Our train departed from Oceanside, with several stops between there and Santa Barbara. Being we had Business Class seats, we were able to secure an upper deck window seat, but unfortunately all the seats looking west had been taken already, but we still caught glimpses of the ocean! The train started it's journey in San Diego, and by the time we boarded, the Business Class seats were nearly full, so we got seats at a table, and we made friends with the couple sitting across the table from us. They were a mother-daughter pair, and the mother was the sweetest 92-year-old ever! We were able to chat with them until the Moor Park stop, which was about an hour northwest of Los Angeles.
Some of the stops between Oceanside and Santa Barbara were pretty cool. The Anaheim stop was literally right between Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, and coming into the Los Angeles Union Station stop was very cool, with views of the L.A. River and skyline like I've never seen before!
When we got to the Union Station stop, the train flipped, meaning we pulled into Union Station, and when we left, the caboose now was the front of the train. So, when the train flipped, we now had western-facing views! After the L.A. stops, we had a few more with a non-ocean view, such as Burbank, which was right across the street from the Burbank airport, and Ventura, but after that, it was ocean all the way up to Santa Barbara. A really cool thing about this was all the 4th of July campers all the way up the coast. It was cool how they were able to just set up camp right along the road! We also were sitting right in front of a guy from Santa Barbara who gave us some insight about the mudslides that happened in January, and also the fires that burned last October. He said there was so much mud and they had no idea how to dispose of it, so they just dumped a lot of it into the ocean, and you could really tell, too! A lot of the shallower parts of the coastal waters were brown in color. They were also using parking lots as sand piles. When disasters like mud slides happen, I never really think of all the logistics of the clean-up!
After just under 5 hours of a really fun train ride, we were pulling into the Santa Barbara station! It was really easy to collect our luggage, and off we went to our hotel, which was just around the corner from the train.
We stayed at the Hotel Indigo on the famed State Street, and just a few blocks from the ocean! The hotel was very modern, with weird art displays all over. We literally put our stuff in our room, then headed down to the ocean!
Along the way, there was a really cool skateboard park where we stopped to watch. It impresses me how skateboarders are able to turn tricks through the air, all while the board stays tight to their feet!
There was a nice walking/biking path near the ocean that we walked along, then made our way to the water! It's always fun for us to watch the waves crash, especially at high-tide! Glorious!
At the end of State Street is a pier called Stearns Wharf, lined with restaurants, benches, a museum, and cars could even drive on it! We walked to the end of the pier and just watched life happen around us and in the water. There were a few people fishing, and just north of the pier was the Santa Barbara Harbor where boats were driving out, one after another. It was just beautiful!
We decided to eat on the pier at the Harbor Restaurant, and I had the most delicious Lobster Roll outside of Boston. I told Robbie that if I could have just 3 food items the rest of my life, that Lobster Roll would be one of them! We ate with a view of the harbor and the beach! It was perfect! Later that night we topped off our first day in Santa Barbara with some ice cream from a shop on State Street.
Friday we woke up and went straight to the beach! It was about 8 in the morning so we were pretty much the only one's there. It was so peaceful. Robbie jumped the waves while I took pictures. Then we both took a stroll on the sand.
When we cleaned up after the beach, we made our way for breakfast. We found this cute little cafe across from the Courthouse called "Judge For Yourself." The cafe was small, but just the type of breakfast food I liked! The verdict: good til the last bite. Case closed!
We were in Santa Barbara a few years ago for my birthday but we never made it to State Street. We were going to go, but it was raining, so we decided against it. The concierge told us that the Courthouse allowed people to go up in their bell tower for views of Santa Barbara and the ocean, so that is the first place we went after our morning stroll by the ocean and breakfast. The views were stunning, with the red terracotta rooftops in the foreground, leading to ocean and mountains in the background. I could've spent the whole day up there!
