The Lee Family's Travel Blog: July 2017

07/03/2017 Monday

Itinerary:

Santa Barbara - Mission Church and downtown
Dinosaur Caves Park
Piedras Blanca Seals Rookery (was on our plan but we changed our mind last minute and didn't go)

After eating breakfast in our hotel, we checked out of our room to return home.

We didn't get a chance to visit Mission Santa Barbara yesterday as it was closed when we arrived in Santa Barbara, so we decided to make a trip here before we head home.

Mason did his mission report on Santa Barbara last year when he was in 4th grade, so I really wanted to show him the church.

Posing for the picture below

A more appropriate posture for the picture below

After the church, we proceed to the downtown on State Street. We didn't stopped and just drove by.

Afterwards, we continued on our way home and stopped by Dinosaur Caves Park near Pismo Beach. It's a small playground with amazing view of the ocean and Pismo Beach in the background. We stopped here mainly for the kids to stretch their legs and play a little.

After leaving the park, we were thinking about going to Piedras Blanca Seals Rookery but we changed our mind as it wasn't exactly on the way, and adds ~80 miles to our trip. So, we had a quick lunch before heading home.

07/02/2017 Sunday

Itinerary:

San Luis Obispo - Mission Church and downtown
Pismo Beach
Solvang - Mission Church and downtown
Santa Barbara - Stearns Wharf
Dinner at Lure Fishhouse

We had originally planned to go to Monterey with my parents but since they were sick, we decided to go somewhere else and planned this trip to Santa Barbara last minute. I booked the hotel a couple of days before the trip and there were not many hotels available since it was a long weekend.

We left early as I planned a few stopovers along the way. It's the kids' first time to this part of California as we normally just take Interstate-5 to Los Angeles and doesn't take Freeway-101.

Our first stop was to visit Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa which is next to the downtown.

After visiting the church, we went for lunch at Urbane Cafe which was a short 5 minute walk from the church. There are many stores in the downtown and many restaurant choices. We picked Urbane Cafe based on Yelp's reviews.

After lunch, we spent some time walking around the downtown to check out some stores.

After spending some time in downtown, we proceed to Pismo Beach which was about 15 minutes away.

The kids had fun playing at the beach but the water was very cold, so they didn't swim at the beach.

Next, we moved on to visit Old Mission Santa Ines which is next to Solvang downtown.

After visiting the church, we went to check out their downtown. Solvang is a little Danish town and as you walked along the downtown, you can see the many pretty Danish theme buildings. Although it's a little detour to come here but I think it's worth the detour.

There is also a horse carriage tour that takes you around downtown. We didn't take the tour and only stopped by to take some pictures.

It was pretty hot here, probably 10-15 degrees hotter than when we were in Pismo Beach. We bought some ice cream to cool off and initially, we sat inside the store thinking that it will be cooler but it was so hot inside the store. It seemed that most of the stores here do not turn on their AC as the stores that we visited were all pretty hot.