Santa Barbara Nightlife

Tonight we had dinner with my family, my Aunt Steph, cousins Alexa and Nicole, Nicole's boyfriend Jesse, Felix (my Aunt Steph's friend/assistant), and Alexa's friend Hunter. It was a catered barbecue, which was new to me, but the steak was good. There were various side dishes that included vegetables, which were apparently good but I didn't touch. There was some pretty good pasta and potatoes which I didn't mind, though.

After dinner Nicole, Jesse, Tara, and myself decided to go downtown (unfortunately I forgot my camera, so there won't be any pictures). Apparently UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara, which is where Nicole just graduated from) is one of the largest party schools in the US. Being the summer and a Wednesday night calmed things down a bit, but Nicole and Jesse thought I should see what downtown is like on my only night in SB.

Appparently there's a huge celebration going on this weekend called simply "Fiesta". Things get started early in the week, which I guess accounted for the fair amount of people downtown on a Wednesday night. There were also confetti-filled egg shells being sold on every corner (apparently a Fiesta staple), which resulted in people (and the streets) covered in confetti.

We first went to a restaurant/bar called Ruby's, which was pretty traditionally Mexican (complete with Mariachi band). We had a pitcher of Margaritas, then around 11 PM it went from casual hangout-type place to music-blaring dance bar. We then moved on to The James Joyce, which is a traditional Irish pub, which had live music. This was, of course, right up my alley, even though the band didn't play any traditional Irish songs.

After the pub Nicole, Jesse, and Tara decided I had to try In-N-Out Burger before I left. It was pretty damned good. I don't know if it lived up to it's massive cult of personality, but as fast food goes it was definitely the best burger I've had. It looks like I'll be scouting out their Vegas location(s) in the next few days.

It's now 1:54 AM local time, so I'll be off to bed soon. My plane leaves SB for Vegas at 1:55 PM, we're supposed to be picked up by taxi at around 12:30 PM. My mom, sister, cousins, and aunt are going to LA in the morning to drop off Alexa at LAX, so I'll probably have to get up atound 10-10:30 to say goodbye. Between then and when we head off to the airport I'm not sure what I'll be doing, probably killing time online. I hope I can get a decent internet connection in Vegas, chances are I'll have to pay though.

Anyway, it was a good night.