Melissa and I are taking the slow route up to the Bay Area for the holidays. Tonight we’re staying in Santa Barbara, and we’ll visit the Hearst Castle tomorrow. For dinner we ate at a decent Mexican restaurant on State Street. Afterwards we walked down State Street looking at all the shops and restaurants. It’s clear that the economy has started to hit Main, err… State Street America. Despite the Christmas decorations, and the huge tree in a left-turn lane, there are quite a few empty stores and others going out of business. I guess now is the time to start a new business cheaply in Santa Barbara – as long as you can weather the current economic storm.

More tomorrow!