...We stopped in Encino for Starbucks...Encino was a beautiful town. Just North of all of the "Hollywoodness" was Encino. To avoid the morning rush hour in Los Angeles, we took the 15 North to the 91 West to the 71 North to the 210 West to the 101 North. It was a great route and even at peak rush hour, we did not hit a drop of traffic. So after about two and a half hours in the car, we stopped for Starbucks and a potty break. We wandered around a bit and then headed off to our next destination..
...Santa Barbara! Now, maybe I was missing something, but I was just not that impressed with the city. It was cute and quaint, old at best and very crowded. The ocean was just the ocean and there were a ton of oil rigs right off shore. Not exactly serene. We had lunch at Panera and asked the lady there where we should go because we had two hours to kill so she suggested the pier a few miles away, so that was where we headed next.
Fortunately, we found free parking right on the street in front of the pier. We walked out on the pier and checked out the shops, but again, we just were not that impressed. We kept trying to figure out what we were missing?
Now our next stop, a few miles up the road was amazing...The Bacara Resort and Spa. We stopped here because one of my best friends from high school is the manager of the signature restaurant at the resort and I wanted to see him. So we arranged to see Tyson there at Miro. Unfortunately, we just ate, so we did not have the opportunity to eat there, but we will definitely be back, especially with the generous friends and family discount he extended to us! Lauren had a snack in the lobby while we waited for Tyson to come meet up with us. Lauren was a little crazy, so we did not get a picture of us all together, ugh! or any pictures around the resort. I am still kicking myself for that one!
Our next stop was about an hour North of the Bacara...Solvang! Lauren fell asleep on the way there, so we were not even sure if we were going to get out and explore, but we decided to just get her out and carry her. She eventually woke up. We got there around 4pm and the town closed up at 5pm, so we bought two ornaments and were on our way to our hotel by 5:30pm.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Atascadero and it was AMAZING! It felt like a five star resort. There were so many awesome amenities and it was clean and new. The first thing Lauren did when we got there was pick up the phone "to order room service"...but we beat her to it and disconnected the phone in advance. Haha. We got settled in and went to pick up Taco Bell and brought it back to the hotel for dinner. That night, I "did race research" while Justin went to the gym and Lauren slept.
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