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Santa Barbs

Day 1

We arrived in Santa Barbara at 10 in the morning after another long arduous bus journey. But unexpectedly beautiful Santa Barbara cheered us up when we arrived! 

The train station was so 'vintage' and cute and the scenery was amazing

We then headed to Backyard Bowls for some breakfast and had amazing smoothie bowls. 

After heading to our air bnb (and finding out that our host was vegan and friends with Paul Walker), we chilled for a couple hours before deciding to explore the city 

We went down to Stearns Wharf - how gorgeous are those mountains in the back 

Loved these vibes!

We walked around the town for a bit, got froyo, had a manicure whilst Topo had a foot massage, visited Plum Goods (the most eco-friendly gift store in the US and it was amazing!!) got Himalayan food for dinner and had that at home whilst watching Breaking Bad :)) 

Day 2

Whale watching day!!! 

This was the street of our air bnb 

Had Backyard Bowls to-go whilst we waited to board the cruise 

swagger right here

Dolphins, seals and seabirds were in a feeding frenzy!!

Had such an amazing time on the Condor Express. Saw about 5 Blue whales - which was an incredible experience as they are the largest mammals on this planet! 

When we'd spot one in the water and saw the blowhole followed by the back of the whale peaking out, its back seemed to go on forever until the tail whipped up and disappeared back into the water - because the Blue whale is just so large. I can't even imagine how big they actually are if you manage to see an entire one in the ocean!

After that incredible morning, we headed to The Green Table for lunch and I had a yummy quinoa and roasted veggie-stuffed pepper! We then went for a short hike to Inspiration Point. 

Trying Cheetos for the first time

Inspirational point was truly inspirational!!

Just that the last 10 mins to the peak was incredibly steep and so coming down was just not fun because I felt so unsafe :'( But I made it down without falling so yay!! 

It took us a while to get from the start of the hiking trail to where we could call an uber because it was so far in (I think it took us a good 45 mins to get back out). We then headed to Natural Cafe and stuffed ourselves with yummy Mexican food before heading back to chill and sleep 

Day 3

What an adventure this day was 

It all started out with me trying to look for things to do on our last day and decided that a 65-mile bike ride of the Lake Casita Loop was very doable. So, we fueled ourselves with porridge from Backyard Bowls (I think you can tell we love this place) and headed to Fun Wheels Rental to get mountain bikes. We should have picked up the sense that it was not as easy as we thought as the guys at the bike shop thought we were going to drive along this trail rather than bike - well, we weren't really dressed appropriately either so I'm guessing that's why they were so shocked that we were up for such a long ride. Anyway, the ride was meant to take us 4-6 hours, which in our heads was pretty reasonable.

We came across such a diverse scale of sceneries on this crazy ride!

For the most part, this trail was relatively flat, which was great

Until our legs started to get tired and it didn't seem like we were reaching any sooner. 

At this point, we were about 3 hours into our ride and we still weren't that close to our destination. and our legs were now properly tired 

This was where we died. It was a steep (well, it probably felt a lot more steep because our legs were dead) uphill for a good 50m before we reached the summit where you could see the lake. We tried for a little bit and gave up soon after and walked alongside our bikes.

To our dismay, the lake was so underwhelming. Perhaps because our spirits were low but I've also seen much more scenic lakes in my life so yes, it was not worth it. This made things even worse because it got us even more grumpy (me > Topo)

Topo also kept getting leg cramps and we discovered that seeing that it took us close to 4 hours to get here, it would take roughly the same amount of time to get back and it was already late afternoon and therefore we were doomed!!! We decided to attempt hitch hiking at this particular road for about 15 mins but failed :'( We'd only put our hand out for pickup trucks but none of them were willing to take us 

We then decided to persevere a little more till we cycled to a fire station. We attempted hitch hiking again and failed AGAIN. By this time I was getting so emotional and tired, I honestly was so worried that we were going to be stuck there or had to cycle all the way back, which we both felt was physically and mentally impossible at this point. 

