Santa Barbara Recap

Happy Wednesday!  It's ridiculously cold out today (high of 5, windchills of -30) so I figured today is a good day to share some photos from our weekend getaway to Santa Barbara as I'm mentally traveling there in my mind today...  You all know how much I love Minnesota, but this getaway came at the perfect time.  It was terribly cold in Minnesota and unseasonably warm in Santa Barbara!

I was happy to ditch the Minnesota cold for sunshine in Santa Barbara!

Thursday was our travel day and to be perfectly honest, we did not have the best of luck. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours due to a mechanical issue and then the rental car process took FOREVER - which meant we hit the road right at the beginning of rush hour.  LA traffic is something special...  I am really glad Phil was the one driving our ridiculously small rental car.  Let's just say that Priceline pick-your-price = tiny car.  We didn't care, though, because we are cheap economical.

Our rental car makes a prius look roomy.

It took us about 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete the 85 mile drive from LA to Santa Barbara.  We were starving by the time we arrived since we hadn't eaten in 10 hours, so the Mexican food we ate tasted especially good.

Fish tacos for the win!

We crashed hard that night after our long day of travel!  On Friday morning we headed out for a hike.  We each did research on our own and randomly both came up with the same idea for a hike - the Jesusita hike to inspiration point. It's about 10 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara, so it was very easy to get to.  It was a 7-mile hike with beautiful views!  I'd highly recommend it!

The beginning of the trail was lined with wild flowers

As we got towards the top, the views were beautiful!

The sunshine felt AMAZING.

After we finished the hike, we grabbed lunch and then headed back to our apartment that we rented from VRBO.  After resting our legs for a bit, we headed to the beach which was only 2 blocks from our apartment.

It was a beautiful, sunny, 80 degree day and the beach was very quiet.

My rock skipper

The birds were NOT afraid of people.

On Friday night, we went to a seafood restaurant in the Santa Barbara harbor and thoroughly enjoyed eating outdoors.

On Saturday morning we made breakfast, hit up the farmer's market and then headed up to wine country.  We drove on this super narrow and winding road - once again, I was very glad that Phil was driving!  I'm much better at navigating!

The views in wine country were stunning - lots of green grass and rolling hills.  The area where we were at is the area that was featured in the film, Sideways.

It's not growing season but it was still neat to see the fields where the vines grow.  We stopped at one vineyard for a tasting which was fun.  If I wasn't so restricted on how much I can drink (thanks to my RA meds) we would have stopped at another vineyard.  We definitely had lots to choose from as the road we drove along had about 10 vineyards on it.

On our way back, we stopped in the town of Solvang for lunch.  Solvang is a cute Dutch village.  I failed to take any pictures while we were there but it was definitely a cute place to stop!

When we got back, we went for another walk on the beach and then came back and made dinner.  We both get burned out on eating out very fast so we really appreciated having a kitchen as we made 2 breakfasts and one dinner during our stay.  The owner provided a bottle of champagne so we enjoyed some bubbly while preparing our dinner.

We won't be able to (comfortably) grill for awhile so we were happy that our apartment had a grill!  Since the kitchen had a limited number of spices, we kept it pretty easy and made chicken, baby red potatoes and asparagus.  We also had some leftover fish from the night before.  It was so nice to avoid the Valentine's Day crowds at a restaurant and eat a simple, delicious meal!

On Sunday we got up and went to brunch at a place that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives which was really good!  Then we hit the road for LA.  Luckily the drive back to LA went much faster.  We checked into our hotel in the Sherman Oaks area and headed to Griffith Observatory.

It was neat to see the Hollywood sign after seeing it on TV so many times!

There are 53 miles of trails in Griffith Park, but we did the most popular hike which weaves it's way up to a peak.  As the hike progresses, you get closer and closer to the Hollywood sign.

 

The view from the top.  We thought the Hollywood hills were beautiful.

On Sunday night we went to dinner in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood at a cute Greek restaurant.  They had live music and the waiters danced so it was a fun and vibrant place to eat.  After dinner we drove along the Sunset Strip and then drove on Rodeo Drive into Beverly Hills.  It probably would have been better to do this drive during the day so we could see the huge mansions we drove past but it was still a cool drive in the evening.  It made me want to watch Pretty Woman!

On Monday morning we drove down to Santa Monica and walked along the beach.  It was a cooler, hazy day but still a beautiful day for a walk at the beach.

Before heading to the airport, we stopped at In-N-Out burger for lunch as neither of us had eaten there before.  I don't know if it's worth all the hype (I'm not a fast food person) but I'm glad we checked it out!

We both gave Santa Barbara 5 stars and would come back here in a heartbeat.  We loved being near the mountains, ocean, and vineyards and we thought the downtown area was charming with lots of great restaurants.  We felt like it was the ideal getaway for an active couple as there is so much to see and do.  We both thought the best part of our weekend was the hike as it was great to exercise, soak up some sunshine, and take in some beautiful views. All in all it was an awesome getaway and I loved getting to spend 5 full days with my Valentine! 

Do you have any warm weather getaways that you are looking forward to?