Santa Barbara :)

I've been living in LA for 8 years (wow) and had never been to Santa Barbara until just a couple weeks ago.  Neil and I were heading to SB to see Sara Bareilles play at The Bowl and decided to make a day of it and do some Wine Tasting, walk around the city, and just enjoy a fun day!

Kalyra Winery

As we made the 70 minute drive from North Hollywood, bagels in hand, we passed through Carpinteria (both curious, we found out that the Chumash Tribe had a carpentry shop, which is where the name came from...I knew it) and when we got to Santa Barbara it was a perfect 72 degrees.  We could see the ocean from our hotel room at the Santa Barbara Inn and decided to hit up the pool before exploring downtown.

I had made a list of a few Wineries to check out using the Urban Wine Trail I found on-line (some were right on the water, others had games to play while you were tasting wines, and others were listed as generous pours) and after researching some of the Wineries settled on Kalyra since they had a dessert wine that was supposed to be amazing.  Some of the wines had a tin/metal flavor but it was because they were fermented in steel (just not our favorites) but we ended up loving the Semillon which had hints of jalepeno and vanilla.  We each bought a bottle and Neil also picked up a bottle of the Orange Muscat because it was perfectly sweet and light.  I'm sure we'll be checking out some of the wineries on our next visit!  Then we walked to downtown since we were in the more industrial area known as 'The Funk Zone' and looked at some of the shops before stopping for a late lunch at Verde.

During our afternoon walk, Neil had scouted an Italian restaurant, Palazzio, where we had a wonderful Dinner.  We sat on the patio and Neil ordered a trio of items that were all delicious, especially his ravioli!  When we finished up, our friendly server packed up some Tiramisu to go since we had to get to the Sara Bareilles concert; she made our visit so special :)

Dinner at Palazzio in Santa Barbara

Unfortunately, we got to the concert at 8:15 pm (our tickets said Sara Bareilles Concert 7 pm) and she was playing with One Republic but since it was listed as her show, and we figured there would be an opener, we thought we would have plenty of time and probably catch the middle of One Republic's set.  Instead, the doors opened at 5:30 pm, she had an opener at 6 pm and she started promptly at 7 pm.  It was so disappointing because after seeing concerts for years, I've never missed a show, or been too late, because the time listed is when the doors open.  We decided not to stay for One Republic out of pure disappointment and walked the whole way back from the Bowl to downtown and tried to make the best of the rest of our evening.  It had really been a beautiful day so it was so frustrating to miss one of our favorite artists perform considering she was playing in LA the next day, but we wanted to force ourselves to get out of town and do something different, and both Neil and I were scheduled to work the next night so we couldn't have even gone to the show, even if we had tickets.

The next day we grabbed breakfast overlooking the ocean in our hotel and then walked around the Pier area and some of the shops.  It was clearly a town for walking as we probably clocked in over 6 miles in 24 hours but even with the clouds it was a gorgeous day and we had a really fun time in Santa Barbara.  

I can't wait to go back and I love that we went during the week so it wasn't as busy or touristy as it could have been.  School was in session so there were still people around but we got to do things at our own pace without feeling rushed or crowded.  Knowing we're only just a little over an hour away makes it so convenient and belonging to a wine club may not be such a bad idea after all :)