[ live the dream...! ]: the santa barbara roadtrip...

the only thing i ever knew about santa barbara was that it was some boring soap that used to come on in the afternoon when i was a kiddy and bore me to tears - not that i ever watched - boy has my perception of those two words changed...

a little background...if you are interested?

sitting pretty on the pacific coast south of san francisco and north of los angeles, santa barbara is many things at once: a celebrity hideaway, a soap opera location, a beach party zone, a centre of higher learning and an elegant spanish-style resort town.

its TV celebrity is easy to understand: this is one telegenic place. affluent and picturesque, with lots of red-tile roofs and white stucco, the city has the easygoing seaside attitude and looks of a mediterranean town. but make that a californian mediterranean town, dude.

five colleges in the area, including the university of california at santa barbara (UCSB), give the town a youthful zest and provide a little contrast to the town's white-ducks yachting crowd and wealthy retirees. the city is surrounded by good beaches and the nearby santa ynez mountains and los padres national park offer great opportunities for hiking and camping.

being memorial weekend, 11 of my newest friends and i decided to embark on a trip 5 hours south of san fran...EY kindly gave us friday off, making it a four-day long weekend...we took the 101 south out of san fran and stopped at one or two little towns on the way down...nothing too interesting...

pulled into santa barbara and took a drive down state street, which is a tree lined, bar-overflowing, music pumping, hip kinda street with some awesome shopping...just over the train tracks we spotted our hostel...somewhat comfy due to the numbers that we had...

my aunt and uncle after being in a conference in san deigo decided to come up to santa barbara to see what the fuss was all about. they kindly took me out to an awesome supper and was great to catch up tell them of the hi-jinks of all in cape town...shortly there after met up with the rest of the crowd and decided to hit the town and were told to head up to this place called "sharkeys" for 2 for 1...that night turned into a big one...

UNTIL...at 4am when we were all tucked up in our bedbug-ridden bunks sound asleep from the copious amounts of alcohol when the AMTRAK freight train pulled into town with the loudest horn and longest train i have ever heard and seen...sounded like it drove over the top of the little hostel...then at 7.55 sharp the passenger train pulled in with the same amount of noise...there is a reason the hostel is situated where it is, and they can charge the ultra low price of $23 a night!

the next days seemed to flash by...some of the other highlights included, rollerblading along the beach path, tennis games, fiercely contest volleyball matches, a night out to remember at this spot called wildcats, some awesome meals, great shopping, a couple of early morning swims and much, much more!

on route home we decided to take the much longer, but scenic route home, up along highway 1, very picturesque almost like 150km chapmans peak with redwood forests and sheer cliffs on either side...along the way we stopped at big sur, and pfeiffer state park where we took a hour hike to check out all the massive redwoods, some awesome scenery and the much talked about pfeiffer falls...

pulled back into san fran around 8pm after battling some outrageous californian traffic!