Santa Barbara

Saturday morning was my 5 year anniversary with Joel and in lieu of gifts, we decided to drive up to Santa Barbara, have a private wine tasting, and stay at a B&B.

The drive up is about 2 hours, but our tasting was an additional 30 miles north of Santa Barbara. You end up losing track of time on the drive because the views off the highway are like nothing in this world. You've got waves crashing to your left and gorgeous mountain ranges everywhere else. The weather was a little gray and misty, but it didn't interfere with any part of the day.

 

We had a private tasting reserved at noon at Fess Parker Winery. It's on a beautiful plot of land, and when you walk into their main room, your greeted with lots of wood, burning fire places, crackers and wine! When we checked in the receptionist was giving us all kinds of weird looks. She got us a glass of wine and told us to wait for a few minutes. The manager came to meet us after a while, and explained that there had been some kind of mix up. Fess Parker's son, Eli, opened a private label called Epihany, and today was their opening event - the tasting room was being used for the private party.

They felt so bad, didn't know what to do, and then got the brilliant idea to just invite us into the private event. We met Eli, the head wine maker, and a bunch of locals at the wine party of the year! We were served all of the new Epiphany wines, dined on yummy appetizers and cupcakes, and had an all around amazing time.

We were so impressed with the way Fess Parker handled the mix-up and we can't wait to visit our new friends again in May.


 After the fabulous party, we drove into downtown Santa Barbara and checked into our little tree house B&B.

 

We walked to the harbor and indulged in a cup of the clam chowder soup at the famous Brophy's.

Then, after a much needed nap we headed downtown and strolled along State Street. We had an amazing dinner at Arigato. Our waitress recommended the best Pinot Noir I've ever tasted and the sushi was so fresh. Bonus points for a gelato shop that was right across the street!

 

 

 

We slept in Sunday morning and slowly made our way back to State Street. I could have hung out in downtown Santa Barbara for a full week - It's one of the greatest cities I've ever been too and I could've easily moved right in.

Have you ever seen a more quaint Macy's?!

It was a fantastic weekend getaway and a city we'll be visiting again soon.