paddling, and going nowhere. I found it hard to believe I had been hooked. The fishermen were yelling at me, but between the distance and the winds, I could hardly hear them. Just as well. The guide paddled over, and between us, we managed to free me, although I have no idea how. The struggle was real.
Rather than paddling past the fishing lines again, out into the churning, windy ocean, we cut under the wharf (where no fishing is allowed, greatly reducing the odds of me getting snagged again) and into the marina to paddle around the seals. That’s pretty cool. We then rode the surf into the beach and called it a day early. I’ve rarely paddled in winds and waves like that, and I know Carol was done. But it was still fun to do. Good luck that neither of us tipped, but bad luck we had to fight such strong wind and waves. It was still a good adventure.
After showering, we got the car and headed for our anniversary lunch, to a special spot few people have heard of: In-N-Out Burger! We can’t go west without a stop there, and it’s special to eat a burger outside under the warm California sun. No, it’s not as good as Five Guys, but ranking third on the Bolger Burger Rankings is still impressive, especially since first place is held by nearly any burger I grill.
After lunch, we tried the Mission again, but the festival was still going on. I was more ready to fight for parking, but it looked like the Mission was closed (to be fair, it was Memorial Day). So it was Plan B – we drove to UC Santa Barbara, which is the alma mater of our neighbor and good friend, Jeff Farrah.
We walked around the quiet campus (it was a holiday, after all). The setting is amazing, although the architecture is an underwhelming mish-mash of styles. Of course, when you are an undergraduate and your campus has its own beach, you don’t really care about architectural style. We then checked out Jeff’s house that he lived in for three years -- 6866 Del Playa (it's a HUGE tourist attraction). He was both pleased and amused when we sent him a couple of pictures.
We drove around some of the neighborhoods before heading back to our Anniversary couples massage at the spa. That was quite relaxing. Then we headed up to the rooftop for the tapas and bottle of wine we did not have on the sailboat cruise the night before.
Our anniversary dinner was at Plow & Angel restaurant at the San Ysidro Ranch resort, owned by Ty Warner, who made multi-millions off Beanie Babies. He owns a sprawling house cliffside by the ocean, which we sailed past on Sunday night.
Charlie Leonard had advised we get there early, get a glass of wine, and walk around the gardens. Both the flower gardens and the herb gardens are jaw-dropping in beauty and design. At $2,400-$10,000 a night for a room, we’ll never stay overnight there, I mean NEVER, but we highly recommend Plow & Angel for dinner. The main restaurant (upstairs) is the Stonehouse, but Charlie raved about Plow & Angel (as do we now that we’ve been there!).
We ate in one of the gardens. The Grilled Spanish Squid with Onions, Olives, Chorizo, Tangerine (brilliant inclusion!), Wild Argula, Grilled Meyer Lemon, and Romesco sauce was a meal in itself. . .pretty amazing starter. We enjoyed a 1999 bottle of Cali Syrah, and then shared the Colorado rack of lamb, which was also quite tasty. . .especially the sprinkled lamb bacon as part of the side “salad.”
I only had two regrets about dinner. One was that I didn’t bring my camera to take shots of the gardens, and the other is that we Uber’d there. We couldn’t get an Uber to pick us up afterwards, so we had to call a cab and wait quite a while. I would recommend driving.
We were up early the next morning to meet Gene and Cindy in Santa Monica for breakfast, and then it was off to LAX and home. Quite a trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment