Once again, and thankfully so, I have treated myself to birthday vacation. This time in lovely, expensive luscious Santa Barbara culminating in beautiful Solvang, Santa Ynez. Thank you God for little and big blessings. This was a dream come true, so many intricate details, so many wants in between and all of them accomplished, just like that. I didn't even have to try so hard.
I've always wanted to go to a wine country place to spend my birthday. The chance to sample wine and see how it is made, discuss it, and get to sample as much as possible. Wherever there's good wine, there's good food, I know this for a fact and where these two exist, comes happy people who experience these good things. I tried to go to Napa last year but then I thought it might not be that much fun, maybe a bit too pensive. This time I wanted pensive, I'm too old to be partying it hard(core). I was able to do a Napa tour in April so a Santa Ynez trip seemed somewhat appropriate, and who knew Santa Barbara made wine, certainly not I until I started planning this trip and noticing the wine labels that read, Santa Barbara County. They also make beer but more on that later.
The trip involved a couple of nights in Santa Barbara, arrival the eve of my birthday and leaving the day after to Santa Ynez and spending the night in Solvang and then driving from there to Los Angeles to spend 4 days with the family. I know all these details. Trust me, as soon as I got to the family unit the hastiness was put to a halt and everything went all PG-13.
Santa Barbara didn't quite meet my expectations. It was not as breathtaking as Los Angeles. I know L.A. is pretty, I've said this before and this second trip there just reinforced my conclusion. It's so freaking gorgeous there, almost surreal pretty. The people and the place. But Santa Barbara was like a duller version of S.F. There was the beach but I wouldn't call it a beach, more like the bay. The water was stagnant, unmoving, blue and foggy pier. I am assuming there's a nicer beach but I didn't find it, since this was a short trip. I stayed at an Inn (there are actually so many in SB) a few blocks from the beach and I thought, how nice to wake up and walk to the beach and spend the morning taking in the waves, what a nice birthday present. Not so much. It was frightfully cold, foggy and dreary, the fog was melting on the roof tops so it sounded like raindrops. I am told this is their "June Gloom" period. There are much nicer periods but who knows if I'd be in the mood for SB then. The topography there is a little interesting. You look in the far distance and you see hills, sometimes there are houses on the hills, but hills nonetheless just line your view.
The wine and fancy food didn't come until the next day. State Street shopping provided the entertainment during the day. At night, I had the pleasure of being entertained on my birthday night by the hilarity of the MTV Video Music Awards and the nice gay guys at Wildcat club and lounge. The bartender at the bar where I had had breakfast told me it was a nice place, crazy, loads of fun. Running out of ideas I decided to try it. Sunday night happens to be gay night, leaving me to be entertained by all the closeted gays and drag queens this side of SB. I just thought only me would walk into a lounge and have it be gay night. It was just amazing, haven't laughed so hard, danced so much and screamed so loud in a long time. Just as well, when I said I wanted pensive, I end up partying with the best of them.
I would always remember it. You know how people ask, "So what did you do on your birthday?" and you can't even think of anything concrete, I would remember that I spent it in beautiful Santa Barbara living out loud with some drag queens and go-go dancers. At this moment, I would like to thank them very much for their hospitality, warmth and fire. This single gal was highly entertained.
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