What we didn't know about this Courthouse is that it was still in working order, so we decided to explore the huge building. We realized that a court room was in session, which was really cool! We loved all the architecture and trimmings of the Courthouse. Everything was so old and regal looking! We spent about an hour on the grounds!
From there, we headed down State Street, which was lined with shops and restaurants. I went into a few shops, but ended up not buying anything. Friday was super hot, in the mid-90's that day in Santa Barbara, and I heard that the temps flirted with 120 degrees here in Temecula. About half-way back to our hotel, we stopped for ice-cream at a place called Creamistry. They made ice cream with liquid nitrogen, and it turned out delicious! It was just the thing we needed to cool down.
When we first arrived in Santa Barbara, I spotted a bike rental shop that rented out 2 to 4-person pedal bikes, and they looked like to much fun. So, later that evening before dinner we rented one of those bikes to ride on the bike path in front of the ocean. Those bikes were a cool way to get around!
After we returned the bike, we walked up State Street for dinner at Joe's Cafe, which was amazing. We had a really great waitress, probably one of the best we had in a long time in the way of being personable, friendly and professional all at once. The food matched the excellent service we had, and we indulged in all 3 courses. We were both stuffed afterwards, but it was totally worth it!
While we were planning out our evening, we were considering an after-dinner activity. We came to Santa Barbara with no itinerary, so everything we did was spontaneous, just the way we like it. As we were walking up State Street earlier that morning, we noticed a place called "The Red Piano," and it literally had a small model piano attached to the facade. We looked into it, and it was a piano bar. After researching, we found that there was a house pianist every night from 4p-8p, then each month, they have a different resident pianist that they fly in from anywhere in the world. It sounded pretty awesome, so after dinner, we went there, and it happened to be right across the street from Joe's Cafe. We got to the piano bar around 7:30pm, so we got to hear a little from the house pianist, who was really good! He did a lot of popular piano bar songs like Piano Man and Sweet Caroline. Also being we got there early, we were able to find a place to sit, which wouldn't have been the case if we had gotten there closer to 8pm. After the house pianist was finished, he made way for the headliner of the night, Tim Buie, a 2-time Guinness record holder of piano playing. He played the piano for a total of 63+ hours straight to get his name in the record books! We were in for a real treat! He had the bar going from the first note he played! We requested "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," and he played it so exceptionally! The part in the song where the vocals break for the fiddle solo, he played that on the piano like I had never seen or heard before. We were both just blown away, and we tipped him very well for fulfilling our request! We stayed for nearly 2 hours, and half the time our jaws were to the floor. It had been a long time since we visited a piano bar, and after we left, we weren't sure why! Watch him here (this was actually from the night we were there)!
Saturday was our last day in Santa Barbara, and our train was due to depart the station at 12:59pm. We made our way down to the pier for lunch at The Harbor Restaurant again until then.
Neither of us wanted to leave, but we knew we had close to 5 hours of stress-free transportation back to Oceanside, which we were both really looking forward to. The train on the way back home was nearly empty the whole way back, being it was a Saturday of a holiday weekend. We were able to get window seats facing the ocean from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and the train was empty enough still that we switched sides of the train to be on the western facing side again from Los Angeles to Oceanside. When we stopped at the Anaheim station, there was a baseball game going on at Angel Stadium, so it was cool seeing the stands filled from the train! The rest of the ride to Oceanside offered plentiful views of the ocean as well.
The lights of Dodger Stadium
A wildfire just west of Los Angeles. We saw the flames and everything. Scary!
It was nice coming back on a Saturday, knowing we had Sunday to recuperate before the work week ahead of us.I would highly recommend anyone to take Amtrak at least once in their life; it really is a cool and stress-free way to get around. Our next Amtrak ride will most likely be out east!
After we got back, we were treated to another fireworks display put on by Pechanga Casino, and we were able to watch it literally from our living room! It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend getaway!
"But we lean forward to the next crazy adventure beneath the skies." -Jack Kerouac
