LA. Day 5. Happy Birthday?
So nice to wake up to a cold cloudy day! I’m pretty sure this entire week was colder in LA than NY.
We headed to breakfast and sat outside looking out at the clouds and ocean. They had heaters out, so it was actually nice outside. The buffet was fantastic – they had an omelet bar with an amazing selection of stuff to put inside, plus waffles, pancakes, French toast, tons of fruits, breads, cheeses, cereals, and on and on.
After breakfast we left Hallie with the Kaplans and headed to the spa for our couples massage. We split up and each got taken to the ladies and mens spa that had a steam room, sauna, showers, bathrooms, and hot tub. There wasn’t time before, but we’d go afterward. We came back together for the massages, which were great, except I really had to pee the last 10 minutes or so. We went back to use the facilities after the massage. There was a huge hot tub in the middle of an open area. I’m never sure if you’re supposed to be naked or not in these things. Anyway, I was sitting in just a towel with my feet in the hot tub and another woman just walked in naked. Well, since nudity is one of those things best enjoyed as a group… It was very relaxing!
We spent the afternoon in town, walking up and down State Street, the main street in Santa Barbara. It’s what you’d expect. Random stores. Food. We got tuna sandwiches and then had ice cream at McConnell’s a famous old ice cream shop. Before leaving we ran to get cupcakes at a place we heard about called CrushCakes. They were closing at 4:00 and it was 3:55, so we called and ask them to set one aside. When we got there we found out it was cream cheese frosting, but at that point we had to buy it. The tiny bit of non-cream cheese I ate was tasty.
When we got back to the hotel Hallie and Tzvi went to the pool and I went to the gym. Tzvi’s parents relaxed.
For dinner we ate at Angel Oak, the nice restaurant at the resort. Dinner had a rough start. They had recently changed their menu, so what we saw online was no longer accurate and there was no salmon, and actually nothing for Hallie to eat. We started by just ordering her lots of vegetables that she didn’t really eat. Then the manager came over to see how we were doing, and it turned out he was from Long Island. We bonded, and he said he would track down a piece of salmon from somewhere else at the hotel. Thank God. Hallie ate the whole thing.
After that things went pretty well. We started with cocktails. We had a great table next to a window overlooking the ocean and we watched the sun set. Tzvi had a salmon and tuna ceviche appetizer and Mark had a Caesar salad. I ate some croutons. For our mains, all four of us got the ahi tuna, which was delicious. For dessert, we told them it was Mark and Sherry’s birthdays so they put candles in their desserts (and gave them to us for free). Mark’s birthday was in March; we had told him we were bringing him up here for his birthday, but when the candles came he was very confused. We also shared baked Alaska, which was pretty good and a bit of a show as they lit it on fire at the table.
