obscure detail

An obscure detail from the bike ride I took on what would have been my dad's 93rd birthday: evidently half of this huge catalpa tree in Foster Park fell to the ground. Or at least that's what it looks like. The more I scrutinize the photo, the more confused I get.

CPK coaster

The graphically pleasing coaster at California Pizza Kitchen.

The Daisy

Yet another new Santa Barbara restaurant - or at least new for us - The Daisy serves healthy, plant-forward, Mediterranean-inspired fare. Evidently it's very popular since it quickly filled up after we sat down for our simple soup-and-salad lunch.

Goodland Waffles

Since The Upham doesn't serve a proper breakfast we found ourselves checking out Goodland Waffles, a relatively new venue in the space formerly occupied by Hook and Press Donuts. The food was actually pretty good (although potato chips with brekkie is a touch weird) but the long, narrow space will always be problematic - Hook and Press did well to move to their vastly superior new location.

historic core of S.B.

Wandering around the area surrounding The Upham Hotel it becomes obvious that there is a concentration of beautiful historic buildings. It's therefore not surprising to learn that this neighborhood is known as Historic Downtown Santa Barbara. The area also includes the Arlington and New Vic Theaters as well as the Santa Barbara Public Market.

Edgerly Apartments

I've always liked this 1912-built "Swiss Chalet" in downtown Santa Barbara, originally a hotel and now the Edgerly Apartments. Just steps away from the Upham, this part of town formed a hotel district back in the day.

Bistro Amasa, part 3

My appetite stirred up, things took a strange turn. At first I thought they were "pacing" the meal in a healthy way, letting some time pass between courses. But then an unusually huge amount of time passed between the appetizers and main course. We didn't want to but were forced to ask for bread. The entrée finally came out and was excellent - "chicken fried mushrooms" which was actually vegetarian, composed mostly of oyster mushrooms which I love. By the time the carrots came out, I think too much time had passed; hunger and food were out of sync. This led to a "surprising benefit" similar to the one I mentioned in my recent blog about Lure.