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Since I wasn’t going to be in California much longer, I decided to do as much traveling around there as I could. One weekend I was down in San Diego, and later I made a day trip to Santa Barbara. As a bonus, I finally bought a camera that day and decided to make use of it this time.

Having no idea where anything was in Santa Barbara, I just typed in Google maps directions from my apartment to “Santa Barbara, CA.” Google came through again sending me straight to State Street, which turns out to be a touristastically pedestrian friendly road with lots of restaurants, bars and shops.

It’s 2pm and I haven’t even eaten breakfast so I park for $5 and go to the first restaurant that looks like something I couldn’t get elsewhere.

A local microbrew, yes, that’ll do. It’s an odd hour so the place only has me and a 4-some of European tourists eating, but neither of the two waitresses can seem to find time to serve us. I finally manage to get a menu from the cute waitress and order the Santa Barbara Burger with fries and a Rincon Red beer. The burger comes with avocado and cheddar cheese. Wow are avocados an amazing addition to a sandwich. Also, the fries had some kind of spice on them, I think rosemary but I can’t be sure. Very different, but also very good. The beer tasted like a standard microbrew; better than a common beer, but nothing to make it stand out against the other smaller breweries. All in all: good food, poor service.

After eating I decide to go for a little walk around State Street and see all of the places. It looks like a really good place to go out at night, but alas that is not in the cards for me. Since I was already full and not in the mood to carry bags around all day I decided that State Street was kinda boring and went to the beach. On the way I was reminded that visiting someplace alone might kinda suck, but it’s a lot better than having to push your motorcycle up a hill.

Another nice thing about State Street is that it runs directly into the pier in the harbor. So that is obviously what I did next. At this point, Santa Barbara seems like an awesome place and not much happened the rest of the day to change that impression.

At the entrance to the pier.

Beach

More Beach (at first I thought that SB was smoggy like LA, but I came to find out that it was actually smoke from a wildfire)

The men in my family have a thing with boats. My grandfather used to race sailboats, and my dad lived on a boat for a while, not including his Navy days. I came to the conclusion that if I ever get back out here that I’m going to have to own a boat, because the weather is pretty much perfect for it.

As I was about to take that boat picture I realized there was a good sized bird right in front of me. I didn’t pay it any attention at first because I thought it was fake. Then it turned its head to look at me and kind of startled me since I was right up next to it. Seeing as I had no food, I didn’t know what else to do but indulge it by taking a picture.

So, now I’ve walked on the pier and taken pictures, which is pretty much all there really is to do on a pier except in the off-chance that it has a ferris wheel on the end or something. Well, there was one more thing to do. You see, on my way walking down the pier I noticed a girl in a Georgia Tech hat. She’s rather homely looking so I deduce that she’s probably really a student there. Since I have my GT Tennis shirt on I feel it’s only right to casually say “Nice hat” to her as we walk past each other.

You would’ve thought that I kicked a newborn child into the mouth of a shark down below. She was shocked and appalled that I even said anything to her, and walked by me after nothing more than a scoff. Hey, sorry that the only two people wearing any kind of Georgia Tech paraphernalia in a 300 mile radius happened to run into each other on a pier. I hate to interrupt your walking and picture taking. Bitch.

I wish I had taken a picture of her so that I could draw a mustache on it and put it up here.

So, anyway, since I still don’t know anything about the city I head back up State Street only to find that it has suddenly turned into a farmer’s market. There are tents, people, food and flowers all over. Traffic has been blocked off so that everyone can mill around as they please.

I buy an apple and a pint of orange juice for like $3 total that are two of the best things I’ve eaten in a while. I like Santa Barbara even more now.

