boom-boom: Mini Boocation 8-22-14

Since Andrew didn't get to make it to San Diego, he ended up getting the next weekend off so that we could have some alone time that lasted ALL DAY. With my new summer schedule and with him working two jobs, we never see each other. By the time he gets home, I'm already in bed and through out the day we try to see each other through snapchats and picture messages.

Anyhoo, we decided to take a little trip to Santa Barbara. We wanted to stay the night but for some reason that weekend, every hotel we looked up was more than $200 and there was no way we were going to spend that much money for one night. So, I was determined to convince Andrew that we should try Airbnb. When I first found out about Airbnb through a blogger I follow, I thought it was such an awesome idea but too scared to try. Then I got a little ballsy and tried to get Andrew to agree with it on some of our past trips but he was freaked out by the whole idea. He doesn't sleep very well in hotels, let alone strangers' homes, so he never wanted to try it. Well, we were desperate this time to spend the night at the beach and so he finally agreed with me to rent out a lady's studio guest house for a night. It was $60 and she lived on a hill with a gorgeous view of Santa Barbara.

Aw, we didn't want to leave these two but they were excited every time we said "Grandma's going to come and check on you!"

We stopped in Ventura for a bit and checked out Salzer's for records and silly gifts. The top floor is half smoke shop, half really silly gifts....kinda like a Spencer's but I guess more tasteful.

It was kind of scary finding her place because it was up on a hill and the two lane road was so narrow. I feel bad for firetrucks/ambulances/tow trucks or any big truck going up this road. When we finally found her place, it was was covered with trees so it was quiet and private and her landscaping was on the tropical side which made it feel like we weren't in Santa Barbara. The studio was exactly what we saw in her pictures...small room, bed, small bathroom and outside shower...plus free wifi which was awesome because if you brought a tablet or your laptop, you didn't need a TV. She also left out some white towels for us, maps, brochures on things to do and bottles of water. The best part of our arrival, however, was what greeted us...puppies!!!!...oh yeah, and foreign exchange students from South Korea who were super chill and kind.

I brought toilet paper just in case because I've read on some AirBnB reviews that sometimes your host won't supply toiletries. She did, but I was just trying to be careful haha.

After we dropped off all of our stuff, Andrew wanted to go back to the steak house he took me too for my birthday 3 years ago...so we went to Holdren's for dinner.

He ordered us an appetizer of coconut prawns served a with mango chutney and mango puree.

I had an herbed encrusted chicken breast with a baked potato.

His filet mignon was so yummy, he ate it very slow to savor every moment.

And what brought us to Santa Barbara in the first place... Andrew has been buying this ice cream which is about $7 a pint at Von's since probably December of last year and he is obsessed with this stuff. He claims it's the best ice cream he's ever had. He's made mochas out of it and he drinks it with his cold brew coffee. Well, we finally made it to the Mother Headquarters and he was beyond happy to finally make his own ice cream sandwich. Gone are the days of longing (he follows them on Instagram)...his dreaming and patience finally paid off.

I had the lemon and marion berries in a waffle cone. Twas quite refreshing!

He had the cinnamon ice cream with cinnamon cookies. It thought he was going to cry.

I made him do this.... hahah....(he doesn't like posing in public, especially when there'a lot of people around). But hey, that's what he gets for marrying a Filipino woman with a camera.

We wanted to walk to the pier but first we needed coffee. Every coffee shop on State closed early except for Peet's and Starbucks and Mr. didn't want either...soooo, we found this place called "The Good Cup." Of course someone knew Andrew and struck up a conversation with him.

And off to the pier we go...

It was crazy still and quiet. Not used to being near the ocean and it being that silent. I like hearing crazy crashing waves and the sound of the wind. But nope, I felt like I was at the lake. It was still really pretty though. There was a party boat on the water which was pretty cool. You could hear the blaring club music from where we were standing.

Walking back, there was a party trolley that just went up and down State Street, blaring club and pop music and everytime they passed us by the ladies would hoot like drunkin' owls..."WooooOoooooO!!!" It got annoying after a while.

When we drove back to our place, GPS took us the other way which took us right to the Santa Barbara Mission. It looks so beautiful at night! It was also fun watching a bunch of theater kids doing shadow play with the ground lights. They were using their hands and bodies to project shadows on the front of the Mission, like they were telling a story. It was really neat.

Back at our resting place, we kind of freaked because there was a huge brown spider on the lamp that could have been a brown recluse but Andrew killed it. Then it made me paranoid the whole night. I then put on Men in Black and we watched it in bed until I fell asleep. Andrew didn't go to sleep until like 3 or 4am because he never feels comfortable sleeping in other than our own bed. I kept waking up ever hour even after Andrew finally fell asleep. I don't know what it was. The bed was comfortable, the weather was awesome and it was quiet...I just don't know why I had trouble sleeping.

We still woke up refreshed and well rested though, which was totally bizarre. We woke up to muffins, fruit and granola bars she left for us in the morning. Which was totally sweet of her!

I thought we almost clogged her toilet because the water wouldn't go down...so I asked Boo to knock on her door and ask her for a plunger. What a funny way to meet our host. She is a total sweetheart! And she said don't worry about the toilet, it's a slow flushing one...I guess it waits for a while, and then it decides to flush to save on water or something like that.

After we got dressed (it was super refreshing taking a shower outside, btw) we said our goodbyes and headed out for some food. Of course we went back to State Street since it was so close and went back to The Good Cup.

Then we had breakfast at the Tupelo Junction Cafe.

And on our way back to the car, we found this little coffee gem that had amazing tasting coffee.

Next up we left for Los Angeles. First stop: Ben Sherman Store. Boo hasn't bought clothes in I don't know when so I suggested that he check out the Ben Sherman Store in the Beverly Center for some new threads.

Then of course, we headed to Ameoba and I headed to Groundworks Coffee across the way where I met my cousin Maricar.

When Boo was finished he met us at Groundworks and then we went back to the car in Ameoba's basement. While we were leaving, we got rear ended in the parking lot. Thank God nothing happened to my bumper.

Andrew has been wanting to take me to this place called Donut Friend so away we went.

Each donut is cleverly named after a band. For example, I had the cinnamon roll called "The Jimmy Eat Swirl." Boo went kind of overboard with the doh-dohs but they were all pretty awesome.

Then Andrew left us and went to the record shop across the street.

Mars was like, "Is there a bar around here?" So we walked back to the car and put the donuts in the car...lo and behold was a super cute bar called The Loft. It was really dark inside but the bar had a very nice ambiance. The only thing that was pretty ridiculous was when we asked for a dinner and drink menu, she pointed to the wall. Everything was written on HUGE chalkboards on the walls. You have to walk right up to it to read it, and you can barely read it because it's so damn dark in there! Anyway, we didn't feel like moving so we just had the bartender suprised us with an ale.

Pretty cool bathroom walls. Reminded me of carving through a linoleum stamp for relief printing.

Then Andrew met up with us and he was hungry so we ended up trying the pizza down the street. It was called Town Pizza and it was pretty good. That was the last stop for the night and then we headed home.

The next morning Andrew ate donuts like there was no tomorrow. He was quite happy. Almost reminded me of that part in Matilda where that kid had to eat the cake.