and we're off

First day on the road. A full tank of gas, week ahead and brimming with excitement. The first stop was the San Ysidro Trail in Santa Barbara. Somehow after 2 years Matt was able to remember where the trail began which was a feat having that it was up and winding road that seemed, at least to me, like a private driveway. I changed into my sneakers, we packed my bag full of water and an extra lens and off we went. Four miles is easy in New York City, four miles on this hike was 90% hills.

Being sore from the Baldwin Hill adventure the previous day, it took my knees and hips some warming up. We took our time going up, stopping often to walk or climb over rocks which were cut with a stream. There were beautiful pools throughout the hike. So beautiful that I wasn't watching where I was stepping and had to spend half my day with a soggy sneaker. Nonetheless, lovely. We passed many couples, runners and dogs. All enjoying the sunshine and the scenery. At the top a waterfall. I say waterfall with a grain of salt but rewarding and lovely all the same.

I can blink myself into hunger so after the hike we headed into town for Mexican and two well deserved margaritas at Carlitos. Matt had enchiladas and I had a trio of tamales, both good. I could have settled for a liquid lunch after one sip of my margarita though. Matt sipped on an agave margarita which was only second to mine but still very well made. (We couldn't remember the exact name of mine but we do remember it being pink!) After lunch we walked around the town a bit and hopped on the 25 cent tram that took us to the marina. Persistent, we set down a blanket to have a sit for a while but it wasn't an ideal beach day being slightly chilly. Plus, we still had a ways to go to San Ynez and Solvang.

Have you been to Disney World? Do you remember "it's a small world"? Welcome to Solvang. Windmills and perfectly darling architecture, this small town became our first night away from home. We stayed at the Kronborg Inn on the edge of town. Bonus points for the jazzuci in the room! It was perfect distance to walk to dinner that night at Cecco where we had the pleasure of having the best bottle of wine of our entire trip, Brander 09 Merlot. Paired with gnocchi (me) and swordfish (Matt) we slowly relived the day and got an idea together of what tomorrow would bring. The next morning we walked around town and in and out of small stores. We learned that we both had rock collections and picked up some scents at a small store for the car which smelled like fruity pebbles from a terrible and unfortunate Ed Hardy car freshener mishap. The we were up and out for day three of our adventure.

*Most, if not all of the photography shown for the next few days and linked to this trip was taken by Matt. You can see more of his work here.