Our hotel (the Franciscan Inn) in Santa Barbara is almost perfect. It has the requisite Spanish-style architecture with a Terra cotta roof, palm trees, a pool, jacuzzi, laundry, and is just a few blocks away from the ocean, wharf, and State Street. The only thing it doesn’t have is a decent breakfast. But we made do with packets of microwaved oatmeal. Our goal for the morning was to get to the camera shop when they opened at 9am to get ours cleaned in the hopes of fixing the shutter problem (for the last two days it has been making a double clicking sound and keeping the shutter open for too long on every other picture). On our way we walked the wharf again, looking for more sea life and enjoying the gorgeous Santa Barbara morning.
When we did get to the camera shop the people were great and were able to rush the cleaning, and by 9:30 we were back on State Street with smoothies in hand. Zach pulled out the camera to take a test shot and…click-click. Still broken. GAHHH. So we will have to rely on our phones and Disney Photo Pass to get pictures at Disneyland tomorrow. So frustrating. On the bright side, Zach won’t need to carry a backpack full of camera stuff around the park all day.
We left Santa Barbara and drove 20 minutes along the shore to Carpinteria State Beach to comb the tidepools at low tide. There weren’t many of them but we did see crabs, huge sea snails, mussels, sea stars, and my personal favorite, goose barnacles. I would never be able to identify them if we hadn’t eaten them in Portugal a few years back! The girls had no memory of that and were totally disgusted when I told them they had gobbled those little things up.
Zach frustrated by the camera and just before he got soaked by a wave.
Check out those goose barnacles!
The girls exploring tidepools
As we took a leisurely stroll down the beach back to our car I saw what looked like a shiny and perfectly round stone, but when I reached down to pick it up it stuck to my fingers. It was tar! And it would not wash off. And then we realized Melina also had it on her leg. As I was telling her not to touch it, of course she touched it and it was stuck all over her fingers as well. We scrubbed in the ocean with water, sand, and rocks and the stuff wouldn’t budge. We had to get soap from our luggage and wash in the public sinks to finally get most of it…when I realized it was all over my sandal and foot as well. Gross. I spent a lot of time at that sink.
Lunch perked me up, though! We went to a place called Zookers and I had the best Reuben sandwich I’ve ever had. Maybe it was the natural tar flavoring…
At this point we were only 2 hours from Anaheim, according to gps. But being LA, it took us more than 3.5 hours to get there, with only one quick stop for gas! It was horrible. I can’t wait to get to the sea shore to remind myself why people choose to live here!
We got a kick out of this: Lorena Kabob. Ah, the things you find funny when stuck in traffic in 106 degree heat!
Our hotel in Anaheim is the Eden Roc, a basic motel just a block from Disneyland. After a quick dip in the pool we walked to Downtown Disney for a trial run, timing the walk and everything. About 15 minutes door to door. Then we grabbed dinner and perused some of the shops, mesmerized by all the mouse ears and other Disney attire worn by the crowds around us. Our favorites were the Lego store (even thought they didn’t have any Lego Elves sets), the art shop (with prints of Disney characters in different styles covering the walls), and the dress shop (the tiki room themed dress was tempting…). Which reminds me. One of the favorite rides for Zach and me in Disneyland is the Tiki Room, and we just learned today that it is closed for refurbishment. Bah humbug.
Fingers crossed for a fun day tomorrow, despite the crazy heat!
Traveling Together 