We saw this cool car. Is it from Havana from the 60's?
We walked down State Street a couple of blocks and then turned up one which took us past a school. Kids sort of waved at us from the top window. I was amazed out how Spanish everything looked.
But that was nothing compared to seeing downtown Santa Barbara from the top of the courthouse.
Sherry told me about an ordiance that was passed in the city to keep all the buildings relatively low. I guess this not only protects the heritage of the city and its buildings but also helps with earthquakes. 6 months after this photo was taken this area was actually part of the evacuation zone during one of two devasting bushfires that hit Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara Courthouse
Yep here we go Jackie Chan. Time for some extreme parquere.
This was downloaded from google.
From the top here you can look around in all directions and see the beach and pier to the south, the college to the SW, the old cinema to the west, the mission to the north. Darrell's house is also to the north up the hills but we couldn't quite see it.
All encompassing Murray. Good times. Good times.
Actually, while I was doing this some people actually came up. They were probably suprised at what i was doing but had a laugh. If only they had the stones.
Hahaha. Make up your own mind! Is she in jail?
Hahaha. Breaking the law smoking the biggest fake cigarette possible. NO SMOKING!
The above and below photo are from inside the main court room of the courthouse. The whole room features illustrations of a mural that depict the settlement, colonization, meeting with Indians and growth of the town. As you look around the room each scene is illustrated chronologically.
Sherry does her 'No jail for me. FREEDOM!' dance.
I'm getting old. Need a snooze. Local style
Fountain out the front of the courthouse
Haha. It was fun taking all of these silly photos. We also took one in a phonebooth and a few others below.
We were getting hungry by this stage and walked down a block or two and Sherry suggested looking through some of the Pasaeos. I was like. Huh?? what are those?
A typical Santa Barbara 'pasaeo'
There were galleries and all sorts of boutique shops. We also saw a cool black chair with no legs. 
This fountain had live turtles in it!
What's in last century's newspaper Denzel? You've been reading it for a long time.
We then got on the State Street Shuttle Bus which costs a quarter to ride. It used to be for free but they had to charge something to keep all the homeless off it. We got off outside the bike shop. There were heaps of cool bikes here. Choppers, golf carts, etc.
We then rode down to the harbour and up to the university where we could see the athletics track and football field before heading back to the Harbour for lunch.
We actually saw a bought get winched or winded out of the water (happens to the right further along the pier)
Say it properly!
We ate at Brophy's which is a cool seafood restaurant overlooking the harbour. We sat outside and i had clam chowder for starters. Geez it was delicious. So thick and you could taste the clam. Awesome. Ill have it heaps when i go back. I had clam chowder about 9 months later at the Crowne Plaza in the Hunter Valley and it tasted no where near as good as the one I had here. Apparantly chowder is different on the west coast and east coast too. I think on the west it's pronounced chow durrr and on the east coast chow dah.
Sherry had a burger and fries and i had more seafood. One of the waitresses took this photo for us. They were all so happy too. They all wore the shortest white shortest and mega long white socks. Must have been going for that sexy sailor look. I like teh endless refill thing they do over here. Two sprites!
This shellfish i had afer the chowder was amazing. Really nice flavours. After lunch we went to the kayake shop to enquire about a kayaking in the near future near the channel islands. We were a bit worried because i think they said 'must be able to swim' or something and we were a bit concerned. We had a chat to Ched and T.J and they said that the only spots available were tomorrow. So we thought we'd have a bit of thinking time considering it was our 6 year anniversary tomorrow. Did we want to do that for our anniversary? Well why not? So we booked in!
We then thought we'd go for a bit more a ride around Santa Barbara. Before we did some knobshine asked me for money to catch a bus. He said he needed money to go to L.A or somewhere. He showed me some graze on his hand and he didn't even look like a bum. But Sherry said she thought she had seen him before and pulled me away.
So anyway we got on the bikes after telling him to get on his and headed east along the beach bike path. I remember riding behind Sherry and singing that song 'Riding along on my pushbike honey'. We didn't hire helmets and i almost paid a heavy price at one point as i broke with the front brake and did a massive endo after crossing a road. I actually got my feet out the front of me so i didnt fall thank god.
We rode down through a busy round-a-bout in full traffic and then on towards Trader Joe's Supermarket. We then headed back towards Sherry's work but before we got there my heart went into my mouth as Sherry fully faceplanted on the median street. Luckily it was dirt and she made it that far. It wasn't good. In the middle of the road there was actually a huge ridge that her tire caught on. She was actually lucky considering no safety equipment as she could have easily finished her crash and hit her head on the road or gutter. Still it was enough to rough her up a bit with a few grazes. Luckily we were near her work so she could chill out for a bit.
Her office was one of those places where companies can hire work stations. The building had heaps of tinfoil as a ceiling 'Good for keeping the aliens away' After resting i helped Sherry move desks. She talked to Sister Roberta (and maybe said a prayer) before we rode back to the bike shop and caught the bus back uptown. And then Home
While there Sherry sprung these on me. I knew she had them but good to have them in my hands. Goin' to da Gardin baby!'
We then packed a few beers and some food and went down to a really cool beach where we watched the sunset. If I ever wanted to propose this would be a good spot to do it. What a lovely place.
We just relaxed on a blanket that was a bit too small. Some people were fully decked out with everything but the kitchen sink. But they had the right idea. Sort of like camping. There were people running, people walking there dogs. Actually there was one moment that I'm not proud of - Two teenage boys were sort of in the way of our view of the sunset and under my breath i said 'Get the #$&@ out of the way' but i think they heard because i heard them say 'Sorry'. A nice dog also came right up to us and did a crap. Awesome stuff. haha The sunset was great and got better as the sun went down.
We took HEAPS of photos loooking for a great shot. Some of the best are below.
Ah! Suds by the beach
Metroid 3 Corruption water.
After the amazing sunset we went to Trader Joe's for a touch of supermarket shopping. I played hackey sack with some dudes with a bag of frozen vegies. Trader Joe's is sort of like Aldis. You wheel your trolley up. They pull it all out and bag it.
We then headed home. Sherry cooked steaks but she was so tired she hardly ate any. I chucked on the T.V and they had a pre-season Lakers game on. They wer playing the Oklohoma City Thunder (their first season as the Thunder - previously they were The Seattle Supersonics) And Phil Jackson was fully shaven! I fell asleep before the end of the game. Tired.
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