Road Nomad 002 script.
On our previous episode we flew to Los Angeles California in order to drive on the Pacific
Coast Highway, one of North America’s top road trips. While we were in L. A. we hiked
all the way up to the Hollywood Sign, took a stroll on the Walk of Fame of Hollywood
Boulevard and its many landmarks, including the iconic Capitol Building, visited Downtown
and neighboring Chinatown, enjoyed the view from the Griffith Observatory and passed by
Paramount Pictures, Beverly Hills and Bel Air; and finally ended up at Venice Beach.
Lets explore this area a little more and then we’ll hop on the Pacific Coast Highway.
OPEN This is Road Nomad, Episode number 2 filmed
in Southern California June 2012. We begin today’s adventure where we left off. Venice
Beach. Oh, Venice Beach, what a place! Great for
people watching and I guess it could be a bit of a culture shock for some people, with
all the medical marijuana being pushed, and all the different colorful characters. This
is the famous boardwalk, where all the action is. Souvenir stores, medical marijuana clinics,
tattoo shops, street performers, scam artists, restaurants and bars…
Let’s hear some of the local music. Yeah, that’s Venice Beach for you, fully
recommend it for a summer afternoon stroll.
A short drive north is the Santa Monica Pier, especially beautiful at sunset, and may I
say, at least on this night, the Latino hangout. There is a famous amusement park and the beautiful
pacific coast: Santa Monica Beach. There are also a bunch of performers, some ok, some
not so good. The ferry’s wheel steals the show.
Time to get one the road.
We
are cruising along Malibu with its lavish hilltop mansions. Here we have a fortuitous
encounter with the Google Street View car. Towards the north end of Malibu we approach
County Line Beach, a very popular spot for surfing. Let’s check out the surfers doing
their thing. We spot a peculiar plane near Oxnard.
At this point we reach the Emma Wood State Beach Campground in Ventura County. This looks
like a great campground and in our future life as fulltime RVers we shall definitely
pay a visit.
Our next stop is Summerland, and Summerland Winery for a well deserved wine tasting after
such a long drive. The offshore oilrigs are also quite a sight.
Our next pit stop is historic Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is quite picturesque. We decide
to take a walk along the pier. There is this guy solar carving. The weather is perfect,
one of the reasons why Santa Barbara is called the Riviera of the west. We are not going
to be here for long, as our goal lays further north, but this place is definitely on our
to do list next time we come to California. The most notable landmark we have missed is
the Spanish Mission.
We get on the road again as it is our goal to reach the town of Solvang, in the Santa
Ynez Valley. We learned about Solvang through the movie Sideways, mostly about two best
friends on a road trip of this area drinking wine and breaking hearts. The restaurant the
Hitching Post was also made famous by the film.
Solvang, which mean Sunny Fields in Danish, was founded in 1911 by a group of Danes. There
are plenty bakeries, restaurants, and merchants, but lets not kid ourselves here, the reason
we came to Solvang is to taste wine. There are plenty of tasting rooms featuring the
best Santa Ynez Valley wines. We spend the next hour walking around, sampling delicious
pastries and fine vinos. However there is absolutely no nightlife in this city as everything
closes at around 5:30pm. That’s our cue to drive to neighboring Los Olivos for dinner
at los Olivos Café and Wine Merchant also featured in the aforementioned movie. As the
sun sets, it is time to call it a night, and get back to our hotel the King Frederik.
We are back on the road, the most scenic portion of the Pacific Coast Highway coming up ahead.
In our next episode we will continue on our journey north as we get closer, and closer
to our final destination San Francisco. Until then, thank you for watching and see you on
the road.