It’s about 5 o’clock now and I’m tired of walking around State Street. However, my goal was to see the sunset into the ocean, so I can’t leave. I decide to spend some time getting to know the city by driving through it aimlessly. I go up and down streets, basically trying to stay as close to the water as possible lest I see something exciting. Suddenly though I’m driving up a very steep and windy hill. “Hmm, what is this” I think to myself and then BOOM

Ahh, this must be where the richers live. Santa Barbara is also smart in that they realized this would be an amazing view and had spots for cars to pull off to both sides of the road while gawking. This is the first time I’ve ever been driving and then seen something that made me have to pullover, it was just breathtaking in a way my pictures can’t quite describe.

The houses at the bottom of the cliff must just be incredible in both price and luxury. There’s also a house being built up near where the cars pull off that will basically be home to views like this every time he steps into the front yard.

I make the decision that this is where I want to come back to for the sunset.

I drive around some more, through some very nice neighborhoods with some very odd “Horse Xing” signs and then head back to some park type things I saw west of the harbor. They’re basically like 25-30 yard wide plots of grass going up near the edge of the cliff with some sidewalks surrounding them. You can do stuff like run, do yoga, play pick up soccer with those little goals, or take pictures of the surfers down in the water. Interesting stuff SB, good job again.

I, however, was more intrigued by the lone stairway going down to the water. It led down the maybe 30 foot cliff and to a little patch of dry sand and rocks where the water wasn’t quite reaching at the time. It’s a very nice place to just chill out, stare out at the water and think. I walked up and down the little beach for a bit and ended up taking this picture. It’s probably one of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken, but I wish the water had come up a little higher.

At this point it’s starting to get a little later and I’m thinking about heading back up to the cliff where I can see the sunset. I don’t exactly remember the way, but manage to get up there in plenty of time since there’s really only one road up. It turns out a lot of people either had the same idea as me, or got caught like I did earlier because there were more cars here this time, and lots of people were stopping at least briefly to take a look.

One of the other people there for a while was a biker. I don’t know his name, but he looked like a Mitch so I’m gonna go with that. Mitch was about 45, balding under his bandana, wearing a shirt that said “Hopeless Romantic…Seeking Filthy Whore,” with some facial hair and a Danny Bonaduce meets Tom Arnold thing. He was upset that there were no clouds, which meant the sunset would be rather unspectacular. Apparently Mitch is a local and has lots of knowledge of the area. This is where I learn about the fire causing all the smoke. I learn that it’s apparently the 2nd largest fire in California history and that “if it back jumps the 33, everything’s fucked. But it’ll clear out some land that’s never been burned and make the deer hunting a lot better next year.”

He then starts talking about how he’s waiting for it to get dark so he can get home without running into any cops. Apparently he was being chased but got away. I turn to look out over the ocean while he’s talking and hear him light up a cigarette. “That sounds like a good idea” I think to myself since I ain’t got no woman to listen to, but a sudden familiar aroma actually confirms that Mitch has just taken a hit off his joint. Well done Mitch, fuck the law.

Mitch and I talk for a while as the sun sets about Georgia, California, and rich people in Santa Barbara vs. rich people in LA. Then I get the full story of the cop chase from earlier. Assuming the story is true (which I would guess is assuming a lot considering the source of the story is a 45 year old biker smoking pot on a cliff watching the sun set) I try to tell him that he doesn’t have anything to worry about. Apparently he was riding with a friend doing about 90 and a cop pulls up behind them. Mitch doesn’t hear the cop or see the sirens, but does see his friend tear off suddenly. Mitch realizes he’s screwed and starts slowing down to pull over and let his buddy get a head start. About 20 seconds later he finally pulls to the median but the cop flies by after the friend and Mitch takes that to mean he should cut across 3 lanes of traffic to take the next available exit. So now he’s waiting for it to get dark so he can get home undetected.

Anyway, it’s hard to take a picture of a sunset and keep everything in the foreground visible I learned. Here are 3 of my attempts to get a decent picture

Sunset 1

I think it’s good but it’s dark. I try upping the exposure 1/3, but that has the unfortunate effect of detonating a nuclear bomb on Goleta Beach.

