We all got up very early Sunday morning and went to Imperial Beach to see the Sandcastle Competitions in San Diego. This is a first for us and it was a blast. Most of the contestants are artists, architects and temporary construction workers who happen to work or play together as a team. In front of them, away from the shores of the beautiful Pacific Coast sandbox, dolphins are showing off in another playing field in the deep blue sea. Hmmm, who do you look at the carvers or the sea life? When the carvers are finished, the artwork gets judged and the winners get a monetary prize. Following the distributions of the blue ribbons, the children are chomping at the bit to destroy the artwork by stomping on the sandcastles. Uugh, all that artwork gets destroyed and smashed to the ground followed by the tide that comes in and wipes out the rest of the artwork.
The freeways are incredible here. First of all the scenery is beautiful and the plant life on the sides of the road are dazzlingly colorful. I counted seven lanes of traffic in one area on the way to L. A. It is wild and we weren’t even in rush hour. Motorcycles were splitting the lanes and Ed was chomping at the bit to do it. Spitting lanes mean you take your motorcycle and go between two lanes of traffic and you actually “make a lane between the normal lanes.” Californians do this all the time and it is legal. However, the fact that we have a trailer on the back of us would not be an ideal situation or a legal condition for splitting lanes. We even took an alternate route to get above L.A. We were encouraged to get out of L.A. before rush hour on Monday and that was truly a wise decision. PCH is Route 1, which intertwines with Rt. 101. It is the same kind of thing as Route 66 and I-40 going out west. We have seen many of the sites in southern California so we needed to start at a place we haven’t seen yet so our first stop was Santa Barbara.
We entered beautiful Santa Barbara last night and all I can say is WOW! This place is hopping for a Sunday evening. It’s been said that Santa Barbara is one of America’s best-kept secrets. I don’t know why it is such a secret because the scenery is stunning and an adult’s paradise. The topographical diversity creates a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities in a relatively compact area.
Santa Barbara area is famous for its beautiful beaches, most of which lie along a unique south-facing stretch of coastline that gives visitors sun all day long and shelter from winds and surf. This area covers enormously varied terrain: nearly one-third of its total acreage is set aside in the Los Padres National Forest, which includes the rugged San Rafael Wilderness Area.
Santa Barbara boasts one of the most pleasant year-round climates in the country. Temperatures range from the mid-60s to mid-70s throughout the year, however late summer highs climb into the 80s. Evening temperatures are refreshingly cool all year long. What more could you want…
