SoCal

During the last weekend of June I traveled, with my friend Dan, down to Santa Barbara to visit Kristi, and Dan's wife Maureen. They were participating in the Summer Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, otherwise known as 'Brain Camp'. This is an annual get together for about 70 students who are all studying something roughly similar. The program lasts for two weeks, so Dan and I took the opportunity to visit during the middle weekend.

We drove from Davis to Monterey and had lunch at the Cannery Row Brewing Company, which has something like 75 beers on tap! After Monterey it was straight down highway 1 to Santa Barbara. Highway 1 hugs the coast, so there were some spectacular views, such as Big Sur:

By the time we got down to Santa Barbara it had been about 9 and a half hours since we left Davis! It wasn't really that bad though. We listened to an audio book about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and it was cool that we were driving by many of the places mentioned.

The first night we arrived there was a bbq, so that enabled us to meet some of the other participants. Everyone was really friendly, and the bbq was on the beach. Afterwards, people came over to the room we were staying in (Dan and I slept on the floor of Kristi and Maureen's room!), and we had drinks on the patio. It actually gets quite cool on the coast in the evening, so I was glad I brought a hoodie.

Next day, Saturday, Kristi and I traveled into downtown Santa Barbara to meet Veronica. Veronica was at college with Kristi and now lives in L.A. We decided to stay closer to home, versus visiting Veronica in L.A, because that would have meant a 3 hour round trip. Mulholland Drive will have to wait..... Santa Barbara is a really attractive town. Much of the main street is independent stores, and those few big name stores still have to retain the original architecture.

After doing some shopping we walked out to the beach and a long a pier. There was lots of tourist shops and places were you could rent fishing rods. We watched as one guy caught a small shark!

The beach in Santa Barbara is framed beautifully by the Santa Ynez mountains. Next time we're there I definitely want to go exploring in them.

The dorms we were staying in were right off the beach in the northern suburb of Isla Vista. There was a 2 minute walk we could take to get there, and the evening light was really beautiful.

Dan and I left on Monday morning and drove back to Davis on Highway 101. It was actually prettier than I'd expected, there were vineyards on either side of the road. Since it was a more direct route, it ONLY took us 6 and a half hours to get back.


Current Temperature: 106F
Currently Watching: An auction for climbing shoes on ebay.