santa barbara, ca

goleta is west of SB

i went to SB for the 4th of july last year. it was fine. underwhelming.

sorry jimmy i was thinkin 101 directions

Sounds like you need directions 101.

OH!

can we ban hurting from ile too?

I've only been to Ojai once, to visit some family friends, but it is even more a place to live when you want a nothing-ever-happens life than SB. I think there is a "downtown" shopping / cafe area but I can't imagine it being worth the trip unless you lived in Ventura. Probably a good area to drive through, though.

x-post: It's "North" by 101 directions anyway.

i'd rather take the high road on this one xpost

alot of the high grade marijuana we get in so cal is grown in ojai

Has anyone ever been to Ojai? That was one of the towns I wanted to hit but didn't have time. Sounded like it could either be awesome or just ridiculous

Somewhat expensive tourist trap and celebrity hideaway along the lines of Julian only without the good apple pie. Back in the 1970s they used to advertise that they were the home of "TV's Six Million Dollar Man - Steve Austin"

The video for Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" was filmed there, which is about all you need to know

second trip to santa babs we returned to LA via Ojai, scenic winding drive through the hills to get there but sheesh what a boring town, kinda like nowheresville and a tourist trap at the same time. we had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall mexican place that looked promising yet the food resembled tacos you'd get in the midwest ca. 1970s.

good to know. what about santa paula/fillmore?

tell me about the dunes.

i am deeming this a central coast thread

theres a great board game shop in santa barbara run by a really enthusiastic austrian(?) dude, talking like $60-$80 games, expansion packs, you name it, but the guy is a mensch and will cut you a deal, i bought risk 2210 there and ive unpacked it a lot and it looks real pretty but ive never actually played it

yeah i bought my bro some crazy version of axis and allies there

re upthread, i love ojai but you don't go there for the town. i had a really nice time at the ojai retreat a few months ago, just staring out the window at the mountains, wandering the grounds, taking photos, "meditating" (if you like).

also suzanne's is quite good. we also tried feast bistro -- thumbs up on the food, thumbs down (in my one experience) on the flaky service.

but no, there's not much to "do" in ojai, and that's rather the point.

my photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/stockholm_cindy/sets/72157607455131904/

hey, the retreat looks nice, thanks

(btw, that's technically a Scrub-Jay - you don't get Blue Jays in CA)

SB's also where Jimmy Connors can get arrested.

the scrub jay is very cute:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Western_Scrub_Jay_holding_an_Acorn_at_Waterfront_Park_in_Portland,_OR.JPG

(btw, that's technically a Scrub-Jay - you don't get Blue Jays in CA)

Steller Jays represent!

http://www.birdsamore.com/_images/jay-stellers_350.jpg

cheap rooms taking sides: hotel state street private room with a shared bath (http://www.hotelstatestreet.net/) or a private en suite at http://www.sbhostel.com/ ? anyone stayed in the hostel?

I had a friend who did said it was one of the nicer hostels he's been in.

did, said

likely true

thankig u again for retreat, jody; have reserved

Was in a bar on state street tonight wondering to myself which students I hate more, Oxford or UCSB, and then I saw a guy wearing an Oxford 2006 Ski Trip hoodie. What a town.

UCSB students like to think that they go to the 'Harvard of party schools' - for the most part, they're the smartest of the kids in California who wanted to go to a party school.

Breaking news: I just went for a quick walk to the pier and back before I go to bed and saw my first dead body. Police and ambulance stood around a body on the floor in the bushes. Didn't look like a crime scene. : ( Very weird first few hours here.

Turns out this is a v. nice town, corpses and Oxbridge undergrads notwithstanding.

If you want Banana Republic and tattoos then State Street is for you.

Yup, sounds about right. My cousin went there.

I saw another dead person. I was on this train : (((((

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11429916

when we are in santa barbara (or even just passing through between the bay and so cal) we stop at pierre lafond for breakfast.

http://www.pierrelafond.com/

I ate there. It was good!

p.s. http://lafd.blogspot.com/2009/01/woman-struck-by-amtrak-train-dies-in.html. What a trip.

that place looked nice but we went up the street to zia cafe

caek visits america, sees dead people

this is reminding me of when friend of mine had a french foreign exchange student in high school and after the semester was up he took a bus tour of the country - upon returning he told us abt how he witnessed a shooting like it was the most normal thing in the world because he was lol french and thought americans just shot each other all the time no big deal - of course none of us he was telling the story to had ever seen a shooting

my favourite eats over the weekend was whail tail deli: http://whale-tail-deli.com/default.aspx. cheap for sb, and hearty fare indeed.

xp, two dead people in four days has to be some kind of record, right. central california is perilous.

