At the beginning of the year we were able to get away to Santa Barbara, CA where my daughter attends college. The motivation for the trip was to celebrate her and her twin sisters’ 21st birthdays. I did not expect to be celebrating their 21st with them as I would certainly not have thought about celebrating my 21st with my parents. It was a celebration where I had so much I had to give some back. Right on the cobblestone streets at the Landing in St. Louis, back in 1989 when it had a vibrant bar / restaurant scene.
My sister-in-law Carrie was able to join, which is always great to have her along. She stayed with us for the couple months at the beginning of Covid and is certainly a member of our family. Santa Barbara is as beautiful a place as you would expect. The place we rented had bikes, so were able to do a nice campus tour by bike and it was not too far from the ocean, so we had some very pleasant walks.
I feel in past trips we were more about the hiking or getting out to surrounding wine country. This visit was more focused on seeing Santa Barbara. There are some great restaurants in this town and we ate well on this visit. The Lark and Sama Sama Kitchen were both amazing. If I did reviews I would give them both 5 stars.
The eve of their birthday there was party at their apartment. I spend $150 on alcohol and Angie and I were treated like royalty. They wanted to go to a bar at midnight, so we went to a speakeasy style place nearby called the The Imperial Lounge. A super trippy place that seemed like it was out of a David Lynch film. A great find and fun to have cocktails with the group.
If ever in Santa Barbara, I cannot say enough great things about Lotusland. It is an amazing property with so many varietals of plant life and overall great background story. Highly recommended, but unfortunately it was closed that time of year. I will plan to go every time I visit.
