The b'ness event in Santa Barbara held our closing reception here not far from the Kimpton…read more The staff were super nice and friendly. The food was okay. There was a lot of food available. The venue was nice, airy and spacious. The only room for improvement would have been live music. Nonetheless, I'm glad our event organizers chose this space.

There are six of us, and we came here after winetasting. Yesterday, we had amazing Mexican food at…read moreanother place over in the Funk Zone, and we were hoping for great Mexican food here in the Presidio part of town as well. The ambience is nice. We love that it's in a courtyard and open and airy, but the food was disappointing. We thought the servers were really nice, but not readily available, and the cocktails and the food were just OK. There were peas in the burrito. They should not have been there. The guacamole made tableside was $10, but it was just one avocado, so it was a very small serving. The chili relleno was made with a jalapeño instead of a poblano, and it was way too spicy. The salad was greasy and had too much dressing on it. Failure to follow through with the promise of incredible ambience upon arrival.

Great weekend getaway when the city and fog are too much to handle! Only a 5 hour drive from SF…read more(through many a great wine valley I must mention) yet it seems worlds away. My recommendations: Leave early from work on Friday, stay at the Winemaker's Front Porch B&B in Paso Robles (3 hour drive), start the day off tasting a few in that valley and then head down to the Santa Ynez valley to continue the fantastic vineyard voyage (Kalyra is a fun & unpretentious winery). Get a room at the Harbor View Inn once you get into SB, enjoy the sunset & oyster shooters at Longboards on the pier, get dolled up and splurge on a dinner at Bouchon but enjoy a Creme Brulee martini for dessert next door at Epiphany. Sunday? Do anything you damn well please, from surfing in Ventura to visiting the renown Mission. Or don't do a damn thing! It's a great mini-vacay!

I'm from Hawaii, so when it comes to coastal town, I'm very critical. This place is the only place…read morein California (or from what I've seen, in US) that comes closest to Hawaii in beauty. The mountains are green, water is blue, sun is warm and sand so fine like Kailua Beach. There are plenty to see, do, or you can just do nothing and hang out at the beach... I love this place...

Carpinteria is a great California beach town. -A happy escape from my nearby metropolis. Messy, low…read morefidelity, reckless and wild, she is a sweet alternative to posh beach cities. Campfires leave the beaches in mesquite clouds at dusk. Waves carry surfboards into the sunset, and families find holiday here where an ocean-view room can be had for modest means. A Thursday night Farmer's market brings live music, fruit and art to the quaint streets of Carpinteria's downtown. Grab some guacamole and don't forget to tip the man playing the blues. The secret scoop: Carpinteria is a great place to throw a bachelorette party. It is a wardrobe change venue for many a surfer to and from wetsuit. A towel clad man at the side of the road is a common sighting. Enter the solution for all my fellow bachelorette-party-throwing lasses Borrow, rent or buy a convertible, bring the bride to be with you and be here in the morning just before high tide or at sunset, just after. When you see the surfers at the side of the road in wetsuits. Park. Dress in conservative layers (you'll need them) over your bikini that you wear because it doesn't show any tan lines. Wear your black rimmed glasses and your hair pulled back. Put the top down. Play Joe Cocker's "You can leave your hat on" or Di Angelo's "How does it feel" (my favorite) Ladies, make eye contact with your new found friends. Undo your ponytail, take your glasses off, pull your turtleneck sweater off. Pause. Stretch your arms out in front of you, palms side up, palms flat. Touch your fingers to your palms several times as an invitation. Invitation to what? To get a boy to dance for the girls! (PG 13 rating!) Sheesh! What did you think I was talking about! Fair is fair right? Trade a dance for a dance. Drive off into the sunset and spend your savings on pints for your soon to be married girlfriend. Good luck;-) *Cheers girls*

We've always passed through Carpinteria, but we never stopped and we always wanted to visit it…read more It's a small beach town, along the coast, past Ventura (15 minutes), before you reach Santa Barbara. We wanted to check out its main street, Linden Ave and parked on 8th street. There's a lot of street parking in the area, free, so that was nice. We enjoyed strolling around these nice, cute streets, full of Jacaranda trees in bloom. Linden Ave is the main street that takes you down to the beach and the campgrounds. There are cute stores along, restaurants, too bad some were closed at the time we got there, around 4 pm. A nice Mexican bakery was opened and a few restaurants that look good: Mexican, seafood, Italian, a wine bar. We'd like to check some of them out in the future. It doesn't take more than 30 minutes to check everything out. The locals are friendly and helpful, stop to chat with you and help with directions and recommendations. That was nice. We had dinner at The Spot, near the beach, at that was fun and sample some beers at the Island Brewing Company, a very cool experience. Carpinteria has a nice vibe, it's a place where you can relax and take a break from it all. If you're in the area and you'd like to take a side trip and want to spend some time on the beach, this could be a nice spot.

I never thought I would be giving a 5-star review to a government agency, especially the IRS but…read morehere it is! Yes, you should visit the website and make an appointment. They don't take 'walk-in's'. Yes, you have to leave your drinks and food outside. But that's where any inconvenience stops. The staff took care of my multi-faceted, multi-year issues with empathy and efficiency. They were 'human', went the extra mile and took up my fight for me with the other 'wizards behind the curtain' that needed to approve the extra grace period afforded me to get my tax payments caught up. They saw my efforts and, instead of enforcing a lien against my business, allowed me to draft a reasonable set of payments.

UCSBPD helped me find my "stolen" car. Well the handsome bike cop came to my house and helped me…read morefill out a report for my stolen car. I was driving a 1998 Toyota Landcruiser and I notice bolts and grease spots where I parked my car. Someone must have drove off with it, I thought. An hour later after I filled it out, one of my roommates came home and asked what I was doing. She told me she thought she saw my car parked on Pardall (right after the mini tunnel that you bike/skate through to get to IV from campus)... Pause... Silence... The Bike Cop biked with me (I was on my black beach cruiser) and yep... parked right infront of what used to be a Chinese Restaurant, now Chino's or something? I apologized to the cop and he told me I shouldn't drink as much and he biked my cruiser home for me. Yeah, I drove my car home (6700 block of Sabado) and he biked with my bike in hand. WOW! I was a lucky lady that day.

Not so long ago, I was a student at UCSB…read more I don't think many even realized that there was a UCSB Police Department until either one of two things happened...you had your bike stolen, or you had your bike impounded. Neither happened to me...gotta love kryptonite locks. Wait...the police have bolt cutters. Well, I avoided both irregardless. The men and women at the UCPD were pretty cool. I used to go by on my skateboard and high-five them as they were writing tickets to the people riding their bikes on the sidewalk. It's cool those yellow-shirted CSO's would give courtesy escorts after dark and did their best to move bikes to the proper parking areas instead of impound them. They also answered my questions about the parking situation so I knew what rule not to break. The bike auctions kinda suck though....crappy bikes that have been sitting in the elements for way too long. Give these men and women a brake and say hi to them...chances are, they will go out of their way to be nice to you in the future.