Sunset 2

Hmm. I turn the exposure back to normal and try to dampen the sun’s effect a more natural way, like standing under a tree branch

Sunset 3

It didn’t do much for brightening the houses, but I think I like it the best anyway.

After that I drove back to LA and decided that I like Santa Barbara much more than either LA or San Diego.

I have seen this restaurant before when going over to some friends’ place on Cheshire.  However, considering the sketchiness of that area, I never gave it two thoughts.  That is until Ben and Gouda told me that it had been ranked by Bon Appetit magazine and Food Network as one of the three best taco places in America.   Well, I had to give that a shot.

It’s amazing.  I had two tacos my first trip there and a bowl of Shrimp Corn Chowder, which might be the best thing that I’ve ever tasted at a Mexican place.  It’s this amazing chowder that’s just sweet enough to keep you wanting more.

As for the tacos, I had a Memphis and a Carnita.  The Memphis is described as “Chopped smoked pork with a spicy jalapenos cole slaw and tequila BBQ sauce.”  It’s got enough spice that you can taste and enjoy it, but not too much that it overtakes the other tastes in the taco.  It’s a very unique taco, and definitely a favorite of everyone I’ve talked to.  The Carnita is “A Mexican favorite.  Twice cooked tender pork with salsa frita, cilantro & onions.”  This is basically just a really really good version of your standard pork taco.

If you are in, or will be around Atlanta, check out the website and the menus and be sure to make the time to head over there at least once.  And get the chowder.  Trust me.

I just finished watching the season finale for Monk (yeah, it’s 4 in the morning and I’m watching re-runs on my computer) and I had to stop the show for a while and do some research.

You see, about ten minutes in Monk goes running across an intersection after a cab.  Something about this intersection was just too familiar.  It took me a second t realize what was going on, but it was actually an intersection in Westwood Village maybe 5 minutes from where I lived in LA and somewhere I walked through nearly every day I was out there.  It’s the intersection of Westwood and Kinross.  What really made it stick out was the green awning you see near the end, but I went on the Urban Outfitters website to check that there was a store at that intersection like you see in the episode.  Yeah, everything checks out.

Now, I know this seems par for the course considering it was LA, but the thing is that Monk is set in San Francisco.   There are many scenes that involve the big hills, and the row houses, and other such landmarks there.  The fact that they would shoot what seems like most of the show in SF, and then trek down for some night shooting in Westwood just doesn’t make sense to me.  Maybe I don’t get it and really 90% of the show is shot in LA with a few random scenes shot up in SF to make it look real.  Maybe they were down for a night doing some awards show or press junket and saw a great alley for the scene.  What do I know?

It just really threw me when I saw the scene, and I wasn’t able to get it out of my mind until I looked in to it.

Another thing, why is it that I can keep getting 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night, be ass tired all day, and then still be up at 4 in the morning unable to sleep?  This is killing me.  I haven’t been able to get in a good sleep schedule since getting back to Georgia.  I just want to normalize so that I don’t feel like a damn zombie all day.

Also, I have a lot of pictures I want to put up, including my trip to Santa Barbara, but I can’t find the cable for my camera.  I will do some more searching though and hopefully get the pictures up soon.

The man above is Boo Weekley.  If he looks a little confused, it’s probably because he just had to do some basic addition.

You see, he has miscalculated Sergio Garcia’s score in 3 straight rounds.  The first was the infamous 3rd round of the PGA Championship where Sergio was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.  Well, Weekley was the guy writing down the scores and adding them up.

After that first disaster, Weekley and Garcia got paired up again for the first two rounds of the recent Deutsche Bank Championship and guess what happened.  Yup, Weekley managed to add up the scores wrong again.  In both rounds actually.  Luckily, Sergio the Spaniard was too smart to be fooled twice (or thrice) and double checked the scorecard before signing it this time.

I’m thinking one of those little calculators might be a good investment Boo.