Other Beaches

City College students generally spend their beach days at East Beach, West Beach, and Leadbetter, but there are a number of other excellent beaches in the area. Typically the one that I go to is Summerland. Way less crowded, dogs are allowed, and the beach itself is pretty clean. I'm not a big fan of the kelp that is all over the place but Summerland usually has kelp-free sand. The other spot that is super excellent is Hendry's beach off of Las Positas. Also a dog beach, they have the restaurant Boathouse on the beach front. Great place to take a date or go for a cocktail. All in all, take some time to check out some other beaches in the area. East, West and Leadbetter are all great, but there is a whole lot more to see.

Pic is of Maddie and I down in Summerland doing our best Air Bud impressions

If time and money allow...

Get a dog. Immediately. Besides the fact that they are man's best friend, they are super helpful for destressing and having a loving companion to look out for you. My dog Maddie has been with me since she was 3 months old and she is now 4 and a half. As a German Shepherd she's incredibly loyal, incredibly smart, and most importantly intuitive. Possibly the most interesting trait that dogs have is their ability to read facial expressions an emotion. Similar to humans, dogs follow a left to right clockwise pattern of reading faces. With that adaptation they are able to understand body language, emotion, and general vibe better than most other animals. Maddie has this ability in spades. Hard day at work. She knows. Long day at school she knows. Angry about a bad grade. Everything. Its been one of the central joys of my life to see the way her and I have grown together over the last 4 years from living in Boston to moving to the So Cal mountains and now in Santa Barbara. Granted she is a total spaz at times but anything the isn't a robot is a spaz from time to time. For adopting a dog, there are several shelters locally that have pups that are looking for good homes. I highly suggest at least visiting and seeing if a dog might be able to fit into your lifestyle. Don't wait. Go to a shelter and see if your new best friend is waiting for you to pick her up.

This is Maddie and I Fall semester of last year. She was the runt of her litter and is a tiny thing for a Shepherd but she's pretty spectacular regardless.

She isn't the biggest fan of getting baths but when we go to the beach and she gets sandy there is no alternative

California and Music

Probably one of my favorite things California has to offer is an incredible music scene. Artists from all over the world come to venues in California to play massive shows and the vast majority that i've been to have been incredible. This past year I attended my first festival at Coachella. By far the most insane 3 days of my life. Its held on these gigantic polo fields in Indio, CA. Indio is super hot during the spring but the way Coachella is organized the do a really good job of making water and bathing accessible. 

I've been listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers since I was a little kid so seeing them on the final night as the headliner was amazing. I'd seen them once before down in San Diego but at Coachella I was 30 ft from stage with a crowd of at least 10,000 behind me. Apart from the Chili Peppers, the best part of Coachella was undoubtedly the Do-Lab. Being that Indio is around 95 during the day time, you need to find a way to cool down and the Do-Lab is where its at. Bumping electro music all day, the stage has high pressured water hoses that spray the crowd all day long. The picture is of when I got a little rambunctious and jumped on stage, grabbed the hose, and started hosin' and dancin'. All in all, California and Coachella have epic musical opportunities and if you're looking for something a little more local, check out the Santa Barbara Bowl. Just the other week I saw Robert Plant (the lead singer of Led Zeppelin) and that fool melted my heart with Going to California.

Here's my favorite pic from Coachella weekend...

 

When in search of housing...

Obviously one of the more difficult things to do in Santa Barbara is find affordable living, especially when you want to live in a house with your homies and not pay an arm and a leg for a tiny little 2 bedroom. I was incredibly lucky in finding housing when I first moved to SB back in 2011 but beside that fact, here's a little tip for folks looking for a solid crash pad. Garages. Put an ad on craigslist, talk to some of your friends, and see if anyone is willing to rent out their garage. Tons of space and sometimes cheaper rent. Granted, you have to deal with an extra spider or two as opposed to the people living snug in the domicile, but as long as you don't have the constitution of a pansy you'll be just fine. Besides, from a biological stand point, spiders are super excellent because all they do is kick it in the corner and munch on any annoying mosquitos floating around. Anyways... I highly suggest finding a house anywhere in SB that'll let you crash in the garage. These are my digs. Been here for the last 2 years only 2 miles from campus. Met some great people in a great neighborhood and I always have a home base to retreat to

Go Hiking

One of the best parts about Santa Barbara is the landscape. People often spend so much time thinking about the beach they forget about the mountains behind them. Recently i've been getting into hiking around local trails in SB. There are a few dozen located within a 5 mile span. For those not familiar with the area the easiest way to find the trail heads is to download an app named All Trails. The app gives GPS directions to several trail heads and shows the ones that are closest to where you are. The picture is one of my dog Maddie on our hike in Romero Canyon. Romero has definitely been one of my favorite trails so far as the peak has a full 360 view of Montecito, SB, and the Razorback mountains. Get up. Get a friend. Go Hike.

Welcome to City College

Truthfully, I just got hired and there wasn't exactly a training process. My bosses basically just said "go for it". Right on.

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