Driving back

The only thing that I had decided was to not take the I-5 back to SanFran, otherwise I hadn��t really planned where to drive on my way back. What I did was head towards Solvang, a funny little "Danish" town outside Santa Barbara. It��s hugely popular (i.e., lots of tourists), but still quite charming, mimicking a Danish town. And the drive there is quite nice, through some mountains with windy roads. - And I received some flashbacks from 2002, when we were here with Sirpa and the Palms.
The town was so crowded when I arrived that it seemed impossible to find parking, so I decided to go somewhere a little outside the town, which turned out to be the golf course.
There was a place called the River Grill, where I decided to have my lunch. A pretty relaxed and nice place, actually.
And people weren��t only fanatic about golf...
I took a look at the map of the GPS and decided to drive to a place, where the 101 was reaching the ocean, before turning inlands. That place turned out to be Avila Beach.
It was pretty amazing, like suddenly coming to a resort somewhere far south. People lying on the beach, enjoying drinks in the bar, and just having a good time. And it looked liked all kinds of interesting places like Hearst Castle where within reach, too. Pretty cool place.

And that was the last stop. After that it was just driving, trying to avoid the worst holes in the roads :-) and adding miles to the meter. I was back in SanFra around 9pm that evening.