tbt | santa barbara, california

up until last summer, i had never been to santa barbara in my twenty-two years of existence, which is pretty sad considering santa barbara is less than a two hour drive from la. since last summer, i've gone three times and plan to drive up whenever i get the chance. plus, the drive on the 101 to santa barbara is probably one of the nicest drives along the coast.

most of the stories i heard about santa barbara were about ucsb -- the party school, which is actually in isla vista (not sure how touchy people get about that). ucsb basically lived up to my expectations considering i went to a small, private school. i think my favorite part was that the campus was walking distance to the beach. i'm sure a walk on the beach was helpful during midterms and finals week. i even got to experience the infamous "santa barbara halloween." it ended up not being that great because it was way too cold and the cops were shutting down all the parties. now that i've been out of college for over a year, the thought of going to college parties weirds me out. i even felt weird last year, but i thought i might as well experience it since i never got the chance to while i was in college. ucsb would've been a fun school to go to, but i doubt i would've gotten any studying done.

the downtown area on state street is where the post-grad/"adults" get to party like they're still at ucsb. during the day, it's a really nice shopping and eating area. there are tons of places for the seafood or healthy enthusiasts. at night, it's fun to go bar hopping and eat not so healthy. i got to experience both ends of the spectrums during fourth of july weekend. i stayed at really nice home from airbnb about fifteen minutes from downtown with sixteen other people. a house full of people in their twenty's means the house wasn't far from a party you'd find at ucsb. although a majority of my weekend was spent in that house, i managed to make my way downtown a couple times. after a full day of drinking games and barbecuing, we headed down to state street to check out the fireworks and bars. i still i think it's safe to say that every beach town in the u.s. is crazy on fourth of july and santa barbara was no exception. i didn't get a chance to go into any of the bars, but just looking from the outside was enough. for our last day we were feeling seafood and brophy bro's didn't disappoint.
if you're ever in lack of ideas of a day trip or driving to sf from los angeles on the 101, then i suggest driving to santa barbara. it's a beautiful drive and the area is definitely worth hanging out in. here are some photos from the few times i stopped by.