Hampton Inn Goleta Ca

Today is my first full day in Santa Barbara. We are playing the Granada Theatre which is a beautiful venue Downtown. Several years ago, (from what I've been told) the theatre underwent a $20 million dollar renovation and is quite spectacular. This is my ...

... back up the steep climb to our yurt, wondering what it must be like to live in such a cut-off spot.

After a quick lunch, we headed into Goleta, the local small town, and had a drink at a cafe with wireless internet access. We spent a couple of hours on their painfully slow connection trying to book our final accommodation for our last there nights America. After the wonderful peacefulness of the yurt, we couldn't think of anything worse than staying in busy ...

... Umm, I wore a Davey Crockett hat. The best part of this vineyard was the fun I had filling in the note sections of the tasting sheet. Such ridiculous ways of describing wines...I mean how can one determine that a wine has a whisper of a kiss of oak..."Can you hear the whisper?"-Matt
...forest floor (why is dirt in my wine?)
...smoked meats (non-veggie friendly!)
...gets paired well with outgoing cheeses (oh those chatty cheeses!
...notions of earth (sounds nice but ...

... Everyone was swapping details etc and the mood was a bit flat as it was our last night. Many people were there just for a holiday so the realization of work looming was setting in and leaving a pretty tight nit group of friends that we had made. Sorry this is a poor entry but cant remember much more about the day other than coach, beach & dinner! Photos on San Fran and here will have to follow as dont have much time!

... Barbara to grill some burgers, and just lie around and do nothing. We hope for sunshine, but will enjoy the day regardless. All we really need or want at this point in our lives is good company and great conversation, laughter, wine and good food! Already we are sad as we realize that tomorrow we will be leaving this beautiful area and this lovely girl as we head back to the Bay Area with Javi.

... many times. We left the city and drove south along Rat 1 which is breathtaking. Most of the trip you are driving 200 to 400 feet above the water looking down at the big surf splashing on the huge boulders. We stopped many times for photos but we kept our warm jackets on due to the low temp.. At one point we were in a valley and pulled off into a rest area with lots of cars... Turns out there were about 150 ...

... where you choose the flavour and the sauce you want, then you can choose from loads of chocolate bars, cookies, brownies, nuts, sweets, fruit, chocolates. They mash it all together and roll it out for you - bloody good! Nearly missed the shuttle back to the airport, and then after narrowly making it Emma left her small rucksack on the bus. Luckily the guy came back with it and everything went surpsingly smoothly from then on.

... on the plane to Phoenix, AZ...which I especially chose since I´ve never been there...although I could have had a non-stop flight...well why easy if there´s a complicated way... Phoenix was really excited...have just seen the airport but well, I have seen the hottest guys in my life...I called my girlfriend and let her know...so next trip will be to AZ! No I´m kidding...

... Stopped for food. 7:15 - Back on the road looking for a camp site. So far, 0-for-2. The sunset looks cool over the mountains. 7:44 - 3rd time's the charm. Survey says: YES. The campsite is right next to a beach so it's practically on the beach. I watched the sunset on the pier and the rocks while Keith and Brett played baseball with their official bats. I finally talked to Vicki for an hour and forty minutes about her week from hell and other stuff. It was really nice to talk ...

... they no longer make the donuts the same way. Now like most of the others they completely coat the donut in about a quarter inch thick coating of sugar, or some other overly sweet thing. I guess this helps keep them from going stale. But it also makes me not want them anymore. Anyway, enough of donuts. I headed down to the Carpenteria beach area. Then on to Santa ...