I was making a video on the train down from sb, planning to edit it into a sort of time lapse thing of socal, but i don't know if I will now, because it gets really weird with all the firemen and the not moving and the people crying on the edge of LA. I was in the one car outside the tunnel. I can see my window in those LAFD Flickr photos.

In Santa Barbara, little concern over rising body count

It may be picturesque, but this upscale village of red-tile roofs and stunning seascapes is sending a huge number of lost souls to the county morgue. Bodies show up on the beach, in parks, along railroad tracks and in the heart of the business district, steps from four-star restaurants and boutique hotels.

Sometimes it's murder. Usually it's a case of used-up bodies giving out under the swaying palms.

"We just had another one," Santa Barbara County social worker Ken Williams told me Thursday morning. "He was probably in his 50s and played steel guitar on State Street by the museum. They found his body yesterday."

That was No. 18 for the year, said Williams, the same number of homeless deaths the city saw in all of 2008.

Santa Monica, with roughly the same population as Santa Barbara, averaged about 14 homeless deaths a year between 2000 and 2007. Los Angeles averaged 170 a year over that same period, which sounds like a lot. But it's a far lower rate per capita than the one Santa Barbara has had the last two years.

Certainly my experience of that perilous coast.

it now snows ash in santa barbara on a regular basis

lol coming back to this town. how many dead people will i see this time?

got sunburn

seeing up in the air tonight, which feels like the santa barbara of this year's best picture contenders

got a phil collins song in my head now

caek's reports on the cityscape of Isla Vista will amuse.

haven't seen any oxford/cambridge varsity ski trip hoodies yet this time, although i did just see a canadian national polo team shirt (horse, not water). what a town.

have a blenders 4 me

also if yr driving to LA you can stop in carpenteria and have a burger @ The Spot. Julia Child used to eat there apparently and they had, at one point, the finest burger I had ever had

blenders rules
get blue-banana

Looking forward to seeing SB and around. Will be there in about two weeks!

We arrived yesterday afternoon. The sunset sky last evening was incredible - electric blue sky clashing with fuchsia and reflecting rosy pink glow off the mountains. Very nice.

Wind caves @ gaviota is a quick hike if ur looking for something off the highway. Either bishop’s peak or madonna mtns in SLO (madonna is easier, bishop is more interesting)

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, April 25, 2023 12:43 PM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Shout out to Jimmy the Mod for the Gaviota recommendation. We had the best short hike up to the wind caves yesterday morning. We didn’t see another soul the entire time.

Also, tri-tip sandwiches at the Eagle 76 in Buellton are available during the week and were amazing. BBQ sauce and salsa worked beautifully with the smoky meat. Top 5 sandwich experience.

Reclumbed Bishop in august it was very very fun

Also, tri-tip sandwiches at the Eagle 76 in Buellton are available during the week and were amazing. BBQ sauce and salsa worked beautifully with the smoky meat. Top 5 sandwich experience.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Tuesday, December 5, 2023 7:28 AM (two hours ago)

Nice!

Is Pinnacles on your northward itinerary?

Pinnacles whips

PBKR should be the Dave Portnoy of gas station tri-tip sammies

We’re in Big Sur now so no Pinnacles, though we drove past the exit on 101 this morning. Also I wrenched my ankle at Partington Cove this afternoon. We will see how it feels tomorrow, but I’m like done hiking for the trip.

Pea Soup Andersen's closes for good on its 100th anniversary
https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/pea-soup-andersen-buellton-closed-18600570.php

never have I ever

Fucking bullshit

To be fair, it’s not any good.

"the signature pea soup quickly became a signature dish"

Itisamystery.jpeg

Some more info here: https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/pea-soup-andersens-in-buellton-shutters-doors-property-in-escrow-after-lengthy-buyer-process/article_fea28acc-0ce7-52f9-a9bf-acdf5c443d56.html

Looks like the building is a tear-down. Maintenance of a 100 year old building that sees heavy use is probably impossible to square on a restaurant budget.

"Guggia Jr., a Central Coast restaurateur, also purchased Pea Soup Andersen's Santa Nella in 2007, which is still operational. His company also owns AJ Spurs steakhouses, Shaw's Steakhouse in Santa Maria, Cracked Crab, The Pantry on Park, and Pappy's Diner."

Suppose serving bad soup and steaks of meat that are usually ground to the ancients is good busjness