Bye, bye LA. We packed up, checked out, and were in our way north on Hollywood Freeway / 101 around 9am. At Woodland Hills, we decided to take road 27 south via Topanga Canyon down to Pacific Coast Highway to follow the coastal road.
We stopped at Malibu to check out the Malibu Pier. Very nice, but no surf. And no coffee shop to our disappointment (there was a Jack in the Box there, but we decided against it).
Some pics from the pier...
A bit further north in Ventura County, we stopped at Neptune's Net for a coffee and a... fish. Well, we had to try it. Opposite the restaurant was this surfer / skateboard dude, to the left of the picture below. Perhaps he was wishful thinking some waves (because there were none).
We continued north and decided to stop at Santa Barbara for lunch, but first a look at today's second pier, Santa Barbara Pier.
Below are some innovative ways of earning money... And yep, we fell for it and threw some coins. Di's coin landed on " greatest birthday ever" - we will see in 6 weeks time. Hans, take note!
A self portrait from the pier...
There was truly bird mayhem at the pier, giving Alfred Hitchcock a run for his money. Grey colored pelicans were diving for fish and then had to fight off other birds once they got out of the water with a small fish in their beak.
This next guy however was having a break and was totally comfortable with our presence.
Hans feels like an extra in "The Birds".
Santa Barbara is a nice town but we did not stop long. A quick hotdog lunch and then further north. After Santa Barbara, we decided to get off the main highway again for a smaller and more scenic state highway, which crossed the mountains and took us to Los Olivos (small, but posh), Solvang (bigger, looked more interesting, but also quite touristy, Danish flags and names and phrases everywhere) and Buellton (by the freeway, but with Hitching Post 2).
Between Los Olivos and Solvang is Blackjack vineyard which advertised "as seen in Sideways". We will return and explore more later.
Start of business for the youth hostel in San Luis Obispo is 4.30pm and we timed our arrival perfectly. Fun kind of place, very nice bloke in the reception who we pestered with all types of questions being youth hostel novices. However, our room was very small and could not be locked from the outside, except by a quarter coin. They had lockers, but they looked like a kid could pull them apart. It will do for tonight.
However, the place felt very safe, an old building in a nice residential area. BTW, San Luis Obispo was recently voted "the happiest place in the US". A lot for their residents to live up to!
We took an evening walk to get our bearing and some dinner. Below is the mission, which we need to explore more.
This is a shop in San Luis Obispo which made us laugh.
For those who find it a bit rude... Fanny is "bum" here.
Night time street scene. Very pleasant place.
Dinner was a smallish shared pizza and a salad - total $20. Quite nice and very easy going with the owner sharing he was from Napoli 22 years ago. We picked up a few breakfast items and a bottle of California Red in the way back, enjoying it in the living area of the hostel (very discreetly, as it is against the rules).
Di checked whether the other slightly bigger private (and lockable) room would be available the next day and for $5 extra it was. We booked it. All good.
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