I'll start by saying that today has not been the best day, so I'll try to write this as positively as I can!

We woke up kinda gutted that both of us had fallen asleep before the ending of Jurassic Park! Another film, another ending missed, that aside we bounced up and down to the pool where we had the whole complex to ourselves! Unfortunately what we did forget was suncream and water and breakfast! Swam for about hour and then realised we were starving and dehydrated. Luckily there were two hotel bottles for sale as we'd not replenished our water supply! Had to have a little rest before we set off and our delay meant that we had to head North straight away instead of driving an hour into downtown San Diego and the Gaslight quarter. We concluded we will come back here someday, to relax!!

Jo wanted to go through the La Jolla district, North of mission bay so we attempted to follow the coast road from the start and my navigation skills got us terribly lost! In my defence, the map I was working off had every 10 roads on it!! So an hours detour and we were starting our journey on Highway 1 - or historic highway101 in parts, aka the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). There were some beautiful parts and our aim was to reach Laguna beach in time for lunch. Not a chance!! It was pushing 1.30 and we had only travelled a fifth of the distance showing on the map, so we pulled off the main road into the village district of a little place called Carlsbad. We stumbled across a quaint little cafe called Cafe Panini. A Ham and Swiss panini was just what we wanted. Back on the road again, and we were passing all these beautiful beaches but couldn't stop at any of them as they were either no parking, paid parking or underground parking with a huge queue! Stopping at Laguna had to be a stop at a Vista Point, and the next few beaches Huntingdon, Newport were paid parking. Not ideal of you just wanted to stop for a 15 minute leg stretch. We realised at this point, through Orange County, that we had miles to go and yet again we had misjudged the distance added by not going on the Interstate. It took us 5 hours to get from the OC through to Malibu, and a little sense of humour failure by us both, we settled with the idea that it would be dark when we got to Santa Barbara, and the bikinis we were wearing were not going to get used today! Once we were over that we just continued driving, into the sunset!! We were just frustrated that we couldn't enjoy the beautiful scenery as we drove by!

We actually arrived at 8.12pm, still light (for about 15 minutes)

Arrived at the room open the door and the first thing Jo asks was 'Where's the bed?!' I was like, seriously?! But there was no bed... A kitchen, a dining table, a curtain and a lounge area... We concluded the bed must be behind the curtain... We pulled the chord for the big reveal... But alas it was a balcony!! Usually this would fill us with joy, but seriously... Where was the bed?! As we came in, closed the door, contemplated who was going to shotgun the couch, I ventured further in and there was a secluded doorway to the right... Another wing! With king size bed and the biggest bath you have ever seen!! Woohoo! Oh and the walk in wardrobe which is the size of our bathroom at home!! Quick change to warmer clothes and out to find food.
Pizza Guru, right across from the Sand Piper Lodge where we are staying, was our food choice of the evening. You had the choice to create your own pizza but this was just too much to process so luckily they had ones already made up! Bodhi's BBQ (minus the pineapple - who eats hot pineapple?!) and a Shepherds' Salad with Honey balsamic to go. Might as well enjoy the dining table whilst we have one!

So, today has not been great, but we have laughed, a lot!

Day: 21
Miles: 3562
No more plates, no further roadkill!