LA Trip #5!: Day #2 -- Santa Barbara

So this morning we both were awake before 6:00am -- damned time zones! We're staying at the Lavender Inn because we love the smell of lavender--seriously!! We stayed at the companion hotel across the street last year and decided that we wanted to try this one -- because of the lavender....

Here's our room -- notice the lavender sachets on the bed!

We had a nice breakfast and took our time getting ready for the day, something which we're both "good" at. Today's adventures included a visit to a Picasso exhibit at an art museum on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. We arrived at 11:00 and, with a little help from someone in an art building, found the place. Unfortunately, the website we used said that the place was open on Tuesday -- it wasn't. So we walked around campus and checked out the campus bookstore (where the main floor had all kinds of awesome things while the textbooks were relegated to the lower level -- pretty funny.

Our walk took us by a hammock, and Bob was happy to pose there.

Beyond the breaker is the Pacific Ocean, leading Bob to comment to an employee about how difficult it must be to study in such a beautiful setting. Her reply: they end up eventually finishing and getting a master's...

Here's a view that shows just how close the ocean is . Northwestern had its own beach just like this place; unfortunately, you could only go in the water about one day per year (unless you were filming an NSTV sketch, in which case you'd freeze your whatevers off).

We also discovered a mysterious metal object -- still don't know what it is.

http://youtu.be/RgHP21HdIwY

During our walk around campus, I started to feel kind of weird -- was it too much coffee?? Too little sleep? Too much sitting time the day before? Anyway, we walked back to the car, and Bob drove to our next stop -- a book store in downtown Santa Barbara. We got into town and drove around for what seemed like hours trying to find a free parking spot that wasn't time-specific (90 minutes) or due to be cleaned from 1-3 on Tuesday -- I AM SERIOUS.

And we were ultimately successful!! I needed to eat, so we had lunch at State and Fig. It was so delightful sitting pus idle -- I mean "outside" -- damn autocorrect and teeny keys! -- on a beautiful day.

I took this picture so that Bob can show it to one of his dispatchers, whose nickname is Fig, short for Figueroa-- just like this place.

After lunch we wandered through the arcade, which we remembered from previous years.

This English style phone booth was right behind where Bob was sitting, causing us to wonder whether Dr. Who had indeed transported himself from Gamla Stan in Stockholm to Santa Barbara just in time for our visit...

Strangely enough, Bob also met up with Ben Franklin. Hmmm.

We shopped at the bookstore after lunch and got a few books for the many children we'll see this weekend. We returned to the hotel and rested for a while -- I was hoping I'd be feeling normal soon. Bob got me some Motrin, which seemed to help.