We then decided to ask the firefighters at the fire station if anyone could offer us a ride. So, I went up and approached them and found out that neither of them lived in Santa Barbara. I then walked back devastated and properly crying this time and I think because tears had welled up in my eyes as I was asking them for the favor, one of the guys ran up to us 2 mins later offering to drive us to Santa Barbara despite home being in the opposite direction. 

THE LORD ALMIGHTY WAS ON OUR SIDE THAT AFTERNOON 

I cannot begin to tell you how happy we were at that point!!! We also ended up having such a lovely conversation with them both (it was the guy and his friend) about the environment, traveling, veganism and just life in general. They even dropped us off at the bike rental shop directly, which was so sweet! We gave them gas money after and were just so grateful to be safely back on our feet. We then ordered the same Himalayan food for dinner and chilled out for the rest of the night. What a day to remember!!

Day 4

Left our air bnb in the morning, grabbed Backyard Bowls to-go again and got on the bus back to San Fransisco! 

That marks the end of our California adventure!!! 

Such an incredible trip it was and I'm so glad to have had journaled the entire trip and to now have it permanently on my blog! ☺ 

- To more adventure-filled travels like this - 

So grateful to have been able to share such experiences with youuu ♥

San Diego part dos

Day 4

Started the day with an intense and rewarding hike up Mission trails on Cowles Mountain. I was sweating so much by the time we got to the peak but the view was lovely and the breeze at the top was helpful hehe

After the hike, we headed to Mission Beach for a chilled beach day! 

Had the most amazing Acai bowl I've had to date at Barefoot Bakery Cafe, proceeded to sun tan on the beach and even dipped myself into the sea! Proud of me-self because it was so cold but I did it!!!

Topo and I then went on a thrilling roller coaster ride shown in the pic above at Belmont Park right along the beach! 

We then went to Bar Kindred for dinner and the food here was perfection!! 

We then ended the day with the season finale of Sense 8 - it was just ok, felt that it was too rushed and confusing because we hadn't watched it in a while, but I'm glad they still made it! 

Day 5

Packed up in the morning as it was our last day in San Diego and left the air bnb at 11.45am for La Jolla cove. The second we stepped out of the uber, we were swarmed by this foul smell - it was either pelican poop or sea lion poop. On the bright side, the view was great! 

The white bits are the cliffs covered in bird poop!!

There was the option of kayaking or even snorkeling here but we didn't come prepared ☹

We then headed to the Cave store to get an entry ticket to go to Sunny Jim cave! It was a really short but super cool walk down to the cave - the only sea cave accessible by land in California, and it's called Sunny Jim because opening of the cave looked like a mascot for a British cereal who was called Sunny Jim 

We walked along the coast and came up close and personal with sea lions and sea birds!

This was one was just chilling the efff out on a bed of algae 

It was so close to the tourist on the beach and Topo and I had such a good laugh watching silly people trying to pet the sea lion and it reacting aggressively by trying to bite off their fingers 

Can you spot the sea lion! 

This one had just given birth and we witnessed a seagull trying to eat the umbilical cord from the mummy. Topo and I also saw the fins of a school of dolphins! unfortunately they quickly disappeared 

Topo and I then headed to Plumeria Thai restaurant to try their vegan duck but they were closed!! ☹

We were so gutted but before we managed to look for an alternative place for lunch, we saw another Thai restaurant just across the street and decided to check it out. 

We hit the jack pot!! This place was called Bahn Thai had a similar menu to plumeria thai and even had the vegan duck!! What were the chances!! It was an absolute gem and we had our delicious meal with vegan Thai milk tea and omg just thinking about this meal is making me salivate!!

This was the garlic vegetable stir fry with vegan duck that I had, which was divine

We got a pineapple curry to go and spontaneously headed to Whole Foods just for a wander around! and we obviously ended up spending money there because who can resist 

After Whole Foods, we headed back to our air bnb thinking we could chill for the rest of the night before our bus was scheduled for Santa barbara at 10pm, but a change of plans left us homeless for a couple hours and so we decided to chill in Balboa Park on a random hill with our suitcases and sat there till it was time to go! We watched part of The Devil wears Prada and shared the pineapple curry and then headed to the bus station ☺