Santa Barbara
Next stop on the drive was Santa Barbara, downtown. We parked in the main area by the pier and had lunch at a faux English fish and chips pub at the end of the pier. I had the locally brewed red ale and some lovely fish and chips (weirdly, Americans don't really have French (freedom) fries nearly as much as you'd think!) My associate had chowder served in a bowl made of bread! Seemed like a dangerous idea to me…
After that, we explored downtown Santa Barbara, went to the top of the clock tower, and through the local history museum. Interesting stuff. We then had a wander around the main street, it's really cool, very hip, was tempted to stay... Stopped in Starbucks for coffee and to use their wireless to book a hotel for the evening in San Luis Obispo.
We headed straight up there and came off the PCH and took a more direct inland route, which was great, as the internal scenery was lovely, we found a dam that had caused a beautiful lake to form. We also had our first encounter with petrol in America. You pay before you pump, so it's all guesswork. No “fill 'er up”, it's just $30 of gas... Weird!!
