Santa Barbara and the Pacific Coast Highway, California Highlights over Veterans’ Weekend 2017

• Pacific Coast Highway – Malibu State Park, One Thousand Steps Beach, Carpinteria Bluffs, El Matador State Beach and the Malibu Pier
• Stearns Wharf and State Street
• Gaviota State Park via El Camino Real
• Solvang for dessert and Sides for lunch
• Lizard’s Mouth in the Los Padres National Forest
• Sunset from Franceschi Park
• Sunset by the Four Seasons Hotel

I can’t complain about the LA traffic, coming from the DC area. We left LA and headed west on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) toward Santa Barbara. Since the sunset was shortly before 5 p.m., we found a free spot along the PCH near a veterinarian hospital and walked into the Malibu State Park. The reflections and cranes in the water were beautiful. We walked to the beach and found a tiny obstruction blocking a clear picture of the sunset as the tide was rolling in. This didn’t stop us from enjoying it or getting pictures.

We turned our attention to the water behind us and found fish jumping out of water and all kinds of birds! It was fun to watch along with the surfers on the ocean side. After the sunset, we continued our drive, to State Street in Santa Barbara. This is the happening street with the restaurants, shops, bars, etc. and we found free parking on Chapala Street. We walked to Stearns Wharf and saw (and heard) the party ships on the ocean. The boardwalk is nice to walk along and the seafood restaurant toward the end has live lobsters and crabs you can catch a glimpse of in the window. Reminded me of trips to Publix as a kid when my brother and I would watch the live lobsters when we were grocery shopping with our Dad. Before heading to our friends’ place, I got an evening coffee at the Santa Barbara Coffee Roasters which was the only open coffee shop I could find on Saturday night.

We met our friends at a gorgeous mansion about 15 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. They rent a room and bathroom is a beautiful home with eclectic art work, an expansive backyard and multiple fireplaces! We got to stay in the amazing loft! The place felt like a dream!

After a restful evening, we ate a delicious breakfast and then drove to Gaviota State Park via El Camino Real. We parked up the hill from the park, in a free spot and took a nice short hike. We then walked into the park for a view from the beach. From here we drove about 20 minutes to Solvang. This city is amazing!

It was founded over 100 years ago by 3 Danish men. There are tons of bakeries, cute shops and details to see like old red phone booths (we couldn’t help ourselves) and windmills. After exploring the town, we were starving! We at a place relatively close by called Sides. The food here was literally, the best we’ve ever had! The burger, fish tacos and butternut squash soup were incredulous!

We knew we wanted to walk off our food, so we drove through Los Padres National Forest and headed for Lizard’s Mouth Rock. Prepare yourself for the windy drive to get here! This was a short, but amazing walk! The large rocks overlooking Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean are a must see! We took endless selfies! We made our way from here to the One Thousand Steps beach before high tide. Luckily, it wasn’t literally 1,000 steps to the beach. The beach is covered in beautiful rocks.

As it was getting closer to sunset, we made our way to State Street. We got coffee at Dune and explored Paaseo Nuevo, saw the McConnell’s ice cream store and then drove to Franceschi Park. It was crazy to learn that the surrounding houses had banded together to get approval for an illegal gate to block visitors from visiting this park months prior. We didn’t have any issues, parked in one of the limited spots and took in a gorgeous purple sunset! We also explored the abandoned looking mansion.

As if we hadn’t packed enough into one day, we drove to the Four Seasons Hotel in Montecito to see the last bit of the sunset. Back at the SB mansion, our friends introduced us to a game called Exploding Kittens*! It was such a blast.

Monday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to Carpinteria Bluffs. We love seeing animals in their natural habitat and after a leisurely walk, we found the sunbathing seals! We’re glad we didn’t give up – it really was only a matter of continuing to walk north with the ocean to your left until you see them.

The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is exactly what we hoped – a relaxing drive with non-stop beaches to pick from. We stopped at El Matador State Beach, Zuma Beach and Malibu Beach and Pier on our drive back to Los Angeles. El Matador was our favorite as we saw a perched pelican, tons of curlews (type of bird) and two beach photo shoots! The rock formations are really incredible here too.

Pelican at El Matador State Beach | Teamtravelsblog

Curlews at El Matador State Beach | Teamtravelsblog

If you want to read about how we spent the rest of our Monday in Los Angeles or our day prior to Santa Barbara, check out my previous article titled, “Ve-nice to Hollywood”. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and the connecting Pacific Coast Highway are completing doable on a long weekend! I hope you picked up some tips!