LA Part 3 Santa Barbara

The final instalment....



The view at Rincon Point



Wednesday morning Pete arrived from Newcastle and in the late morning we headed north to the beach house at Rincon Point via lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant in Malibu. The landscape was beautiful with mountains close to the beach and everything so green and tropical-looking.



Marshmallows!



A beautiful house in a beautiful location. What more can I say? We enjoyed views of surfers and the Pacific Ocean from indoors as it was raining, but it was lovely. Another Dora mexican dinner of chicken enchiladas was great, washed down with some Californian red, including a local Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. Frank, Liam and I enjoyed toasted marshmallows done on the fire.



Breakfast!



Thursday morning we all set out to ihop (International House of Pancakes) in the nearby town of Carpentaria for a great brekkie. From there Pete, Frank, Liam, Phoebe and I set off for Santa Barbara, a very picturesque town with old buildings and palm trees. We visited the Santa Barbara Mission which was spectacular. Beautiful buildings and lovely gardens. This mission is where the first bishop of California lived. We then took in State St for some shopping before returning to the house.





Outside the Santa Barbara Mission.



We went to a local steak house for dinner, and it was a memorable evening. The steak house offers 'meals', so we enjoyed chowder, salad, steak and had to take away the homemade pie that was our dessert. Frank went for peach, and I had banana cream. They were spectacular!

Our last full day turned fine, and we enjoyed the drive back to Santa Monica in beautiful weather. We stopped off at an outlet shopping centre which was great, and we invested in a range of clothing. We were pretty pleased that we got to all the shops until we realised that there was an area twice the size of the one we had done!! Another time!



A courtyard inside the Mission.



We drove back to Santa Monica and enjoyed artichokes before heading out to La Scala for a chopped salad. Frank has talked about this salad since his LA visit in 2003, so it was good to be able to taste it myself! It was good!

St Francis and his cherub.



To bed for an early departure on Saturday morning. We left the house at 6am and flew home to Kamloops via Vancouver. Our kind neighbours Susan and Gary met us at the airport with our car. In our absence the snow had continued and the weather had been pretty bad, it seems. But now it seems that Spring is just about here, with warmer days and the tail end of the snow on nearby hills melting.







Frank and Phoebe enjoying the view.