despite the bad weather, friday night me, taka, eric and tina headed out for some good driving and better eating. we stayed in ventura (on the very cheap at a marriott hotel) and spent all of saturday in santa barbara on and around state street. other than the white knuckle driving on the way up in the rain, it was a very laid back weekend, with lots of window shopping and a lot of good eating. on saturday we watched coraline in 3d at the arlington theatre on state street which is a 2000 seat old-timey theatre that actually looked a lot like the theatre that coraline goes to when she’s in the other-neighbor’s downstairs apartment. it was a good film, but it was pretty creepy, i would think too much for a kid, but maybe i’m just a wuss.

but the focus of the trip was to eat lots of good food. i was seriously full the entire weekend, even eating a full breakfast before the gym and immediately after. we only ate at recommended restaurants or ones that were 4+ stars on yelp! (other than a breakfast we ate at the marriott buffet which wasn’t very good).

if anyone’s heading to santa barbara from redondo beach, here’s some places we ate that were great:

the counter (trendy burgers) in el segundo
casa de soria (mexican) in ventura
brophy brothers (seafood) in santa barbara
pete’s (cafe/coffee shop) in ventura
wood ranch (bbq) in camarillo

i’m slowly getting around to putting my hpi sprint 2 together. so far i’ve installed the saddle battery packs, and a rear carbon fiber strut support. the car is super fast, and hopefully later this month i’ll find some time to take it to a track.

jeezus it’s hot, why the fuck is it 80f in january? this was the first time since i got my car that i put the top up because i couldn’t take the sun. i’m gonna need to invest in a good baseball cap or sombrero.

eric and i spent 6 hours washing, clay-baring, polishing and waxing our cars today. in the end, the paint was practically glass, and while it sounds like a lot of work, it was a labor of love. afterwards we took a drive through redondo beach and around palos verdes. i’m sure you guys are gonna get fed up with all the s2k pics over the next few months while me and my car are still in the honey moon phase ;)

photo by eric