No Sleep Till Santa Monica

We left Santa Barbara at about a quarter till five, mainly because the parking spot we had found was limited to 90 minutes, and it's tough finding a parking spot in downtown Santa Barbara. Well, it's tough if you don't feel like parking in a garage.

Leaving at that time probably helped us weather the first traffic we have seen on our trip, since Highway 1 joins busier Highway 101 for a stretch on its way into Los Angeles. The traffic disappeared a couple of miles later as the activity on the coastal side of the road gave way to a spectacular (and fogless) view of the open ocean.

On a side note, we've seen many signs that read 'Vista point' on our trip. Originally, we thought 'vista' meant something akin to 'view'. It seems, though, that 'vista' entered the English via the Latin 'vistum', which must mean 'fog'. Hence, the English 'vista', or 'fogs' or 'much fog'. Most of the vista points we've seen have been the foggiest places we've ever seen.

We stopped for Gas in Carpinteria, a town whose main street runs parallel to Highway 1, which makes it easy to travel straight through the town and get back on Highway 1 on the other side, which is very good, because there's nothing you'd really want to stay and see. While this town was unremarkable, it was a paradise next to Oxnard, a miserable town that seemed to go on forever. It was doubly worse because one of the street signs indicated that Highway 1 South was both straight ahead AND to our left. How can a road split and still have both halves be the same road? We continued on until we hit a T-intersection a couple of miles ahead, with no signs for Highway 1 to be seen. We stopped and asked for directions, and, after a brief detour, got back to Highway 1.