Thanksgiving Weekend: Ventura County California - Day 2

Written: November 23, 2001

Updated: November 24, 2001

~5:30 - 10:00 am: Eventhough I was up pretty late last night partying, skating and eating, I honored my friend Chad's request to go to Montecito to go surfing at 6:00 am. It was tough getting outa bed but the idea of getting into a warm wet suit, only to get wet and cold before sweeting my ass off after the sun crested the montecito hills at 8:00 seemed better than fighting Jazzy for a spot on the small bed. I stoped at the local coffee shop and picked up a 16 ouncer before hitting auto pilot on the VW to Santa Barbara. I had never surfed at the spot called 'Hammonds' in Montecito, but the roughly 1/2 mile walk between some of the sweetest mansions in the USA reminded me of the joys of surfing in Santa Barbara where the early-20's ask me politely to 'please excuse them' while I, usually by accident, drop in front of them, whereas in Ventura County the guys threaten to 'pop my head' -- and LA County there is a car chase to the county line. The surf was really great - the wind picked up early though - around 8:00. After the session, Chad bought me breakfast at the Summerland Cafe - which rocked - goodthing I he was around because I forgot my wallet in the shorts I had on lastnight.

view of the santa barbara hills from the miramar beach

view of miramar beach from the hammonds meadow trail

~10:00 - 1:00 pm: After getting back from my date with Chad, which by the way was really nice for we had the chance to talk about Sufing, Java programming, a little inocuous intra-office gossip and Chad's desire to move to either Idaho, Oregon or Montana and telecommute into SB, I started to fix the hole in my surf board that I got from riding into one of the knarly rocks in frontof the mansion. Also, I checked in with the kids, including Ed thegrandpa,while getting the update on the girls, who like 5 million othersouthern californianswere out to do their best to restablisth the new-economy( I guess that theyhad not heard that the market is up ~20% since the disater two months ago).

chad	ed and the kids
morningstar repair -- close up of marine filler	morningstar repair

-1:30 - 4:00 pm: I realized that I had some serious time on my hands; Ed had a hair appointment at 2:00 the kids were checking out Harry Potter at 4:00 andthe next event that I was invloved in was watching the sun set from a comfyseat under a heat lamp with pint of the finest brew: Sierra Nevada. In the meantime, Ashley, Jazz and I went on a run to Ventura point (~3.5miles round trip) where we hung out, caught our breath and oogled the buffand rough surfers, and on the way home we bumped up the intensity by sprintingone block while slowly jogging the next. I felt like hell, but I do recognizethat Ashley is a cross-country star and ~15 years younger than me -- Jazzon the other hand looked really hot and beat in her fur coat. Afterthe kids went to the movie, and Ed went off to the stylist of the stars Igot out the old beach cruiser and retraced my running trails back down tothe point, before driving out to the harbor with Abigail to check out theyacht sales and the scotch and sirloin; we didn't find any good yacht dealsand Abby wouldn't let me into the resturant due to my attire.

5:00 pm - late night: Abby, Ed and I went to the Banana Belt for ourevening brew, and to check out the sunset before performing our magic inthe kitched which included my newly famous pesto ( due to the required quantity,I used the blender instead of the ancient travertine mortor and pestle ),and blackened / seared fresh Ahi with a warm butter - wine - chutney saucethat I came up with last week, and Ed's equally famous eggplant / zuchinitopped with fresh mozzerella. We always seem to have fun together inthe kitchen and I definitely benefit from hearing about Ed's latest concoctions-- In general, though, I think that we are our greatest fans while the girlsstill fill the role as the greatest critics. Ed's hair looks reallycool, it is not quite as platinum as it was after his last visit -- I guessthat he is growing it long -- he said that the guy never actually held apair of sissors during the two hour visist. Because Jazz had been to thebeach and on a long run, she was beat and was having a hard time keepingup with Tiger -- they too are great fans of our culinary artistry.

Cullinary Artists:

Culinary Critics:

Food Advocates: