7-21-2015
Santa Barbara, California
Day Two

The hot, humid air from yesterday breaks up a bit and yields to a morning fog.  In spite of yesterday’s turn of events, I vow to hit the reset button and make the most of my day today.  My family already gone for the morning, I get dressed and head to the Cajun Kitchen in Goleta for breakfast.  After fueling up on fresh coffee, a delicious omelette, and a mountain of hashbrowns, I set off and into the world.

My first destination doesn’t take me very far from where I was yesterday: I return to the beach near campus point and the end of the lagoon.

However, this time I do things a bit different.  I go to the lagoon and stare at some wildlife and take in the stinky, primordial smell of it all.

I take the time to walk the entirety of UCSB’s campus, and marvel at the “superstructure” replacing the UCSB library.  I head over towards Goleta Beach, and admire the sailboats anchored and awaiting a captain.

Yes, this place has changed, but elements of it remain timeless.  The ocean, the surrounding nature, the intricacies of students and workers all trying to make it in this world – the story of it is constant and repeating.  I decide that it is these things that connect me to this place, not nostalgia and not the past.

Around this point, my family once again found themselves having a lunch break.  I made sure to use our time wisely this time around, and showed them all of campus.  When we parted ways, I returned to the Tiguan, and headed south once again on the 101.

I made my way to Montecito to hike a trail I hadn’t been on in ages.  I got hopelessly lost along the way, twisting and turning around windy roads filled with mansions belonging to the elite of the elite here in America, but finally I found the trail.  Well, a sign pointed me to the trail at least.

Seems legit.

The trail moves up the foothills and into the mountains to an overlook of the ocean and surrounding community.  Unfortunately, having moved inland from the ocean, the stillness and heavy humidity in the air returned.

See that “fog” looking thing?  Yeah, that’s not a nice, cool fog.  That’s clothing-immediately-drenched-in-sweat humidity.

Making things a bit worse was the fact that the trail continued forking until I was once again lost.  Oh, and there was poison oak everywhere off the trail.  Nevertheless, I finally found where I wanted to go, tip toeing my way there to avoid the poison oak.  A big, giant yin yang trail marker showed that I had indeed made it to my destination.

Once there, I took in the gorgeous vantage of the entire area.  Santa Barbara may no longer be my home, may no longer even be recognizable in many ways, but I still love this place.  It’s pretty hard not to love it.  Whether you want to argue it’s natural or plastic, the beauty of it all is overwhelming.

You want to stand here and see this before you die.

As I made my way back down the trail, my family called letting me know that Lilly was now completely finished with her orientation.  I got back to the Tiguan, aka Sexy Beast, and headed back north on the 101, back to the hotel.  Once there, Lilly and I decided to head out on another hike.  Heading up the 154, we turned off at W Camino Cielo (thanks Anton, never would have remembered that road) and followed it to near its end.  Once there, I showed her the top portion of what’s known locally as the Rock Gardens – another beautiful vantage point in the mountains that overlooks UCSB campus and the ocean.  Unfortunately, the humidity was so thick up there that visibility was restricted to a quarter mile or so.  We tried hiking down to get below the humidity, but with the drought, desert vegetation has apparently flourished, leaving not much of a trail to go on.  We had to turn back, defeated (but at least Lilly now knows of at least one spot to go on an adventure when she gets down here).  On our way back, we bumped into a group of teenage girls who were smoking pot and debating whether they preferred shaved balls or unshaved.  Nasty creatures, teenage girls.

Once we got back, we showered, got dressed, and went out to dinner with my parents.  This time, we ate in Montecito, at a Mexican restaurant called Cava.  Amazing restaurant.  Phenomenal restaurant.  I can’t put into words how much I love this restaurant.  What they do there, what they serve, is truly cuisine in every sense of the word.  And as the homemade (note, not from mix, homemade) margaritas settled into their new home in my stomach, and the perfectly seasoned lamb shanks that I ordered presented a feast to all my senses, I looked around at the smiles on my family’s faces, and decided that this memory, in the here and now, matched if not surpassed all of those nostalgic memories from my past.  It is incredibly important to live for the present.  The past may guide where you are in life, but never let it become who you are.  Who you are is in the here and now.  I’m excited for the days ahead of me, and I plan to live them to the fullest.  And I’m excited for the days ahead of my sister, in this place I once called home, and hope that she also lives her days to the fullest.

Cheers,

Rob