Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). The view from our hotel room. We had a clear sky and an amazing view of the stars on our first night.
The beach was filled with clams. Which was apparenty unusual (per social media chatter) but never saw a definitive answer as to why there were so many clams. The birds (and some people) were enjoying the clam bounty.
On Day 3 we went to the Elfin Forest, which we had to ourselves. Lots of animals and amazing views (the surrounding hills, the salt marsh, sand dunes, and Morro Rock).
On Day 4 we hiked a preserve that was behind our hotel. I've been to the hotel several times over the past ~40 years but I don't believe we have ever done this hike. It's amazing how much forest and shade is hiding behind the brown (summer) hills. We might have walked 6 miles on this day. We had some calories to burn off (re: too much good food).
I shared a photo in my last post (from this hike) of a higher up view of Pismo Beach.
On Day 5 we stopped by a little cafe for dinner. The food was unique.
On Day 7 we went to Solvang, a little Danish town. We have been there before, but this time wanted to be there at night and to see the lights. When we got there the place was packed. They had some sort of festival going on. But thankfully it thinned out quickly. The place is pretty quiet at night. They had a free concert. We ate at a great pub with a perfect view of the sunset and then enjoyed some of the music and people watching.
After staying in idyllic beachfront hotels most of the week, we mostly used Santa Barbara as a point to travel from. So on our last (mostly travel) day we decided we should at least go down to the beach (4 miles from the hotel) and see the beauty of Santa Barbara.
I didn't know that the beach there was right next to a slough and wetlands. We were just squeezing in an early morning walk before we left, but saw some incredible birds.
*Not* my picture, but this is an elegant tern. We saw them dive bombing into the water. We also saw a heron that we could not ID (too far away). But it looked like it might have been a great blue heron. Which is a bird we have abundantly near our house (we live in the wetlands) but that I don't see very often. This experience tells me that I need to up my bird watching game. It would take very little effort.
& after that crazy whirlwind of a month... It's back to reality.
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