State Street

I love leisurely mornings with nothing scheduled! Well, except for some basketball-watching! We ate some fruit and pretzels for breakfast, because we knew it would be a big-food day ahead of us! The fruit was awesome. The Four Seasons have fruit in your room when you check in, just sitting there waiting for you! The sign said if nobody eats it, they would just remove it the next day. Well, we weren't going to waste some perfectly good strawberry, orange, pear, and apple. No siree!

We left our hotel around 11:15am and drove over to State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. State Street is the main drag in Santa Barbara, and it's filled with shopping and restaurants. The end of State Street is the Stearns Wharf Pier on the ocean.

After we parked our car in the garage at Paseo Nuevo, we walked a few blocks north on State Street and found our favorite Danish bakery and restaurant, Andersen's.


We found this place the first time we visited Santa Barbara in 2004.  We just love the pastries and marzipan here!  Todd and I both ordered the Reuben sandwich, except he got it without the Havarti cheese.

I would probably say it's the best Reuben sandwich I've ever had. The corned beef was cooked just right, and the sauce was awesome. After lunch, Todd picked up some pastries to go. We got the apple strudel with cream filling, a butter ring, and a Kringle (marzipan roll). It might have sounded piggish, except that we were saving two of them for breakfast tomorrow morning. So we took our pastries down the street to our other favorite place on State Street: Northstar Coffee Co. 


We have so many good memories of the caramel latte there.  We ordered one to go with our cream-filled apple strudel.




I just love the atmosphere in this coffee shop. It reminds me of someone's living room. The fireplace makes it even cozier in the winter. One year we came right before Christmas and it was all decorated up like Christmas in someone's living room and it was just so inviting.




After latte at Northstar, we walked down State Street to Stearns Wharf at the end. We saw the weirdest phenomenon! The marine layer formed a thick fog that surrounded the coastline. The temperature must have dropped at least 10 degrees when we walked across the street onto the pier!


It almost looked like the smoke monster from Lost attacking the coast line!


Not only was it cold, it was extra windy on the pier!








I've always loved this fountain with the dolphins at the entrance to the pier.


We picked up a menu at Rusty's Pizza, our favorite pizza in Santa Barbara, because we planned on ordering a pizza later and taking it back with us to the hotel so we can watch the Buckeyes play March Madness basketball while eating pizza.


The entry way into Rusty's is so cool The door looked like portholes.


The round rotunda had a spiral staircase to the lighthouse at the top.


And there were old photos on the walls.


After picking up the menu at Rusty's, we walked back up north on State Street and stopped in to shop at World Market. Todd found a soap he liked, and I got a bath fizzie for the hotel bathtub. Then we went to Borders Books (one of our favorite memories of Santa Barbara as well) and browsed magazines and books. Todd brought up that every time we go to Borders together, he's reminded of our date ritual in college, which was to eat at TGIFriday's (steak on a stick), then go to Borders. I had sort of forgotten about those memories for some reason, it was so cute for him to remember it and bring it back.

After Borders, we stopped by Sur La Table and picked up some silicone basting brush and a silicone turner. Then it was time to order the pizza and pick it up for dinner! We couldn't find a parking space, so Todd stayed in the car and I went in and picked it up. Rusty's Special!


I usually take a photo of Todd with the Rusty's pizza every time we've come there. This time Todd was too excited to eat it, and we were in the car... so I forgot!




We finished the awesome pizza back in our hotel room while watching Ohio State play UCSB (Univ of CA at Santa Barbara), ironically, in the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes beat the Gauchos easily. I was tired from walking around all day, but it was so much fun to visit all our favorite places on State Street. After a shower (there's a rainshower head in the roof of the shower!), I flopped into the fluffy bed. So blissful!