East of Eden and West of Winchester: Back in Santa Barbara

Being a member of the Armed Forces sure has its perks. Kenneth and I decided to take an over night trip to Santa Barbara to celebrate Veterans Day and since Kenneth had both Thursday and Friday off from work, it seemed like the perfect excuse to get out of town. Santa Barbara is about three hours from Tehachapi and it is the most beautiful drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. We dropped our lovable hounds off at the doggy farm early Thursday morning and hit the road!

Our first stop was a microbrewery near UC Santa Barbara for beer and lunch. Our waitress noticed that Kenneth was wearing his trusty UVA polo... turns out she is from Vienna, Virginia! We felt slightly over dressed in town because when we left Tehachapi in the morning it was cold and icy but when we arrived in Santa Barbara, much to our surprise, it was warm and balmy. Needless to say we worked up a sweat at our next stop, the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens in Mission Canyon.

The gardens were truly beautiful. Perched high above Santa Barbara, they provided a sweeping panorama of the town and the Pacific Ocean as well as some amazing native California flora and fauna. The park is seventy eight acres of native California plants, including a very very very small grove of redwood trees. The gardens are located on an abandoned aqueduct that served the Santa Barbara mission. We spent about two hours hiking the trails, exploring the plants, and taking in the view of the ocean. Unfortunately, I chose to wear cowboy boots on this natural pursuit, Kenneth fondly calls them hooker heels, not the best choice for hiking gear.

After our visit to the gardens, Kenneth and I drove through downtown Santa Barbara. We drove down State Street, passed the library, the courthouse, and the mission. We then parked our car at our hotel and walked the beach. Our hotel was right on the Pacific Ocean and we took a two hour walk up and down the beach and down Stearn's Wharf. Again, the cowboy boots did not help me walk through the sand. Beach lovers, consider moving to California because Kenneth and I saw people laying out in their bikinis on the beach in November.

We checked into our hotel and realized that we had a partial ocean view from our private balcony... SCORE! Kenneth took a quick cat nap while I watched Iron Chef. We ate at Elements for dinner. The restaurant has different rooms themed after, you guessed it, the elements. I had a delicious fish that migrates from Hawaii to Santa Barbara for dinner and Kenneth and had a filet. Delicious!

On Friday, Kenneth and I drove about thirty minutes east of Santa Barbara into the Santa Ynez valley and to the town of Solvang, California. This town was so cool! It is modeled after a traditional Danish village and actual Danes live in Solvang. A lot of vineyards have tasting rooms in town because of its central location to all of the Santa Barbara wine country. Kenneth picked Sort This Out Winery because they had the coolest looking bottles. He made a good choice because the wine was delicious and amazing. Kenneth doesn't like wine but he managed to find three that he liked! We bought a delicious Pinot Grigio and my favorite, the most delicious Viognier! Kenneth and I went ape shit for the holiday mulled Merlot which we bought too. The wine comes with this little sachet of mulling spices. The sommelier mulled the wine in the tasting room and it was so amazing, could not pass up the set of spices and wine! I loved the grenache, which happened to be fifty dollars a bottle, but had hints of cotton candy and the most adorable pink bottle!

After the delicious wine tasting, we stopped in the Christmas store and made the ultimate Christmas purchase... A CHRISTMAS PICKLE ornament. With pickle and wine in hand, we hit up the Solvang Brewing Company, a new micro brewery. We tasted the wheat, blonde, pale ale, and hazelnut beers along with our lunch. Sufficiently stuffed and buzzed, I enjoyed our beautiful drive home through the heart of Santa Barbara wine country while Kenneth drove. Picked up the hounds as soon as we got home and then unwrapped the boxes of wedding presents that had arrived while we were gone. Our plans for the rest of the weekend: a hike with the hounds, mulled wine, UVA football, and resting up for our trip to Vegas next weekend! Yay!