A Weekend in Santa Barbara

 Last weekend we were lucky enough to spend a kid free weekend in Santa Barbara to attend a friends wedding.
 I must admit I had been looking forward to this mini getaway ever since we got the official invation in the mail.
I myself have only ever been to Santa Barbara once before .. I remember that visit very vividly though, because it was when I told Jason my thoughts on staying in this country.  I remember thinking 'this is what I imagine it to be if I was to move here'.  The small town that is Catalina Island (where we were living at the time) was not cutting it for me anymore and it was in Santa Barbara that I came to the (scary) realisation that I could see myself living in the US ... just not on an island. :).
So yes I was excited to go back to this town.

We arrived close to lunch time so stopped for a bite to eat before we checked into our 'hotel'.

Our accommodations were pretty darn cool if you ask me.  We chose to stay in a renovated Airstream trailer at one of the first Autocamp locations.  So we were kind of 'glamping' it but not really since the trailer doesn't move.  It was definitely small but I have no hesitation in staying there again ... it was unique and the cool thing about Santa Barbara is that everything is so close so a quick bike ride (with the bikes that are provided to guests) to the store and we had drinks and snacks to get us through until dinner time.

Weatherwise it was gorgeous in Santa Barbara.  On Saturday morning we took a nice walk to get breakfast and brought it back to eat in our little shaded deck area back at our 'hotel'.
We had a few hours before the wedding started to continue exploring this gorgeous city so we headed to the Santa Barbara Mission and toured the grounds for a couple of hours ... the history of this town is pretty awesome!  After we were done at the mission it was time to get check out the beach.  Well we had less than an hour at this point before we had to be back to get wedding ready so we hung out on the pier for a drink and an awesome ocean view.

Our friends Valerie and David had their wedding ceremony in one of the rooms of the Santa Barbara court house.  Talk about amazing arcitecture and history and artwork!  This still functioning courthouse has it all! It was a beautiful setting for a very beautiful wedding I must say!
After the ceremony we had a couple of hours to kill before the reception started so we took headed to the very top of the courthouse building and took in the spectacular 360 degree view of the entire city. 

I made Jason take this awkward 'selfie' as we waited in one of the stair wells for the elevator to take us back to the bottom floor but it was super cool to listen and actually watch the clock movements inside the tower as the bell chimed to mark the time.

 

I didn't have my phone or any kind of camera at the actual wedding celebration so I don't have any photos to share from the reception unfortunately, but judging from the way I felt Sunday morning (ie horrible) it was a fun night and I'm so glad we were able to be a par of this memorable 

day for a pretty awesome couple! 

Thank you! Thank you! Patty and Larry for taking such good care of the kids while we were off having a fun weekend!  

I leave you with this some what creepy (but artisic?) photo of us at the wedding from Jason's phone.