Ok, so here's the Santa Barbara recap:
Friday morning after Thanksgiving, Amanda and I set sail (in the car, not in a boat) for Santa Barbara. We figured that, having been together for over 3 years and never taken a vacation together, we were entitled to one.
First stop was the Old Mission Santa Barbara, the "Queen of the Missions." Established in 1786, it was the 10th of the California missions founded by the Spanish Franciscans. The 11th mission was to recover the NOC list and was referred to as "Job 3-14." Many of the mission's buildings were damaged by earthquakes, but were restored in the 1920s and 1950s. The mission had a rose garden on its land, and I've already been made fun of for saying it was beautiful, but you know what? Screw it, it was beautiful, so take that, sucka. Don't believe me, see for yourself.
Friday afternoon we walked around downtown (I think it was downtown), on State Street down by the beach. We had lunch at this Indian restaurant where this jackass at the table next to us was loudly explaining to his son or stepson why his refusal to try new foods was making life hell for everyone. Amanda was getting pissed, but it was a buffet, so if that kid didn't want to eat, it was fine with me. Then we did a little shopping. I picked up INXS's "Listen Like Theives" at a used CD store, and we walked down to the pier and back. While Amanda was shopping for some jewlery, I sat on a bench and waited for her. It wasn't a total loss, though, because Sipowitz walked past me. You haven't lived until you've seen Sipowitz walking down the mean streets of Santa Barbara. Dinner was at Brophy Bros. Seafood, and I had a shark sandwich. A shark sandwich! I felt like such a badass. I don't have a picture of the shark sandwich, but I do have a picture of some bird looking at me.
Saturday was the main event. I am, of course, referring to the U2 cover band we saw that night, but before I get to that, let's talk about all of the wine we drank while touring and tasting at a bunch of vineyards. THIS was fun. First we hit the Fess Parker. Fess Parker used to play Davy Crockett on the big screen, but now he has a vineyard. A pretty good one, too. I bought a bottle of his Frontier Red, mainly because, as Amanda observed, I like the label. Next stop was the Firestone Vineyard, as in Firestone Tires. Brooks Firestone, the grandson of the tire guy, didn't like selling tires, and started a vineyard. Amanda and I liked the Riesling at Firestone, and bought a bottle to drink with our lunch. We lucked out that day, b/c when we showed up for our tour, our tour guide was none other than Mr. Firestone himself. He was pretty funny, and willing to pose for a picture, so here we are.
We also hit the Curtis Winery, which is a sister vineyard to Firestone. They had some good stuff. I liked the Mourvedre (mo-VED), which was some sort of Merlot-based blend. Now, rest assured, I'm not turning into some sort of wine snob. The only difference between me now and me a week ago is that now I know exactly what it is that I can't afford to buy. After Curtis, we went to the Andrew Murray vineyard, which was having an open house and giving tastes of 9 wines instead of the standard 5 or 6, so that was a pretty sweet bonus. They also had finger food, which was a HUGE bonus. After Andrew Murray, we went to the little town of Los Olivos and hit a couple of tasting rooms. I think our favorite was Epiphany. I wanted to buy a t-shirt, but they didn't have the one I liked in my size. We liked the "Revelation" wine they had there, but at over 20 bucks a bottle, that's a prime example of knowing what I can't afford.
We then went next door to the "Mad Dog" tasting room. For 50 cents, we got to drink all the wine we wanted, and we bought a few bottles for around 3 dollars apiece. (That was a joke.)
Los Olivos was really nice, but there wasn't much to do there but drink wine and buy art, and the tasting rooms closed around 5 or so, and I wasn't about to start buying art, so we headed back to Santa Barbara, and we finished our dinner just in time to catch Electrical Storm, the U2 tribute band. Let me tell you, these dudes were hilarious.
You can see from this picture that they were dressed like the band. That's "Bono" and "The Edge" in the picture, I couldn't get "Larry Mullen Jr." and "Adam Clayton" in the shot. Not only did they dress like U2, I'm pretty sure the lead singer actually thought he was Bono. He was speaking in a bad Irish accent all night, and he was even dancing like Bono, bowing down to "the Edge's" guitar during solos. The craziest thing was that the place was packed to the tune of about 75-80% with senior citizens. It was really funny to see them dancing around to music they probably had never heard before, trying not to pop a hip. Hilarity ensued, but that aside, the band was actually pretty good. They really did justice to the songs, playing them pretty well for being a bunch of impostors.
Sunday morning before we came back to LA, we went on a trail ride at the Circle Bar B Ranch. That's right. Horses. It was an hour and a half ride (read: walk) through the mountains, and it was a ton of fun. The scenery was AWESOME. Just sitting on the horse was fun. I felt like I was in City Slickers, except I was wearing a Red Sox cap instead of a Mets cap.
All in all, it was a GREAT weekend, and Amanda and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. If anybody wants to come visit us out here, we'll take you up to wine country. I could definitely go back there once or twice a year. Now, in conclusion, here's a picture of me on my horse, Hershey. Y'all come back now.
