Day 26 – On to Santa Barbara (July 8th)

We were slow to get moving Monday morning. Lazily enjoying our last few hours on the vineyard seemed too good to pass up (even if that meant we'd never make it to the Firestone Brewery in Paso-dang!) We stopped at an amazing multi-generational deli before heading south and picked up a couple fresh-made cold cuts for the road.

From there we drove off towards San Luis Obispo wine country but after a brief jaunt down that path we decided instead to take lunch in Los Olivios (half way between SLO and Santa Barbara).

Which way to the winery?

We stopped in the tiny town of Los Olivos and enjoyed our delicious deli sandwiches in a public park in the city center. It was very warm but shade was a plenty. Toilets, on the other hand, were much harder to find...

We popped into Byron. I knew the Byron name from Sideways and hoped they'd have a bathroom (in addition to some delicious wine). They didn't have a bathroom but the tasting was great (they only make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and they do a damn good job with both). Although they didn't provide a bathroom they kindly directed us to a porta potty down the street. Done. (Apparently there's such a water shortage in Los Olivos public restrooms are just not generally provided by businesses). We also stopped at Qupe (at Byron's recommendation). They produce mainly organic and biodynamic (whatever that means) wines. We had a couple of dry whites and a couple of red blends (mostly Rhone varietals). We liked their wines a lot too.

From there we headed south. The most direct route to Santa Barbara would require going back to the 101 but I wanted to stop by a few more Sideways landmarks so we headed dew south for Solvang, a Danish community that fully embraces it's heritage.

Solvang, CA

We strolled through the cute (albeit a tad chincy) downtown before hopping back in the car and heading onward to Buelton. Buelton is home of the Windmill Inn (where Miles and Jack stay during their time in wine country in Sideways) and drove past the Hitching Post winery, which is actually just a large building in an industrial block a mile or so east of the Hitching Post II restaurant (where Miles meets Maya).

Well into the afternoon already and without a place to stay for the night we quickened our pace. It was almost 5pm when we approached Santa Barbara. We spotted a campground 5-miles north of the city and on a whim exited the interstate to inquire about availability. We hadn't planned on camping that night but we were open to the idea because we had been loving camping together and we knew hotels in SB would be much more expensive than they had been in other cities. To our surprise the campground was not only full, but 45-dollars a night for tent campers. We were a bit shocked because camping in Yosemite National Park, one of the most beautiful parks in the country, if not the world, had cost us approximately half of that a couple of weeks earlier.

Moving on.. I started scanning Yelp for places to stay. I'd visited Santa Barbara once before (5-years earlier) and remembered from that visit that hotels tended to be most expensive near the wharf, and descending as you moved farther up the hill away from downtown. As Lauren drove I worked my way down the list inquiring about rooms and availability. $195, $180, $155, $175. It was becoming increasingly clear that our "San Luis Obispo Splurge" of $118/night was not going to be that much of a splurge when compared to our Santa Barbara stay. I eventually worked my way down the list to the Agave Inn. It had good reviews online and a room available at a reasonable price ($129 + tax). Sold. We checked in and were pleasantly surprised with the cute and modern accents.

Not shabby!

We were in desperate need of clean clothes so we went to a laundry mat down the street and did some reading while our double-load cycle ran. Although we were tired from an already long day, Lauren was anxious to see downtown so we hopped in the Subaru and drove towards the wharf. After walking around a bit we grabbed a late dinner at the Santa Barbara Brewing company. The food and beer were just as good and I remember from 5-years prior ;)

-Dan

Santa Barbara from the Wharf at night!