If you've read these blog posts, you'll know we loved our first trip ever to Santa Barbara. It won't be our last trip. Happy to share our itinerary with you, just ask.
Monday, June 6, 2022
Day Three Photos: Kayaks and Cute Seals
Two photo posts in a row where the program put the last photos first. Oh well.
On the campus of Jeff Farrah's
old stomping groups, UCSB.
Cormorants are chill.
Seals have soulful eyes.
This seal has very cool coloring.
Action shot.
Pudgy the Seal.
Big whiskers.
Things were calmer behind the wharf.
Not showing off my legs. . .
showing off the mountains!
Carol being adventurous
on our anniversary.
Dragging the kayaks to launch.
In-N-Out Of The Water, Of The Burger, & A Spectacular Dinner Setting -- Day Three
Our final full day on our anniversary trip to the Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara started with a short walk to Chad’s for breakfast. Three straight breakfasts, three straight ocean/beach views.
We used Cal Coast Adventures for our ocean kayaking. I do a lot of kayaking, but got advice to take a tour because a guide can get us to the wildlife faster. Well, at least that was the plan. I didn’t realize Carol had never sea kayaked before so she had some trepidation. Our guide, a young man whose name escapes me, said, as we dragged our kayak through the sand and wind to the powerful incoming waves, “hmmm, these are the biggest swells I’ve seen in the six months I’ve been working here.” Good to know. A great guy, his best service came holding the kayaks steady in the waves as first Carol, then I, hopped onto our single kayaks (we passed on a divorce kayak) before paddling safely through more crashing waves.
We cut through the incoming wind and waves, but it was work. We made it out to a buoy sea lions like to hang out on, but none were on it. Our guide surmised they were looking for a calmer place to hang out. Even to me, the idea of paddling up the coast while the waves smacked the side of our kayaks was not very appealing, so instead we cut around the wharf.
In doing so, I paddled myself into an adventure. As John Passacantando says, “It’s not an adventure till the first thing goes wrong.” I’m used to seeing fishing lines along a river or creek at the last moment, and quickly paddling around them or simply lifting over my head. Well, I never saw the lines coming out a long, long way from the wharf.
Somehow I managed to get the hook, or two, as lines were tangled, snagged on my kayak. I’m paddling, paddling, paddling, and going nowhere. I found it hard to believe I had been hooked. The fishermen were yelling at me, but between the distance and the winds, I could hardly hear them. Just as well. The guide paddled over, and between us, we managed to free me, although I have no idea how. The struggle was real.
Rather than paddling past the fishing lines again, out into the churning, windy ocean, we cut under the wharf (where no fishing is allowed, greatly reducing the odds of me getting snagged again) and into the marina to paddle around the seals. That’s pretty cool. We then rode the surf into the beach and called it a day early. I’ve rarely paddled in winds and waves like that, and I know Carol was done. But it was still fun to do. Good luck that neither of us tipped, but bad luck we had to fight such strong wind and waves. It was still a good adventure.
After showering, we got the car and headed for our anniversary lunch, to a special spot few people have heard of: In-N-Out Burger! We can’t go west without a stop there, and it’s special to eat a burger outside under the warm California sun. No, it’s not as good as Five Guys, but ranking third on the Bolger Burger Rankings is still impressive, especially since first place is held by nearly any burger I grill.
After lunch, we tried the Mission again, but the festival was still going on. I was more ready to fight for parking, but it looked like the Mission was closed (to be fair, it was Memorial Day). So it was Plan B – we drove to UC Santa Barbara, which is the alma mater of our neighbor and good friend, Jeff Farrah.
We walked around the quiet campus (it was a holiday, after all). The setting is amazing, although the architecture is an underwhelming mish-mash of styles. Of course, when you are an undergraduate and your campus has its own beach, you don’t really care about architectural style. We then checked out Jeff’s house that he lived in for three years -- 6866 Del Playa (it's a HUGE tourist attraction). He was both pleased and amused when we sent him a couple of pictures.
