Sunday - day of rest

Sunday 24th November

Unbelievable though it may seem we drew the short straw again.......all was quiet until about 3.30 when the all to familiar noise began upstairs, walking around, banging doors, items being dropped and voices.  I really do not understand how so many people can be so rude and thoughtless, it obviously just does not occur to them that other people may be trying to sleep through their racket.  Martin was so incensed that he went down to reception rather than call them and came back to report that they weren't very concerned.  At last we heard footsteps on the stairs - they were actually checking out (at 4am) so once again we got a few hours of sleep before morning.

Lying awake in the middle of the night I had a horrible sore throat which I hoped would be gone by morning but unfortunately it wasn't and I was feeling decidedly under par which was a shame because it was a beautiful day.  We checked out of the hotel and drove to the Daily Grind cafe which had been recommended to us.  This was a really great place, lots of outdoor seating, a pleasant, roomy interior, really good internet connection, great choice of excellent brews of coffee and tasty pastries.

Next stop was Hendry's beach which looked absolutely beautiful in the lovely sunshine and we headed along the sand towards Santa Barbara for about half a mile before finding the perfect place to stop and relax.  We spent a great morning enjoying the sunshine, twice swimming in the sea which was lovely, reading, juggling and people watching. There was a constant flow of dog walkers up and down the beach, dogs of all shapes and sizes greatly outnumbering the human population.  Very few people seem to come to the beach just to relax and there was no one in the sea except us which I absolutely don't understand, it was so lovely. Martin's theory is that Californians don't consider November to be the time of year for going to the beach (except to walk the dog) but it was hot and sunny and the sky was blue so why not? Anyway it was just exactly what I needed, I think I'm suffering from holiday burn out!

Unusually we had not thought ahead and brought food with us but by 1pm we were ready for a change of scenery anyway so we strolled back to the car and drove up to the top of Elings Park where we found a picnic bench with perfect views across to the Santa Ynez mountain range in the north and the sea to the south.  Unfortunately we had underestimated the amount of food we had left and it was also rather windy and exposed so after a hasty and rather unsatisfying snack we headed on down to Whole Foods for coffee and a treat to warm us up and keep us going.

Next stop was back to Oak Park for another session of slack lining. It's hard to explain the attraction of this activity. It's totally pointless, extremely frustrating...........but addictive. You have to have just one more go! Once again we both made some progress but I think it'll be a while before we're stringing the line up on the rocks high above Yosemite valley.........

At about 4pm we packed up for the day and I took the wheel to drive up the San Marcos Pass across the mountains towards Buellton where we had booked a motel room for the night. We arrived at about 4.45pm, just time for a very brief dip in the icy pool and a longer soak in the lovely hot tub before showering and settling into our extremely pleasant room.  In fact it was so nice and so reasonable that we decided we would probably stay there another night as the forecast was looking really good for the next couple days and there are some great sounding beaches within about 20 miles which we have yet to visit.

I was still feeling a bit unwell but we decided to go out as there was a family run pizza restaurant which had really good reviews on Trip Adviser, Antonio's Pizzas, and it was less than half a mile away so we strolled over there, had a beer and a delicious and very reasonably priced pizza which was so large that we managed to save a large portion of it for tomorrow's lunch - now that is definitely a first, I must be ill!

And then it was back to the motel hoping that the third night would prove lucky and we would not be disturbed.