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Published: January 26th 2008
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We arrived in Santa Barbara on Wednesday 23rd Jan having driven for 2 hours in pouring rain. We didn't know much about Santa Barbara before we arrived but had heard from one of Ross's work mates that it is a must see place. We checked into a funky motel with the lovely king size bed only a ten minute walk away from the shops restaurant and 1 mile from the beach. The downside was that it was pouring with rain, but we took shelter in Ruby's Cafe (mexican) and I ate the biggest burrito in the world! We had enough money for one more drink so walked about, getting soaked, and finally decided on a bar that looked a bit pricey, but to our suprise and excitement we had walked in on a launch party for the bar, with complimentary drinks and canopes. This was such a joy to us, going from one last drink to enjoying the free wine, margarita's and beer. We just wished we had more room for the food in our bellys but how were we to know that the free drinks and food awaited us. We stayed there from 4pm - 7pm and rolled out of
The red carpet!
Unfortunately the photos don't offer much! there to our motel feeling very merry and lucky to walk upon a freeby!!!!
We decided to stay in Santa Barbara another night as the motel was lovely and so well situated. So we took a walk in the still continuing rain to the shops. I had a make over in Macy's compliments of Benefit (well we had to find something to do inside that was free) There I was all dolled up and no where to go! Well that's what we thought...............read on!........
In the evening we walked down to grab a bite to eat and a night off the booze. There were big lazer lights in the sky due to it being the opening night of the International Film Festival. When we got to the lights there was a marquee and barriers marked out. We found out that it was the world premier of Definately Maybe (starring Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds). We were pretty excited about this and decided to eat in a restaruant nearby and come out and do some star spotting on the red carpet. Well as we were waiting by the barrier some guy came up to a group of us with
2 free tickets for the premier and after show pary. Well you can imagine our hands were in the air as were a few others. He asked us to say a number from 1-50 and the nearest would get it. Well we lost, but the woman that won was on her own, so he didn't give them to her. Well I was tapping the woman saying we're from England, and basically begging her! So she said to the man who then gave the tickets to us. We could not belive our luck and procedded to go inside. We stood behind the press and took some shots of the stars. To be honest the only one we recognised was the little girl from Little Miss Sunshine, but this didn't stop our excitemnet.
The director of the Festival came out on stage and introduced the Director and 4 of the cast members that were there. They also did a tribute to Heath Ledger who had been at the Santa Barbara film festival in 2004.
The film was fantastic, well I thought so, maybe because of the whole situation that we were in as well, but it was a tear jerker. Ross didn't cry though!
So then we went on the after party with guess what FREE DRINKS AND GRUB. That was our night of not drinking blown out of the water! There was also live music and we got talking to some locals and some guys that had driven up from LA having spent quite a bit of money on their tickets!!!
We will never forget our trip to Santa Barbara! Aside from all the freebies, it is a fantastic place. The spanish were the first to settle here, and this is quite evident all around the area. The houses look meditteranian and you could find it hard to belive that you are in America. We can see exactly why they call this place paradise. We would definately like to come back when the sun is shining but the rain certainly didn't dampen our first experience of Santa Barbara.
We left on Friday morning to hit the road to Santa Monica. We were a couple of bears with sore heads but it had all been worth it!
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Kit
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how cool is all that you jammy gits :) xx miss ya