Our last trip out to the playground was probably over two years ago when we went with our climbing buddies Steve and Stephanie. I had a great memory of the place in my head and was eager to make another trip back! We packed up all of our gear on Saturday, excited to get out into the mountains after two weeks of INTENSE deadline mode (for Mohit, not me but we both experience sympathy deadline mode during each others' crunch time :-) ) Springtime in Santa Barbara right now is absolutely mind blowing!!! After all of the rain we've had this year, the wildflowers and green grass/plants/shrubs are out in full force...it's such a spectacular contrast to see green hillsides of yellow mustard flowers dropping right down to the deep blue sea, so breathtaking!! Driving up the 154 was great, the hillsides are full of life, even after all the fires we had last year...it is very striking to see blackened trees surrounded by grass and wild flowers. The 1.5-2 mile hike out to the playground was equally stunning. I'm not sure what type of flowers they are, but we were walking through thick fields of these gorgeous white flowers (possibly called beach lilies), scattered here and there were also some lovely violet, blue and yellow flowers too!! Green fields of flowers overlooking the ocean, it doesn't get much better than that!!
We were worried that the climbing spot would be super crowded because there were three other cars when we arrived, but they all must have been hikers because other than one other group of three, we practically had the place to ourselves!!! Mohit, my climbing man, lead the way up two 5.8s, a 5.9, battled a 5.11B (logjammin'), and totally rocked a 5.10C (Jesus) and another 5.10A...I top-roped most of these climbs (excluding the 5.9 and 5.11B) on the bomber anchors that Mohit set for me off of his lead...I even made it up the 5.10C (with multiple attempts), and now my goal is to go back and get up it in one smooth shot! The weather was perfect for climbing, sunny..but not too hot and there was also a nice breeze passing through, the views from the top were spectacular, I love living in Santa Barbara!!!
In addition to having a momentous climbing day we also expanded our taste testing of local Mexican cuisine. We tried Los Agaves on Milpas street and we were quite pleased with the meal (chicken mole, chicken enchiladas, chili releno...yummy rice and beans and a delicious salsa bar)...we will definitely go back here, which is more than I can say for La Super Rica..another Milpas Mexican place which is spoken of like it has food prepared by divine beings and people will wait hours to get one tiny over priced taco..our take on it was sure it's decent, but not worth waiting 5 minutes and we probably won't go back. The bottom line about Mexian Food is that I don't want to hear anybody's opinion on a Mexican Place unless they've eaten Mexican Food from San Diego...if not don't talk to me, you seriously don't know what you're missing and you probably have absolutely no taste for good Mexican cuisine! So to some up, it was a big week...first time visits to two different Milpas Mexican restaurants and an amazing trip back to the Playground!!
