North from LA

We traveled up to Santa Barbara County recently. Most of the journey was spent getting out of LA County. The problem is that the Santa Monica Mountains are in the way.  The weather has been a dream most of our trip and we wanted to take advantage of it by heading north to the Central Coast.


I love the Central Coast and Santa Barbara. We didn't manage to get as far north as San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay, maybe next time.  Our aim was to visit both the city of Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley. We have been in Santa Barbara before and it is a great place to visit and pretty nice to live in (except for the earthquakes which are a serious problem).  If you are ever visiting here, you MUST visit the Botanical Garden, home to a variety of beautiful and wondrous plants, including some giant redwoods.Go to the Mission if you like that sort of thing. We were not going to be there long so our visit focused on the Karpeles Manuscript Library and a nearby used bookstore.  The Library holds several original documents of interest to American History buffs. There are a small number of Karpeles Libraries sprinkled around the country but I had never heard of it before. The bookstore was very well organized and stocked. Of course I managed to liberate a treasure to take home.

After lunch in one of Santa Barbara's nice restaurants we continued north on 101 to the Santa Ynez Valley. For those of you familiar with the movie Sideways it was filmed here in the Central Coast's Wine Country. Wine tourism is very big here and tasting shops abound. It is also a nice place to get some really nice olive oil and other olive products. We stopped in Solvang which is a Danish American town.  Little shops, restaurants, and Danish bakeries abound.  If you haven't tasted Ingeborg's chocolate or Olsen's Danish Village bakery products you haven't lived.

The drive through the Santa Ynez Mountains and valleys was lovely. Much less hectic and crowded than LA. We stopped at Lake Cachuma to see several pairs of nesting American Bald Eagles. This lovely lake is open to visitors who can picnic, hike, and boat. Swimming is off limits however since the lake is the source of the valley's drinking water.

We were sorry that we hadn't planned a longer trip so we could explore farther north. I definitely want to get to San Luis Obispo County next year. Anyhow we returned to Santa Monica (however reluctantly) with a bottle of the valley's red wine, some to die for fig infused balsamic vinegar, olive oil, candy, and cookies.  Not a bad haul, and some consolation for having to return to mad, bad LA.