Leaving NL through Santa Barbara and Highway #1

This is Wednesday morning.  Matthew was sad to turn in the rental car!  It was a lot of fun to drive and ride =)

 The lady at the West Jet counter was a bit grumpy at first, but when we told her we were just married and going on our honeymoon, she totally warmed up.  Ignored the fact that my suitcase was OVER 60lbs and gave us Plus seats!  Which means you get about 8 inches more knee room, a free sandwich, a snack, and drink!  Totally enjoyed that!

I think this is leaving Toronto.  I thought is was really neat - the man to the right of the plane wing was taking pictures of the sunset as well.  Just that he was working, but enjoying it as well. 

 Arrived in Santa Barbara around 10.  We were both SO hungry so we went to In 'n' Out.  DEVOURED burgers and fries, then went to our Inn.  By the time we got there, it was around 2 or 3 in the morning NL time and we'd been up since 8 A.M.  Exhausted.

This was the kitchen part of our room.  They had a nice breakfast basket and tea and coffee.

Thursday we drove around a bit, then walked to Starbucks, then around town trying to find this building, the court house.

 We found an entrance and went up in the clock tower.  As we were going up the stairs, it was almost 11:00, we got to where the bells are just in time to watch them ringing.  SO pretty and neat!  Then went on up to the very top - nice view of the city.

 The Harborside Inn where we stayed, has complimentary bikes, including a tandem!  Those things are hard to steer, but Matthew did great and we had a blast.  On the trail, we went all the way one direction, turned around, stopped at the beach to watch beach volleyball and the skateboarders, then went all the way the other direction.

This quiet corner was a few minutes walk beyond the end of the trail.  We sat on a rock and a whole bag of sweet potato chips, well, yes, I ate most of them!

 This is the place we stayed.

 That evening we walked to the Enterprise Fish Co. for dinner.  You can see the aquarium tank (the purplish blue in the lower left corner).  We sat in that corner, next to the window.  The restaurant was noisy, but service was good and the food was excellent.
















Walking to the restaurant, we came up to these train tracks just as the guards came down for a train to pass.  It was the Amtrac on the far track going from left to right.  After it passed, the guards didn't go up.  Matthew took a step out and looked both directions to see if it was safe to cross.  Far down the track closest to us was a train coming from the right going left.  We stood back waiting for it to pass.  As it came closer, we heard some kids coming up behind us on skate boards.  The one in the lead went on over the track.  The next one came up and Matthew called out to him that there was another train coming.  He stopped but the boy behind him wasn't going to stop, didn't hear over the noise of his skate board wheels.  The train was just on the other side of the street when I saw Matthew's arm go out and a kid come up hard against it, another just behind jumping off his board to avoid hitting him.  It was a freight train, going fast, and took a few minutes to go by.  The guards went up and the boys started off, but the one paused and said to Matthew, "Thanks dude, you just saved my life."  We were a bit shaken and sobered, lost our appetite for a few minutes.  As we looked back on it, we were amazed at how we almost weren't there at that moment.  Matthew had stopped to retie his shoe.  Otherwise, we would have been across the tracks before the guards came down.  Maybe the kid never thought twice about it, but to me, as a young teenager you don't think about the possibility of dying.  You are so full of life and energy, yet just as vulnerable as the next person.  We prayed that he would think twice about where he would go if he died and hoped that he knows he can be saved from a lot more than a simple accident.

Friday we left Santa Barbara.  We stopped in Avila on a whim and what a beautiful day down there!

 This is under the pier.  There were some other couples down there that asked Matthew to take a picture of them, and then offered to take a picture of us.

 From there, we went to our apartment to unload some things, then met Austin at In 'n' Out for lunch.  Still kicking myself for not getting a picture there with him.

Then we popped into to Jumba Juice to grab a smoothie for the road, then got on Highway 1 and headed up the coast.  Our first stop held lots of memories.  This is San Simeon, where Matthew asked me to marry him on May 20th!

 This is Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park.  The waterfall is really pretty, hard to get perspective on it in this picture.

Looking the other direction.  There actually used to be a house build where we were standing!  WHAT a view!

Talk about living on the edge!  I would too if I was a spider.

From there we headed on up 1 all the way to Monterey, which will be covered in the next post. And now I need to go start dinner and get the house presentable for company!  Until next time!