Day 3

We awoke at 7:30 and showered/dressed/checked out of our motel. Breakfast was on our minds as we stumbled into the Cowgirl Cafe in a neighboring town of Pismo Beach. Bacon, Sausage, eggs, pancakes, and coffee provided the fuel that would power me through the day. Our next stop was the Cottonwood Canyon Winery off of Route 101. We enjoyed a tasting of many different wines ranging from Chardonnay to Pinot Noir to a Port-like dessert wine. The wines were quite tasty, although I never can distinguish between all of the subtle flavors in each taste that they advertise. I bought a bottle of the 2001 Chardonnay to enjoy at a future hotel on road trip USA! We left the winery and headed to Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is a great town! It has nice beaches, a clean vibe with a lot of Spanish influence in its architecture, and nice people. We decided to walk along the waterfront for a bit but quickly changed our mind when we saw that we could rent surreys! Surreys look like golf carts but with no floor and instead pedals are in place so they look kind of like a Flinstones car. We rented one for an hour and had a ball riding up and down the bike path along the beaches. We had a hard time maneuvering it at first but got the hang of it. Despite the fact we looked like foolish idiots, we had a great time! After finishing, we took a quick walk up the main street, and then headed back to the rental car and left for L.A. We stayed on route 1 so we could stay along the coast and drive through Malibu. Malibu was disappointing as it just seemed like a generic beach town with no character. We arrived at our friends Jess and Wheeler's place and went out for a nice Italian Dinner. After a refreshing dessert of Gelato, we headed back to their place for some R&R. It was great to spend time with them and we think they should move back to Boston ASAP!