LA Skyline and Fountain
Last Thursday, I went to LA to wander and explore in this vibrant city with my friend most of the time and my cousin joined us Saturday. I had a wonderful 4 day Los Angeles vacation, thanks to Malu for showing me around the beautiful spots in her adopted city.
Even though I am not new to Los Angeles, but it feels great to rediscover this city again. The highlight of my first day in LA was food feast at LA Rose Cafe and Restaurant, serving Filipino cuisine. It was such a food feast for just two people. We had empanada, fresh lumpia, kare-kare, crispy pata and pritong bangus. I shared more about our dinner in LA Rose in my other blog.
Cachuma Lake, Santa Barbara County
On Friday, we went to Santa Barbara County to explore various places. Our first stop was at Cachuma Lake. It is a beautiful and very quiet lake considering it was just a short drive from Los Angeles.
Clairmont Lavender Farms, Los Olivos, CA
From Cachuma Lake, we went to Los Olivos to enjoy the amazing fragrance in the air at Clairmost Farms. Though most of the lavender flowers had wilted already, but the scent remained. I sure did enjoy rubbing the dried flowers to extract the lavender essential oil and rub it on my skin for that fragrance to linger.
the views around Santa Barbara County
We explored mostly the farm side of the beautiful Santa Barbara County. For the ocean part of Santa Barbara, you may want to visit my old post, Santa Barbara: Not Just Another Beach Get-away. From the lavender farm, we had lunch at Trattoria Grappolo in Santa Ynez. From Filipino food feast the other day, we had Italian food feast at Trattoria Grappolo.
From an Apple Farm in Santa Ynez
After lunch, we drove to Solvang, but we passed several more farms.
Coriander Farm
At Solvang, our first stop was at Mission Santa Ines, again, more about our visit to this place in one of my later posts.
@ the entrance of Mission Santa Ines
After Mission Santa Ines, we walked around Solvang downtown. We had actually our desserts in Solvang. We had chocolate cream puff at Solvang Bakery and ice cream at Solvang Ice Cream Parlor.
Windwill at downtown Solvang
After Solvang, on our way back to Los Angeles, we stopped by Gainey Vineyard in Santa Ynez.
Grapes at Gainey Vineyard
After Gainey Vineyard, it was time now for us to go back to Los Angeles. We stopped by my cousin's place in the valley to plan for our Saturday exploring. We decided to hike in Malibu at Solstice Canyon and Point Dume for Saturday. I will continue this post with our hikes to Malibu Saturday and more of downtown Los Angeles Saturday night and Sunday, in part 2 of Discovering LA.
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fresh apples .. it is been long time since I see apples on the trees..
ReplyDeletethanks for touring me around the beautiful parts of LA Beth. you are such a wanderwoman. :D
ReplyDeleteThe photos and tours were terrific. I enjoyed every minute of it!!
ReplyDeleteBetchai, What great photos and that skyline with the fountain is spectacular. You've certainly captured some wonderful things in the LA area and I am really looking forward to your downtown LA part 2 as well.
ReplyDeleteBreathtaking scenes! Thank you for sharing your escapades with us.
ReplyDeleteA wonderwoman is now a wanderwoman.
ReplyDeleteI like all your close-up photos of the fruits. They all look so delicious! Solvang is a fun town. I have seen many people take pictures by the light poles, but I have never been there. Looks like a fun place to take photos at night.
ReplyDeletethanks for the online tour, betchai. Great photos as well specially the second one. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat a sight to behold! And it's my first time to have seen a photo of you, Betchai. Just lovely!
ReplyDeleteahaaa...
ReplyDeletesome of them could very well be my wall paper picts
hmmm.. i can smell the apples and grapes here... great photos.. sana makapunta ko dyan to visit my relatives one day
ReplyDeletelooking forward to your hikes to Malibu Betchai! weeee the photos here are so beautiful as always...joyful here at the sight of those fresh fruits and that lone tree with the blue mountains background just takes my breath away and yep that first photo of the LA skyline and fountain! weeee
ReplyDeleteGanda! Thanks for the tour. I hope I can visit it someday.
ReplyDeleteWoah this blog is excellent i really like reading your articles. Stay up the great paintings! You recognize, a lot of persons are searching around for this information, you can help them greatly.
ReplyDeleteWow..you had a wonderful visit and vacation! Your photos are just beautiful and showed another side of the busy Los Angeles!
ReplyDeleteomg! I really love your pictures! I have lots of Filipino friends in LA.I hope I can visit them someday..That's a really wonderful trip you got there.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for sharing your experienced with us.All your photos are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI adore lavender and would love to visit a lavender farm.
ReplyDeleteBetchay, thanks for touring me back to LA through your photos.. hope to join you too in one of your journeys.. take care, sister..God bless..
ReplyDelete