Southern California - March 6th

The rain obscured the views along the 101 South, direction Santa Barbara and the hills surrounding the city, but we headed into town anyway. Santa Barbara is a really pretty city – I had no idea it would be so lovely. It’s a car-oriented city, but one that is well thought-out (unlike Dubai and Abu Dhabi!). Streets are really well sign-posted and there’s loads of free parking. There never seems to be much traffic (apart from queues outside the drive in “In and Out Burger”).
The restaurants are great – so much choice. Can you believe there's a branch of “Fat Burger” next to a wheatgerm juice bar. Fat burger display two signs: ”Proudly converting vegetarians since 19__” and “Did man reach the top of the food chain in order to eat soy??”. We resisted. We tend go for healthy bisto-type food which is rarely more than about 8 dollars each. This is the kind of stuff you can’t get in Japan – big salads with innovative dressings and wrap-style sandwiches.