When you have some time to stop by another city on the drive from LA to SF, why not do it?
I’m going to share the story on how I fell in love in less than 60 minutes – a “love at first sight story”.
It was the day when we were going to leave LA to drive back to SF. When you’re on holiday, you want to make sure that you spend every day and every hour wisely….
So when you’re going to be spending 6+ hours just on the road driving, you’d want to make the most of it right?
What I am about to write is about our trip back to San Francisco from LA, where we did happen to stop by another city along the way – and spent exactly less than 60 minutes there…
…and that city was Santa Barbara.
Last Minute LA Photoshoot
Before we left LA, we couldn’t resist the opportunity for photos with the palm trees, since pretty much in LA all you see are palm trees.
Note that our photos were taken while we were waiting for our food. We were in front of IHop. It’s always nice when there’s nice backdrops just outside of a regular restaurant…
Speaking of restaurant, the food did eventually arrive. I had my favourite chicken and waffles – it was always a weird combination of food for me before, and now it’s one of my favourite food combinations in the world (not an exaggeration, I promise!).
So then we eventually made our way to leave LA. We had our snacks and drinks ready to go for the long drive.
I know that I indicated earlier that long drives seem like a waste of time, but you can be able to make them really fun.
Yeah, no I didn’t really drive… no one would let me because they want to “get back to San Francisco faster”, because apparently I’m a slow driver???
Anyways, I was awake for the whole drive to Santa Barbara. We saw many views, (mostly of beaches) which were really pretty.
When we got to Santa Barbara, we had very limited time. The first thing we had to do when we got there was to get some food because we were hungry again.
When regular snacks and drinks weren’t enough, I settled for In N’ Out burger.
Although the burger and fries were very good, my thoughts on them were the same as last year.
Don’t get me wrong though, it’s really good still!
Last Year’s In N Out Experience – https://laurenbarri.com/downtown-disney-in-n-out-usa-2017-day-1/
And then… FINALLY we made it to the beaches. However, during this time of the year, it was definitely not beach weather.
What was really good though was there were hardly anyone at the beaches because of the weather. I’ve never been a fan of crowded beaches so this was perfect for me.
Again, since we had limited time, we walked through the cute beaches as far as we were able to. We walked on the footpath alongside the beach and just enjoyed the Santa Barbara vibe, and then eventually walked through the beach again.
The weather was actually not too cold…. it was too cold to swim, but not too cold for us to wear a jacket. Nevertheless, I was starting to really like it here because it didn’t feel crowded.
There was hardly other people, and the beaches seem much more relaxing if only we had the time to stay a bit longer…
Let me just say though, the beaches here are gorgeous! The water was really cold, but the sand was warm and easy to walk in! Yes, I am very picky with the sand I walk on (not a fan of beaches where the sand has a lot of rocks).
And what’s also great was that there were no birds trespassing! Now I really wish we had longer time here so I can actually enjoy a beach day without birds ruining my moments.
Pretty much the entire time my feet were on the sands of the gorgeous beach (trying to make my writing more descriptive you know?), I just pictured myself in the future actually spending a day here, when the weather is warmer, and just relaxing… without birds (YES, I really don’t like birds…).
This was also an incredible place for pictures as well – the views and the lighting were amazing, and there were no photobombers whatsover in the photos!!
How far we walked – not that far apparently. We did sit down on the sand for a bit to enjoy the views and listen to the sounds of the waves… did we really have to only stay for less than 60 minutes?
Usually I’m a type of person who gets easily bored when there’s nothing much to do, but when in Santa Barbara where I’m doing literally nothing but sit down in the sand and listen to the waves – I’m having a blast and the time of my life.
I also entertained myself a bit as well trying to put in picture in all the tracks and footprints I see on the sand.
The more prints there are, the easier it is to make up a story behind them (I dare you to try that sometime).
And I can make my final declaration – it took me less than 60 minutes to fall in love with Santa Barbara, and we didn’t even see the whole city… it’s just the beaches!
Not the food, the shops, the tourist attractions… the beaches!! (yes, a beach is considered a tourist attraction but that doesn’t really matter).
We picked the right city to stop by during our drive because I really wished we were able to stay longer… at least for a day. I mean, if it took me less than an hour to fall in love with a city, what about everything else?
So I couldn’t resist taking last minute pictures of my new favourite city (that took me 60 minutes to fall in love with; can’t stop mentioning that!) before leaving to continue our long drive back to San Francisco. Now I have a new personal standard when it comes to new cities – give it 60 minutes! No more, no less.
And that is the story on how I fell in love in less than 60 minutes…. 😉
