I’m finally getting around to posting a bit more about my trip to Santa Barbara. As I mentioned in a previous post, State Street has been closed to all vehicular traffic. It’s so nice because pedestrians can now walk through the middle of town to shop, enjoy a nice stroll, and check out all of the amazing cuisine Santa Barbara has to offer.
My trip was in June, so I’m really hoping everything will stay open for a while. Restaurants have been given the opportunity to expand over to sidewalks and into the street to accommodate restaurant owners and diners alike.
My Mom and I had a chance to stop in for a quick drink at Institution Ale Company. We found the perfect spot under a gorgeous shade tree. I initially thought they only served beer, but once I got inside to order, I realized they sell wine as well. But we decided to just go with a nice lager to change it up. While I waited for our beers, I decided to snap some pictures of this cute “little” place.
It ended up being a lot bigger than I thought. There was a whole, entire back room with some table games, video games and an entire back patio. Who knew?
We sat out front and enjoyed our beer, while we people watching and also observed some pretty amazing food being served. The pizza smelled like heaven and the salads… they’re HUGE!
We had already had lunch, but we’ll most definitely be back again with the rest of our squad for some pizza and drinks.
Check out Institution Ale Company, (beer brewed out of Camarillo, CA) on their website: InstitutionAles.com!
Check back soon for more adventures and pictures of beautiful Santa Barbara!
Category: Travel
A Trip Home
With the long, President’s Day weekend ahead of me last week, I decided to head to Westlake Village, Ca and visit some of my friends and family. As always, I had a great trip home! After a great lunch with my Mom & Dad in Oxnard, I was able to go see my brother’s place in Port Hueneme. He lives right at the end of the naval base and has the most stunning view of the ocean from his beautifully remodeled condo.
Later that evening, I was able to connect with my girlfriends from high school, where we attended the First Annual Valentine Wine Hop! For just $40, my friend and I each received a five-flight tasting at three separate wineries. Plus, we received 25% off any bottle of wine we decided to purchase that evening. What a great deal!
Our first stop was Lucas Sellers. Located in a little industrial area of Moorpark, CA. This place was absolutely adorable! We honestly could have stayed there ALL night. Not only was it adorable, but we enjoyed the wines and the overall ambiance. It was so quaint and cozy, with comfortable couches and seating areas set up all over the place. The place is also family friendly (babies and kids welcome!), the staff was super sweet and knowledgeable, and a band was getting ready to set up as we were leaving. I can’t wait to go back again. We may never leave!
Another bonus for me in this location, is that there is a brewery across the way called Enegren Brewing. My hubby doesn’t drink wine, so it would be a perfect place to hang out, as there are picnic tables between the two places where you can enjoy beer and wine together. Unfortunately, you can’t bring beer into the winery, or wine into the brewery due to licensing restrictions, but the “in between” section covers it so we could easily hang out together. There was also a food truck so you can grab some nibbles during your visit.
Our second stop was McGregor’s Craft Beer & Wine. This place was great too! This is located in a quaint little strip mall, also in Moorpark. There was a great little bar for tasting, games and plenty of seating for our group, as we collected a few more friends along the way. We ordered an amazing charcutterie board, a flat bread pizza that was absolutely to die for and of course… our wine flight, which was also amazing. We even brought home a nice bottle of Chardonnay. Also a huge plus for me, was their fabulous selection of craft beers. I would highly recommend this for any fun date night! At this point in the evening, I admit, I forgot to take more pictures. But I did snap a pic of our beautiful wine flight and the yummy chocolates they provided as a palate cleanser. It was really good too!
We unfortunately started too late to make it to the last winery, Cavaletti Vineyards, and I’m super bummed about that! But I promise to make it back soon and check it out!
I’m so blessed to have had such and fun and productive trip. I was able to help out my Mother in Law with some stuff around her house, see both my Mom and Dad AND one of my brother’s, and on Sunday, I was able to see all three of my nephew’s, their wives, two great-nephew’s and meet (and hold) my great-niece, who is just as cute as a button! I thank God for my friends and family every day. They’re the ones who get me through!
Have a great rest of your week! xoxo
My Trip to Santa Ynez Valley
A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of taking a girls trip with my Mom, my best friend from high school, and her Mom. We’ve all known each other since the summer before my freshman year of high school, so there’s quite a bit of history there. Our Mom’s certainly were looking forward to reminiscing about what sweet angels we were in high school! Ha!
We took a trip up the coast to the Santa Ynez Valley to attend their annual Day in the Country event, which has lot of amazing vendors, food trucks, beer gardens, live music & fun stuff for the kids! It’s an event I’ve always wanted to go to, so I was super excited when I mentioned it to my friend, and then my Mom and we actually MADE IT HAPPEN!
