Santa Barbara Getaway

Bryan and I went to Santa Barbara in late May to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. It has been so busy, so I haven’t posted anything about it. It was a very special and fulfilling  trip. Wine tour, ostriches/emus feeding and blueberries picking.

The first night, we had dinner near the marina. We enjoyed the beautiful waterfront and ocean view. Some delicious garlic baked clams ended a good day.

The next day, we had a wine tour with Cloud Climbers Jeep and Wine Tours. I am not a drinker. It is not that I don’t want to drink or have anything against it. I just get a flush and a bit dizzy after half a bottle of beer. Yup! Just half! Therefore, I don’t really drink much. If I do, two or three sips will do it. Bryan drinks mostly beer, and his recent favorite is gin and tonic. But he wasn’t that into wine. Then, you may ask why the hell we would think about joining a wine tour. To me, I have always wanted to see what a wine tour experience is. For Bryan, he would like to try different wines to see if there is something that he likes.

So there we went and we loved it! The jeep was fun. It was windy, but very fun. The guide was friendly and informative. We got to see the vineyards and area around. We went to 4 tasting rooms and 1 bar that day. Bryan probably had 4 glasses of wine and I had at least 3 glasses too. The part that helped me was the pause in between. We were either driving around or having lunch, so I had enough time to recover and not be drunk. Both of Bryan’s and my favorite tasting room has to be the Saarloos and Sons. They paired wines with Enjoy Cupcakes. Yes! Wine and cupcakes!!! The wine was excellent and the cupcakes were the best cupcakes I have ever eaten! Simply irresistible! We ended up buying 2 bottles of wine from there. It was an amazing experience. I think we will definitely do that again.

For our last day, we had a quick stop at Ostrich land in the Solvang. We fed some “cute” ostriches and emus. These animals can get a bit aggressive, especially when food is present. Haha… It was very cool to see them in person. They are a lot bigger than I thought.

We also stopped at Solvang. I thought we would enjoy that little town. However it was packed with tourists and most of the stores are mainly focused on tourists. Nothing was too unique. That was a disappointment.

On the way back driving to Los Angeles, we saw a blueberry farm. We went there and picked some blueberries. Oh yummy and sweet blueberries! They were very fresh and ripe. While we were picking, we had eaten so many too. What a great ending to our trip!

I highly recommend doing the wine tour if you are going to Santa Barbara. We had been to Santa Barbara two times before, so we didn’t do anything in town this time. If you are going there for the first time, you should check out the Courthouse and Stearns Wharf. It is a beautiful town.

List of places that we went:

Brophy Bros (119 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93109)

Cloud Climbers Jeep and Wine Tours 

Gainey Vineyard (3950 E Hwy 246, Santa Ynez, CA 93460)

Saarloon & Sons Tasting Room (2971 Grand Ave, Los Olivos, CA 93441)

Carhartt Vineyard Tasting Room (2990A Grand Ave, Los Olivos, CA 93441)

Lincourts Vineyard (1711 Alamo Pintado Rd, Solvang, CA 93463)

Cold Spring Tavern (5995 Stagecoach Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105)

Ostrichland USA (610 E Hwy 246, Solvang, CA 93463)

Santa Barbara Blueberries (1980 US Hwy 101, Gaviota, CA 93117)