So, I meant to try to post various entries for the different days to talk about what I’ve been up to while Stepan, a friend and former coworker of mine, has been visiting. He’s going to a conference next week and since he was on vacation, he decided to stop by and visit SB since he hadn’t ever been here.

To sorta summarize, our days have included the following:

Thursday: Stepan arrives and we take him to dinner at the Palace and then later that evening hit up Tonic so he can see one of the more popular late-night dance venues.

Friday: We go on a hike along the San Ysidro trail, stopping at the water to rest and take pictures. We also drive to a spot along Painted Cave that offers and overview of the whole city and ocean before he heads down to a concert at the Roxy in LA and Dave and I attend the post-season kickball party

Saturday: We go for lunch at the Daily Grind and later go see The Hangover, which is quite amusing. After the movie we go to Arigato for sushi (or teriyaki chicken for me) and get a drink at State & A while waiting for a table. To end the night, we hit up Eos for a little variety in the dancing.

Sunday: We get up slightly earlier than usual so that we can go wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley. We do brunch at Roblar and then hit up Firestone, Curtis, Kalyra, and Gainey for tastings. We tried to do Sunstone as well, but they were closed already when we arrived. Since it was also the birthday of a friend in attendance, we decided to hit up a nice dinner at Ca Dario (also because I know several people who work there, and the food is good).

Monday: Stepan and I walked around downtown for like 6 hours, going all over State Street, the wharf, the courthouse, and several parks, taking pictures. He was introduced to The Habit as an alternative to In n Out. For dinner we went to Santa Barbara Brewing Company, which unfortunately was out of several of their microbrews. After dinner we hit up Dargan's for some pool, before moving on to the Joyce for karaoke.

Tuesday: We got a somewhat later start, walking over to South Coast Deli for lunch before winding up at the Coffee Cat to spend the rest of the day working on our computers--me doing my web stuff and Stepan editing some of the many photos he's taken along the way. After the coffee shop closed we went to dinner at Pacific Crepes and then met up with some people for pool once again at Dargan's.

Wednesday (so far): We started out with breakfast at Moby Dick's, so that we could have the view of the harbor as we ate. After breakfast, we ventured over to Hendry's Beach for a bit so that Stepan could say he's been to an SB beach. It's been hard to do much more than just walk around the beach since the weather has been kinda cold and overcast--not exactly beach weather. He put his feet in the ocean and felt how cold the water here can be and then we walked along the sand for a bit before heading back. Now we are doing work at Northstar Coffee, and who knows what the evening will bring us--perhaps pub quiz??

To make a long summary short though, we've been doing a lot of stuff, trying to take advantage of what SB has to offer, and hopefully he will consider this to be a successful and fun trip!

Posted at 2:53 PM |