The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. If you’ve never seen the movie Sideways & you enjoy wine & some good comedy, you need to see it! It was mostly filmed in this beautiful area!
We stayed at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott, where we enjoyed a “home made” charcuterie platter from items we brought from home. Oh, and by the way, you should see the amount of wine we brought with us! We had to grab one of those carts to get all our stuff from the car, up to our rooms!
We got a little bit of a later start to the day than we wanted due to kid scheduling issues, but once we unpacked our rather ridiculous amount of luggage for one night, we had a glass of wine and our snack, & then headed on out to explore. A quick Uber ride put us right in the heart of lovely Los Olivos, where the event was.
Los Olivos
We walked around this quaint little city and found some great vendors, food trucks & a remarkable band, signing some classic Neil Diamond. The vendors ranged from beautiful handmade jewelry, to art, incredible, hand-carved lazy susan’s, hand made charcuterie boards, plus, great gifts for anyone & everyone and A LOT of really nice people. As we were winding down from our shopping, I told them there was just one more place that we absolutely had to go to. My favorite “garden store”, J. Woeste!
It’s a magical garden of anything and everything! Outside there are beautiful garden treasures, and inside great gifts, such as candles, artwork, and even Christmas 🎄 items year-round! It’s definitely a must see! Oh… And you can’t miss the amazing and GINORMOUS wind💨 chimes in the front. There always seems to be a nice breeze going in front of the store, so you can almost always hear them. They’re so relaxing!
Our next stop, to settle our aching feet, was a glass of wine. We stopped at The Bear and Star, right in the middle of town. We sat right in front in a very light, bright & comfortable bar area. There was a wedding going on in the back of the restaurant, so it was really fun to watch all of the guests and some of the wedding party, (two adorable flower girls included) come through in their dressed attire.
After refreshing with some water, brought to us in their own cute, little decanter, we ordered wine. Well, as it so happened, they carried a Fess Parker wine, which he named right after me! (wink, wink) So of course, we had to have it! My Mom has bought this one for me in the past, so it was a perfect little wine to split before we journey’d on to the next stop.
Santa Ynez
After we left The Bear & Star, we decided it was dinner time. We had a reservation for a fabulous dinner at Trattoria Grappolo in Santa Ynez, which was just a short Uber ride from down town Los Olivos. We enjoyed an amazing bottle of Grgich Hills, Chardonnay (2014). This has always been one of my favorites and it was very nicely priced and perfect for sharing. We carb-ed up on bread, pasta and a tasty flat bread pizza. We all shared, and the portions were perfect for that!
Our last stop of the evening was for a night cap! We walked out of Trattoria Grappolo and right there next to it, was the Maverick Saloon! We heard country music playing and we just had to go in! It was so much fun there. We ordered a couple of the drinks at the bar and then proceeded to deface a couple of dollar bills to staple up on the ceiling! Ha ha! So much fun though, and had we stayed a little later, there was a live band tuning up to play. I would like to go back again and stay a little longer next time! Below are a couple of pictures of our mischievousness!
Solvang
After a great night of sleep and a pretty stellar breakfast buffet (served ’til noon, for us sleeper-inners) at the hotel, we decided to stop in Solvang on our way out. For those of you who don’t know, Solvang is a lovely & quaint Danish town, which has a TON of great little shops, danish bakeries, tasting rooms, & great dining! We hit some souvenir shops for the kids, and enjoyed the Halloween decorating contest the stores were having amongst themselves. My Mom treated me to a new pair of Birkenstocks at the Solvang Shoe Store, which had a pretty large selection, considering the size of the store. We all came home with new shoes! Woot woot! Then, we just had to stop for scoop of ice cream at Solvang Trolley Ice Cream Parlor, (the serve chocolate malted crunch folks!!), and at the danish bakery for some fresh & gooey bread! It was quite the afternoon, but alas, it was time to return to reality!
I highly recommend taking a trip up to Santa Ynez Valley, and if you can take it with your Mom, or sister, cousin or even best friend, it’s even better going with the ones you love!
I’m so thankful for the opportunity to spend a weekend with the people I know always have my back & love me unconditionally. Even though my friend and I don’t get to spend too much time together, (distance & family obligations are always a thing), we always make our weekends count since they are so few and far between! We are both also infinitely aware of how lucky we are to have our Mommy’s here to hang with us! 🙏🏼 We plan on a trip next year to Cambria, CA and I can’t wait!