Santa Barbara: land of money and palm trees?

So Monday we decided we wanted to head south to nice beaches and warmer weather (it was kinda cloudy and also rainy in San Francisco for a few days), and everyone we asked suggested Santa Barbara, so south we went! The three of us rode the bus to San Jose, arrived early afternoon and (concidentally enough) the train station was across the street from the HP Pavillion, where the SHARKS play! Needless to say we wandered over to the box office and bought tickets for that nights game! In the meantime we purchased our ticket for our midnight bus ride to Santa Barbara, and watched the election on CNN in a classroom at San Jose University.
The game was insane! SO much fun!!! Our seats were phenomenal for the price we paid, at the Bell Centre they would have been worth an arm and a leg. They played the Wild, super good game, lots of screaming and yelling. Turns out San Jose's fans love yelling and doing giant shark jaws with their arms for penalties... amazing!
We had some deliiicious mexican food and then sat down on a Greyhound for 7 hours through the night (ugh.) our bus driver was a huge jerk with a weirdo haircut. Not a fan.
We wake up all hazy and unrested only to see a desert sunset out the window followed by beautiful spanish style villas and palm trees everywhere!!! Stumbling off the bus we ask the first person we see where the beach is, and head that way. It was 6 am and the streets were deserted. The buildings in the city center were picture perfect, straight out of a hollywood movie, all the restaurants fancy as can be, and all the stores designer. The only people on the street were me, katie, jon, and the bums (who somehow you didnt 'see the rest of the day..)
Few minutes later we had found a hostel, gotten a free breakfast, changed into our swimsuits and settled down on the beach! Soft sand, pelicans, cool water, blue sky, hills, palm trees, sun, wharf, aaaaah!
We explored quite a bit and spent most of our time on the beach... and then the next day we took amtrak back to San Francisco, had insanely good sushi and hung out for Jon's last night.
We got a sweet room at a hostel downtown on the fourth floor, private bathroom, double bed, and a balcony! Living large!!!!
Sun sun sun!