We drove around some of the neighborhoods before heading back to our Anniversary couples massage at the spa. That was quite relaxing. Then we headed up to the rooftop for the tapas and bottle of wine we did not have on the sailboat cruise the night before.
Our anniversary dinner was at Plow & Angel restaurant at the San Ysidro Ranch resort, owned by Ty Warner, who made multi-millions off Beanie Babies. He owns a sprawling house cliffside by the ocean, which we sailed past on Sunday night.
Charlie Leonard had advised we get there early, get a glass of wine, and walk around the gardens. Both the flower gardens and the herb gardens are jaw-dropping in beauty and design. At $2,400-$10,000 a night for a room, we’ll never stay overnight there, I mean NEVER, but we highly recommend Plow & Angel for dinner. The main restaurant (upstairs) is the Stonehouse, but Charlie raved about Plow & Angel (as do we now that we’ve been there!).
We ate in one of the gardens. The Grilled Spanish Squid with Onions, Olives, Chorizo, Tangerine (brilliant inclusion!), Wild Argula, Grilled Meyer Lemon, and Romesco sauce was a meal in itself. . .pretty amazing starter. We enjoyed a 1999 bottle of Cali Syrah, and then shared the Colorado rack of lamb, which was also quite tasty. . .especially the sprinkled lamb bacon as part of the side “salad.”
I only had two regrets about dinner. One was that I didn’t bring my camera to take shots of the gardens, and the other is that we Uber’d there. We couldn’t get an Uber to pick us up afterwards, so we had to call a cab and wait quite a while. I would recommend driving.
We were up early the next morning to meet Gene and Cindy in Santa Monica for breakfast, and then it was off to LAX and home. Quite a trip!
Day Two Photos: Wine Turned Into Water
Every so often, Wordpress (the blog platform) loads the photos backwards in time order. So the last photos of the day are the top.
A more conscientious blogger would take time to put the photos in the right order. That's not me though, so live our lives backwards on this day.
California sunsets in my eyes.
If it weren't for the taxes, etc., I
bet we could love living here.
Can someone explain why California
is called "The Golden State?"
Sea lions after several of their colleagues have
been scared off the buoy. (A group of sea lions
is called a "herd" or a "raft" -- not "colleagues!)
Carol living her best life.
Seals, living their best lives. There's
a lot of best lives being lived in California.
Mountains near the Kaene winery.
At Pence Winery.
The pond at Pence.
Tyler Winery
We did not drink all five bottles.
We did taste all five wines.
And yes, it IS reminscent of
ever, from New Zealand.
Scroll down, you'll know
when you found it.
Pretty stunning view.
Wine & Water Makes A Day Great -- Day Two
Full day number 2 during our anniversary stay at the Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara began with a revelation: if you only have time for one breakfast in Santa Barbara, drive up to the Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach. The beach is beautiful (and dog-friendly – lots of dogs zooming around!). The cliffs surrounding the beach reminded us that we certainly weren’t on the East Coast. And the menu options were fantastic. Definitely the best of three really good breakfast places.
Back well before our 10:00 am pick up for our six hour wine tour, Yvonne (our driver and host) was also early. We hit three wineries that her company, Coastal Concierge, had booked us with. The first, Tyler Winery, was the most beautiful setting of the three. That winery, along with Pence (the second one) is in the Santa Rita Hills AVA and features Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Pence Winery (no relation to the former Veep) also features Pinot and Chardy, but also has Gamay and a Pinot Rose. They also bottle a small amount of Syrah. The personal attention we received at each winery was special. We had our picnic lunch from Coastal Concierge at a beautiful setting at Pence.
The final winery had our favorite wines, because they feature Grenaches. Kaena is in the Ballard Canyon AVA, near Solvang. A very relaxing setting, we really enjoyed Kip’s discussion and presentation of the wines. Then, we fell asleep in the car as Yvonne drove us back over the mountains to the Hotel.
