Santa Barbara 2008!!.....

John and I arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Santa Barbara at around 1pm on Friday, May 23rd......my 31st birthday!! Happy Birthday to me!! It was a great day, seriously. John woke up early and made me breakfast in bed! Bagels with cream cheese and lox, orange juice, hot cocoa, and a piece of birthday cake.....what a great way to start the day! We left Valencia at about 11:30am, took HWY 126 west to Ventura, then headed north on HWY 101 to beautiful Santa Barbara. I fell in love with the place, so gorgeous. We pulled up to the Holiday Inn Express on W. Haley, and were pleasantly surprised that is was such a cool place! We will definitely stay there the next time we visit. The hotel was located less than a block off of State Street, which is a main drag through town packed with tons of bars and restaurants. Once we unpacked and got situated in our room we walked down to the beach and had lunch at an amazing local favorite at the marina called Brophy Bros. Awesome food. I had grilled mahi mahi, but the best part about the meal was the clam chowder. It was the best chowder I have ever had! After we filled up our bellies, we headed back to the hotel. John hadn't slept too well the night before, so he took a nap. Kari arrived at the hotel and gave me a call around 4pm, and we decided to head out onto State Street and get a drink. We ended up at a cool little tequila place called Sandbar, great happy hour, 2 for 1 margaritas! We caught up with eachother, enjoyed a couple margaritas, and headed back to the hotel to meet up with John, the Barrs, and the Foils. It was great to see everyone, we went out to dinner at a great restaurant on State Street (I can't remember the name), then walked around State and had some drinks at various bars along the way. Apparently the tradition the first night in Santa Barbara is to walk to the beach at night, then walk back and get a piece of pizza at Uncle Rocco's. Tradition was broken and we ended up just getting pizza at Uncle Rocco's. We saved the beach for Saturday and Sunday. My favorite part of my first day in Santa Barbara? Watching Kari get seriously freaked on the dance floor by some dude 5 to 10 years our junior. Two words: dry hump. Two more words: totally awesome. Luckily she survived the ordeal, and it will go down in the books for this trip!!