Good Vibrations - Santa Barbara/ Santa Monica

Feeling rested we exited our motel in search of food. We didn't have to look far as we were near the downtown area and had already spotted a coffee shop the night before which tickled ur fancy. It's called Kreuzberg California, a place with mismatched seats, tables and author inspired sandwiches. I went for the burger, which hit the spot!

After that it was a quick bout of shopping as Labor Day weekend was starting and there were sales everywhere. Higuera Street, its main street had lots of little individual shops to see. We also spotted a wall literally covered in gum. Parking there is same as every main town, 2 hours minimum, so we had to be quick about our shopping.

As it was Labor Day weekend everybody was out early to start celebrating the three day weekend. As such we anticipated the traffic to be horrifying but it actually was fine and even made it to detour to drive through Santa Barbara and the pacific coast, which is a great drive, as well as by more farms. Although on the Pacific Highway, it was lined with RVs, readying for the weekend, so the views of the sea was limited.

We stayed at the Viceroy in Santa Monica, to treat ourselves and was joined by Grace to party the night away. The hotel was lovely, it felt like it was no frills- no breakfast or wi-fi etc. It did have a nice outdoors with two small plunge pools. As we were sitting, I noticed a woman in a siut (I surmised was hotel uniform) who looked like she was loitering with a camera. Suddenly there a gasp behind me and turned out she was waiting for the man to propose to his girlfriend (I assume). It felt contrived, but a little LA (?) 

After a little research, and guidance by Mark Gonzalez, we discovered a club- Zanzibar, which holds monthly hip hop/ afro beats nights, sponsored by a radio station. It was a fun night, everything low key and not LA glam at all and a really great mix of songs and mixed well.

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