Tuesday, October 4, 2011

An anniversary in Santa Barbara

By Nicole

IMG_2421The sunny coastal town of Santa Barbara, with its gorgeous Spanish architecture and palm tree-lined streets, was one of our favorite stops.  Maybe the sun had something to do with it, or maybe we were just giddy to be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary (wow, 7 amazing years already!).

We found the city to be enchanting, not only for the beautiful buildings (the Santa Barbara courthouse is lovely), but also for the sandy beaches, the brightly colored bougainvillea vines that seemed to drape over every surface and the lively downtown area that was full of great shopping, interesting restaurants, noisy sidewalk bars and at least three theaters. My only disappointment was our cruiser’s budget! 

Since it was our anniversary and all, we treated ourselves to beers at the local brewery (of course we did), took in a movie at one of the theaters and enjoyed a delicious dinner at an Italian place just off the main strip. 

We also toured the lovely Spanish-style Santa Barbara courthouse:
 
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The Santa Barbara courthouse

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A view from the beautifully landscaped garden

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An intricate spiral staircase

Apparently the grounds of the courthouse are used for community events.  When we were there, there was a bunny and guinea pig convention going on.  Yes, bunnies and guinea pigs.  They had booths set up for adoption, booths selling outfits and other accessories and booths for bunny salon treatments and acupuncture.  Aaron had a couple guinea pigs (named Red Stripe and Scratchafratchet) before I knew him, so needless to say, he was pretty enthralled with the whole event.

IMG_2429  We stumbled into a bunny and guinea pig fair… yep, that’s a bunny on a leash (one of MANY).

Although we had a great time in Santa Barbara, we could’ve been anywhere celebrating our anniversary and had fun. I feel so very fortunate to have such an amazing husband – and to be on this journey with him.  Each day we’re out here together is a gift, and there is absolutely nowhere else I’d rather be than right by his side. The port to his starboard, always.

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5 comments:

  1. Katrina W.October 5, 2011 at 1:07 PM

    Happy 7th! Congrats!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 5, 2011 at 3:05 PM

    already 7.May there be many,many more. Love always DAD

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aaron and NicoleOctober 7, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    Thank you! I wonder where we'll be for #8... :)

    -Nicole

    ReplyDelete
  4. MichaelOctober 9, 2011 at 7:42 PM

    I am curious about your decision not to join the Baja Ha Ha. We are heading south In November, 2012, and are conflicted about this, ourselves. Seems like its a sprint to Cabo, instead of enjoying the trip, but others swear by the strength in numbers. What do you think? Mike, sail blog
    sv Gypsywind41

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aaron and NicoleOctober 10, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    Hi Mike - I'm absolutely sure the Baja Haha is great fun, and we regret that we'll be missing out on some of that. And when you're on an offhsore passage it'd be nice to know that there's a support group nearby if things go wrong. But, like you mentioned, it's a pretty agressive pace (at least by our standards) and we don't like adhering to a schedule. We'll be heading down after the Haha but making the same stops (adding Ensenada) and taking as long as we like to enjoy those beautiful bays and wait for comfortable conditions for moving on. And as far as meeting people is concerned we've found that the cruising community is pretty social, so I've no doubt that we'll eventually meet many of the boats in the Haha that are continuing on to the Sea of Cortez. Lastly that $375 entrance fee will buy us a lot of beer in Mexico :)

    -Aaron

    ReplyDelete

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