By Luke Wahl
Every so often, the road beckons. I’m based in Southern California, so while baking in bumper-to-bumper traffic is a frequent reality, I still dream about being able to cruise the coast with the windows down. Fortunately, California offers innumerable mini-getaways that revitalize the soul. Unfortunately they also make it that much harder to force the soul back to work on Monday. The Golden State’s coastal areas are world famous, and some of the most impressive stretches happen to have a road paralleling the shoreline, such as the legendary Pacific Coast Highway and US 101.
We recently spent a weekend testing out the Rondo EX, so naturally some sort of road trip was in order. How can one possibly evaluate a car without hitting the road? With another weary work week just barely behind us, my girlfriend and I excitedly packed overnight bags, loaded up the iPod, and got away for a couple of days. Fresh air and sunshine were at the top of our priorities, so we threw our bags into our spacious, sporty Rondo and headed out on a coastal cruise from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and eventually up to Santa Ynez wine country.
Nestled at the southern end of California’s spectacular Central Coast, Santa Barbara is justifiably called the American Riviera. Like the famous French Rivera, it is home to some of the world’s most gorgeous scenery and some of the most impressive homes in the world. (Oprah has an estate here, after all.) But Santa Barbara itself lacks the pretentious air one expects with a roster of rich and famous residents. For every five-star restaurant, there’s a taco stand; a beat up old camper for every luxury car; two hippies with beads in their hair for every pressed suit. Santa Barbara is as full of diverse people and pastimes as it is beautiful.
And there just aren’t enough superlatives to describe the awe-inspiring natural beauty of this beach community. Its climate is practically perfect all year round. The predominantly south-facing shoreline ranges from gently sloping, smooth sandy beaches to craggy but relatively low bluffs, which drop directly into the breaking waves of the Pacific. The spectacular seascape is backdropped by the rugged terrain of the Santa Ynez Mountains, home to all types of wildlife, and filled with terrific trails for hikers and bikers of all ability levels.
Santa Barbara shares this 35-mile-long strip of precious real estate with the suburbs of Goleta and Isla Vista to the west, and Summerland and Montecito to the east. Each of these towns has its particular charms. Goleta is a sleepy little place untouched by tourists. Isla Vista, or I.V. as it’s known locally, is home to the University of California Santa Barbara (known to all as UCSB), a school renowned for students who really know how to, um, enjoy themselves. Another nice surferbian enclave is Summerland, ironically home to the famed Santa Claus Lane, a street named for a massive bust of Santa Claus which overlooked the 101 freeway. The bust was finally removed in 2005, but the street is still exclusively Christmas-themed all year round.
