Years ago when I was first dating my husband, I would stumble out of bed, hours after he started his day and announce my daily sleep report.  It was and is always detailed with what time I had to pee( sometimes up to three times a night) to what noise in or outside of the house was disturbing to my restless nature.    I often zero in on something negative and let my brain get stuck there, like an old warped record.  Last night in an expensive and lovely bed and breakfast in Santa Barbara was no different.  I was rendered sleepless by various ambient noises that I now block out in my own home with white sound.  And this was no just semi-sleepless night, this was a full blown insomniac’d out, never even drift off for a moment of peace.  The trying ended with the bing of a text, it’s not like me but apparently I had forgotten to turn my cell phone off.  After living through losing both parents and waiting for the possible call, I gave up being available during the night with a phone call.  I unplug, turn off, anything to aid the possibility of slumber.

There is a huge, stay away from trigger for a person with insomnia and that is a plan in the morning.  I don’t make plans for anything, including construction on my home anytime before 11:00 am.

The bed and breakfast called for their gourmet breakfast from 8:30-9:30 which I’m sure is the reason I was rendered entirely sleepless.  No one but another person with insomnia would be able to relate to this.  I was quite determined not to miss the lemon souffled pancakes with thyme and lemon infused melon balls as the first course.  No fucking way was I losing out on this meal.  Ask me if I remember it?  I was there, I barely remember now, even though it was earlier today, gritting my teeth from anxiety and humorless.

The focul point of the large former barn room at our bed and breakfast is the big bathtub right there in the room.  My husband went out for a walk and I took a long, sleepy  bath.  I was then ready for lunch with the girls! We went to Opal at both the hotel and my friend Kayla’s suggestion.  I remember that we were there, I know we spent most of our time laughing our heads off about all of our “70’s” experiences together and separate.  I do not remember the food that well.   I do recall that Kayla’s lunch choice of grilled salmon in a curry sauce was the clear winner. I tried it and it was far better then the cobb salad I shared with my other old friend Cathy.

And then everything around me went silent with a phone call (that damned iPhone) — the call animal lovers never want to get.  Igor the Entertainer, the love-of-my-life Siamese cat, went missing.

He is not an outdoor cat and has no experience dodging the cars, dogs and coyotes which are plentiful in my neighborhood.  I am not being dramatic when I say I went into shock, cold, shaking, full blown shock.    Dazed, I hurriedly said good-bye to my friends.  My husband and I speed-packed, and hit the road in record time.

During the entire ride back to LA, my brain, fueled by sleeplessness, imagined every gruesome cat-demise scenario it could conceive of.    I was a wreck.  Finally, as we pulled up to the house, my son Oliver phoned to say he could see Igor outside the window.   I ran in and we coaxed him back inside.  It felt magical reuniting with my boy, resurrected from who-knows-what nightmarish end.  I don’t want to leave home again for awhile, but I guess I’m thinking about great Santa Barbara food that I missed out on.

The good news is I did get one amazing meal on the short-lived trip.

As we first headed into the Montecito area, I called my friend Cathy and told her how famished I was.   She suggested we get off at Olive Mill Road and head to Tre Lune on Coast Village Road.

A treasure.  That’s what Tre Lune is.  We had an amazing meal, ordering from the day’s list of lunch specials.   That time I ordered the winner.  They were serving scallops, salmon & shrimp on a bed of arugula.  No longer a huge fan of scallops, I asked that they be switched for avocado.  It was the best grilled shrimp I may have ever had.  And it was served with the crusty French bread I love, sliced and lightly toasted on a grill, served with delicious olive oil.  And Tre Lune has bread sticks which I also love.  It was a perfect meal.  I can’t wait to go back.

Other dishes that sounded good are:

Calamari All Griglia, sald of grilled baby calamari, potoatoes, celery, herbs on a bed of sautéed spinach

Cioppino, assorted fresh seafood in a tomato broth

Fusilli Aristocratici, Roasted artichokes, leeks, Shitake mushrooms, truffle oil and dry ricotta

Tre Lune 1151 Coast Village Road,  Montecito, Ca. 93108

Tags: cathy mogull, fredde duke, Kayla Feder, Montecito, Santa Barbara, Simpson House Inn, Tre Lune

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.