Santa Barbara- The American Riviera

I guess we were the last to know that Santa Barbara is the "American Riviera." And- it is. It is a beautiful place, and we asked ourselves a couple of times if we should move there! But- alas, no jobs there for us :)

Last week, we drove down to Santa Barbara for the week and stayed at the Ramada because everything is so darn expensive there! Holy cow- but, it was the nicest Ramada we have ever seen- and we loved that pool.

We hit the zoo and feed Michael and Audrey the Giraffes... but you have to pay of course!

 Man, I love giraffes. They are so cool.

 Saw a couple of monkeys...

 Not sure why this one was sticking it's tongue out?

 Look at that arm span... yikes.

 Hung out in some awesome parks...

 Bad pic- but this place is gorgeous. It has a "state street," where everything is located, and we shopped, ate, shopped, ate, watched Brave, shopped... This mall definitely competes with Stanford shopping mall.

 Can I say that for a gluten free person- Santa Barbara rocks? They are so health concious, there was gluten free this, gluten free that everywhere- even the gluten free noodle? Who knew?? http://www.nooodle.com/- no calorie, no gluten, no fat noodle? Could it possibly be good? Yes- it was !!!

 They have a farmers market in Santa Barbara each day of the week. Crazy good food here.

 And very yummy seafood.

 These pool folk averaged a 2-3 swim stop per day- and that is vacation. 

 We went on a "hike" at the Botanical Gardens...

 Collected tadpoles.

 And rolly pollies... is that how you spell it?

 Hugged the wildlife.

 Climbed boulders.

 No stop is complete without a stop at Yogurtland- especially when they have Hello Kitty spoons. These are being collected at our house like they were going for 1 million a piece!

 They have these super touristy bikes that we just had to try.

 But then we had to try the real bikes- and Maddie was awesome! We biked up and down the coast with dad in the front, Maddie in the middle and Mom/Emilie trailing behind. This was one of my favorite memories.

 We visited the Natural History Museum and loved the dinosaur and butterfly exhibits the best.

 And, of course couldn't leave until we toured the Santa Barbara mission which had these in the front... not sure if this is sacrilegious, but they put it out! I just love these!!

Beautiful, right? Definitely love Santa Barbara, and am looking forward to coming back when we have tons of money to spend!!