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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Great Stay-cation of '10

We hit our five year anniversary in April, but celebrated a few weeks ago. We dropped the kids off with Grandma and headed out to...Santa Barbara. After researching our options of vacation destinations we realized that our budget was magically transformed from meager to ample by eliminating the cost of nightly hotels. And since people travel from all around the world to come to Santa Barbara, we thought we'd just stay and really get to know our town. I know travel itinerary's can be boring, but in case you're interested:
  • Dinner at Cheesecake Factory...mmmm
  • Watched Despicable Me, loved the minions, quoted the movie the rest of the weekend.
  • Took some papparazzi photos of my "baby bump" at the mall.
  • Took a hike to "inspiration point" (hey it was our anniversary, what did you expect?)
  • Ate lunch on the pier
  • Visited the SB courthouse, saw the view from the tower (finally!)
  • Relaxed on the beach
  • Picnicked and rocked out at an outdoor concert featuring Captain Cardiac and the Coroners. They were Oldies, but goodies!
  • Took a boat out to Santa Cruz Island, spotted dolphins, kayaked off the coast, and hiked.
  • Dinner at Zenyai Thai -- we both LOOOOOVED our food.
  • Spent all of Saturday on our bikes: we rode downtown, hit the French Festival, Museum of Art, Bird Sanctuary, Cabrillo beach, and the Palace for dinner. All in all we biked 17 miles! (We also missed our bus home and had to call a friend at 9:30pm to pick us and our bikes up. Million thanks Jeff!!)
  • Enjoyed three hours of church with no kids. Amazing!
  • Picked up our girls and loved them all the more for having some time off.



We had a blast. Now maybe our friends will really believe us when we say they should come visit us sometime in Santa Barbara!

3 comments:

Katie said...

Fun!

And, wow, you make a beautiful Mona Lisa. If Da Vinci were still around and saw that picture, I'm certain he would revise the original.

Karisa said...

Okay, we're sold. Start preparing our room for 6! You didn't think we wanted to pay for a hotel either did you? But seriously, we are planning on being in California in early to mid April, and maybe we could stop by? I want to see the Reagan library and some other So.Cal stuff and the beach of course! Looks beautiful!

TheSycamores said...

I have to admit, I hope this doesn't offend you, but I had a much better time being Grandma to your beautiful little girls, Marielle & Jenna. When are you going on vacation again???