Coastal Concierge had been recommended by hotel concierge, and we really enjoyed the tour. The personalized service made it a very special wine tour.
We dozed in our room for 30 minutes, then popped up to get ready for our sunset sailboat cruise on the Sunset Kidd. We had a bottle of Pence Wine ready to go, and I picked to go olives, mozzarella, chips, and hummus for a light dinner. We climbed aboard the 41 foot sailing private charter. The crew were great, but alas I can’t remember their names. They were easy to talk to and we swapped tales of travel and adventure.
What wasn’t easy was the wind. It was as windy as they could remember, and we ended up not even touching the tapas or wine. We saved those all for a Monday afternoon snack.
More important than the food: seals, sea lions, common dolphins, pelicans, and cormorants. And a spectacular sunset. The land that Santa Barbara is on actually runs east-west instead of north-south which we had assumed. So the sun sets over the mountains to the west even though your brain thinks the mountains are to the east because the Pacific should be to the east but is actually to the south. If you don’t get it, just go there, because that’s the best I can explain.
The sea lions and dolphins were both quite playful. Most of the sea lions poured off the large buoy as we approached, and then changed their minds and tried to climb back on. The dolphins showed off, with one doing a full flip out of the water (which I haven’t seen since New Zealand, he writes in a humble-brag sort of way), and the others escorting the sailboat at times.
As the sun went down it got cold, but the wind was not as strong, so that helped. We got back into port and headed straight for an unplanned stop at Brophy Bros for a bowl of body-warming clam chowder. Walking back along the beach, we marveled at the wonder that is Santa Barbara. This time, however, there was no stopping at the hotel bar, because between the wine tour and the windy ocean sail, we were exhausted.
Day One Photos
On the beach at the Shoreline Cafe. People
started showing up AFTER I took this pic.
Sidewalk mosaic.
Santa Barbara marina from Stearns Wharf.
Santa Barbara from the wharf.
Santa Barbara Shores trail.
On the cliffs above the beach.
Ditto -- different spot. Same cliffs,
same beach, same ocean.
The trail in the trees.
Mountain view from our hotel rooftop.
Tell me about the rabbits, George.
I didn't realize there are oil derricks off
the California coast. I guess these are
grandfathered in.
These fields are chock full of butterflies
in the winter. May have to come back then.
Cold Spring Tavern,
from 1868,
Their famous Tri Tip sandwich
with beer-battered onion rings.
No finer meal for lunch.
View of the marina and mountains
from our bar table at Brophy Bros.
Ocean view from the hotel rooftop.
There's A Lot To Do In Santa Barbara, And We Did A Lot -- Day One
Up early Saturday morning, we walked a mile along the quiet beach to the feet in the sand Shoreline Beach Café. Tucked smack in the corner of the beach, it was the first of three cool breakfast places we ate. Walking back, we detoured out to the end of famous Stearns Wharf, for stunning views back over Santa Barbara to the mountains that frame the skyline.
The drive north to hike the Loop Trail at Santa Barbara Shores was easy (h/t Jim Hobart for the recommendation). The hike itself is quite stunning. We were too late to catch the fields alive with butterflies, but we could imagine it in our minds’ eye. The topper was, of course, when the trail went along the ocean cliffs, affording amazing views to the beach far below. (Pro tip: Don’t fall off the cliff!)
Alas, the old Santa Barbara Mission was packed for a festival, so we were stymied on finding parking. Plan B was to go to lunch at the famous Cold Spring Tavern. Opened in 1868 as a stagecoach stop in San Marcos Pass. It’s a great hangout for motorcyclists, hippies, dippies, and all sorts of other people. Deep in the woods on the side of a mountain, Tri-Tip sandwiches are their speciality. There are a number of out buildings, the most important of which is the bar.
Carol and I got a picnic table and feasted on Tri Tips and onion rings. Cold beer tastes better in the mountains. Live music sounds better too. All the locals we talked with in the few days afterwards were impressed we went to Cold Spring Tavern. We were impressed as well.
