malibu, santa barbara... and sorrento?

after a great time in LA whitney and i took off up CA-1.  we didn't have very firm plans, but knew we wanted to see malibu and santa barbara.  getting out of LA and on to 1 felt great - leaving the sprawl of the city and feeling the initial sea breeze was so refreshing.

malibu turned out to be a real brief stop for us, but a nice one.  we had truly the best smoothie either one of us has ever had.  as i write this it seems incredibly cliche to write about the best smoothie ever from sunlife organics in malibu, but it was amazing.  while we waited for our smoothies we also tried a thick bee pollen potion - just a single, small bite really awakened our senses.  who knows what's really in it, and at more than $10/oz we didn't buy any, but it was some powerful stuff.

up the coast a little further we stopped into santa barbara for what we thought would be just a snack and some wine.  on a recommendation from our friend kate we visited municipal winemakers and had a relaxed, fun experience. the knowledgeable (if "bro-ey") guy behind the counter poured us a bunch of their stuff, and we came away with our first bottle of the trip.  

before getting out west we didn't realize how much wine is in santa barbara. turns out there's a ton! we decided to extend our stay by continuing to sample the wines on offer on the urban wine tour in the district near the beach.  

our best experience in santa barbara came from our interaction with one of the owners of kunin wines in their tasting room and the chain of interactions and recommendations he kicked off. this led us just to bag it and stick around santa barbara for the rest of the day, despite only being two hours down the road from L.A. where we started. 

as a self-proclaimed foodie, we asked for him for some dinner recommendations. he gave us a great dinner spot - olio pizzeria.  at olio we had an italian server to whom we mentioned our upcoming time in italy for our good friends gabe and kelli's wedding in montepulciano and sorrento.  it turns out he is from sorrento, and he gave us a waiter's ticket full of recommendations on places to go.  "tell the folks in positano that cosimo sent you," he told us. 

though we only budgeted a few hours stop off the road, our stay in santa barbara proved to be a well worth the stopover. this is the kind of unplanned and unexpected fun road trips are made of.

Los Angeles

After several days on back roads in the mountains with spotty internet access and lots of one or two stoplight towns, Steve and I were visibly excited to pull into L.A. in rush hour traffic. Ubiquitous wireless access and more than one street to comb for Yelp recommendations - life is good!

L.A. is a sprawling patchwork of neighborhoods connected by a maze of freeways. Steve and I first visited together two years ago for a friend's wedding, and Kate gave us an excellent intro to the city. I was surprised how much we fell in love with L.A. on that visit, and we were both eager to do and see more of what it has to offer. 

When getting to know a new city, we like to get a feel for the distinct personalities each district has to offer. Kate took a "sick day" Tuesday to tour us around town, navigating us through traffic like a champ. This visit we explored Los Feliz (curiously pronounced "Los Feeeee-les" by locals according to Kate), Highland Park, and Hollywood. No celebrities spotted, but Steve did point out Justin Theroux's motorcycle. It looked familiar anyway.

Two of the highlights from our stay were our visit to Griffith Observatory, a beautiful deco building with a spectacular view of the L.A. skyline and sprawl, and a night stroll through LACMA's outdoor light exhibit. A few shots are below. Thank you, Kate, for another quality hang in a quality town!