Central Coast eats: road trip, day 1

Mark and I just got home from a week-long road trip up the coast from Southern California to the Bay Area. When we left home, I was just getting over a nasty sore throat and cough. Shortly after we arrived in the Bay Area, Mark picked up what I'd had, and at the moment he can barely talk. But we did have a few relatively healthy days of gorgeous beaches, smog-free skies, and good food.

We arrived in Santa Barbara on the first night of our trip, where we ate dinner at a crunchy, hippie sort of place that reminded me of Boulder. Mark had vegetarian chili and I had fairly decent fish tacos. (I have one question, though, about natural-foods type places. Why do they all seem to put carrots in everything? I am not anti-carrot, but I don't see what they have to do with a fish taco.)

We saw this van parked at the beach. Now this, dear reader, is a pimped ride. Look, they even have a patio in the back!