Santa Barbara

Our plans were to go camping on the beach at Refugio and then stay downtown the second night. That's when it was summer weather and I was slathering on the sun block every weekend. We made plans, booked the hotel and then checked the weather: storms. The change of plans still worked out, even though I agonized over all the details because that meant no bike rides, no hiking to Red Rock to dip in the swimming holes. We were still able to go to all our favorite places and walk around a bit and most importantly eat really good food.

Highlights: morning bagel at The Bagel Cafe in IV, standing in line at La Super Rica for a taco de hongo, beer tasting at Telegraph Brewing Company where we met an old man and talked about his retired life, fried green tea ice cream at Arigato where we had our first date six years ago, breakfast back in time at Cold Spring Tavern, late afternoon sun drenched wine tasting at Kunin, and the grande finale, the food I think about often and would drive there just to eat it, nachos at Freebirds ( which is now open at USC, omgomgomg).











The most special thing about visiting is taking the back highway, Cathedral Oaks, from Goleta into downtown. It was just starting to get gray as we were heading into the mountains, listening to the new Radiohead album, we took a turn that headed us deeper into the mountain and that was actually one of the best parts of the trip. When I need to calm myself or if I'm feeling a little uneasy I like to picture myself driving on that highway and it always helps.

** So we took this trip at the end of February and it's already a month later that I'm finding the time to finish and post it. I had some feelings about blogging when things got really busy in my life and terrifying in the world. But after some time away from this I think I'm most interested in balance. I will do this when I want to, not when I feel like I should keep it up.