After we got back to the hotel, we walked along the Cabrillo Boulevard for the Santa Barbara Arts & Crafts Show. We saw art, things attempting to be art, crafts, and things claiming to be crafts. Usually it's hard for us to go to one of these and not buy something, but this stuff was easy to pass up. It was still nice to get out and walk alongside the beach.
We have noted to each other that we don’t really maximize the amenities at the hotels we stay at, as we are banging around the area to see the sights and adventure the activities. So we went up to the rooftop. And what a rooftop – lounge chairs, the pool, service, umbrellas. We enjoyed a bottle of chardonnay (not much of white wine drinkers, but it was the 35th Anniversary gift from Inspirato, so who are we to turn down free wine?) and some marinated olives & mozzarella. We were living our best California life.
After actually relaxing for a rare time on a trip, we went to Brophy Brothers by the marina for dinner. The restaurant had an hour wait, so we went into the bar and feasted on local seafood. We had stunning views of the marina and mountains.
After dinner we stopped at the hotel bar for a nightcap. Our plans to take the glasses of wine up to our room were dashed when we fell into lengthy conversation with a couple of locals. The main fellow we chatted with was from New York via Puerto Rico, so the conversation turned in many directions, including San Juan, the Yankees, and the NY football Giants. Fun impromptu talk.
All that in one day.
Where Has Santa Barbara Been All Our Lives?
What took us so long to get to Santa Barbara? Smack between the beaches and mountains, with cliffs, the Channel Islands, and a relaxed vibe, in just one visit Santa Barbara easily makes the list as one of our favorite cities in the United States.
We stayed at the Hotel Californian, with the “n” at the end of the hotel name meaning we had to check out, even if we never wanted to leave. We packed a lot into our four nights in this spectacular city. And yet there’s still many reasons to go back. I feel like we could write one of those pre-COVID airline magazine articles, “what to do with four nights in Santa Barbara.”
We flew from Reagan National direct to LAX so we could have lunch with our close friends of 20 years. Gene and Cindy Laporta had moved to Santa Monica, so first we stopped there to check out their fabulous apartment with ocean and mountain views, just like you don’t get on the East Coast. We drove up to Duke’s in Malibu and had lunch with Gene and Cindy at a table just above the crashing surf. It was a gloriously fun lunch spot, catching up with them since they’d moved to Cali in December.
Glen, Gene, Cindy, Carol. And, yes,
that's the Pacific Ocean behind us.
Me and the Duke. Hanging in Malibu.
Next we drove up to Santa Barbara in time to get drinks at a bar overlooking the ocean with our friend of 33 years, Charlie Leonard. Charlie had given us pointers on things to do, so our itinerary was as much his as it was ours.
We had a few minutes in the spacious one bedroom room at the Californian, which feels like it is fresh from a movie set in a funky, hip coastal town. We’re not those kind of people, but it is neat to see how the hip half live. After that, we Uber’d up to Coast & Olive for dinner. The only hard part of the meal was deciding what to eat and, of course, what wine to order.
I Didn't Expect To Blog This Trip
I usually don't blog domestic trips unless it involves grand adventure such as Jackson Hole/Yellowstone or Bryce/Zion hiking. But we had such a great time for our 35th wedding anniversary trip to Santa Barbara that I wrote a relatively detailed travelogue for a travel group we're members of, so I decided to make modest edits to it and post it on the blog.
I'm doing this partly because it was a great trip, and partly because my friend of more than 30 years, Charlie Leonard, blog-shamed me into blogging the trip (blog-shamed is a Googlenope -- meaning when you search for it, there are NO prior uses! Yes, I'm famous now! I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk when the new phone books came in!)
Charlie has lived in Santa Barbara for the last ten years, and provided much of the advice on things to do. Neighbor Jeff Farrah and biz partner Jim Hobart also provided suggestions for the trip. So here's an unexpected blog for a great trip. Santa Barbara is pretty high on our list of favorite American cities to visit.
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