Santa Barbara getaway

Earlier this month, I took a gal pals trip to Santa Barbara. We were celebrating a birthday (not mine).

Santa Barbara is a cute town! It’s the county seat for Santa Barbara County. The county courthouse is gorgeous.

There are 360 degree views from the clock tower, and a view into the clock fromt the inside, too.

I meant to share this last week. Inside the clock tower. Time flies!

A post shared by Michele Lee Bernstein (@pdxknitterati) on Apr 16, 2016 at 11:14am PDT

This mural depicting the history of the area is in the meeting room. Click to embiggen; it’s worth it.

The Santa Barbara Mission is also beautiful, and is next to a rose garden.

Santa Barbara is right on the water. We watched surfers, paddle boarders, and dolphins? Porpoises?

Another from last week. Dolphins or porpoises? Very cool, either way.

A post shared by Michele Lee Bernstein (@pdxknitterati) on Apr 16, 2016 at 11:27am PDT

Pelicans are bigger than I thought.

The Channel Islands are right across the water. These are not the islands of Channel Island cast on fame.

We spent a day on the beach at Carpinteria. The fog rolled in during the afternoon, so it was warm and cool at the same time. The water was cold! I re-designed this knitting project three times on this trip. It’s finally done, pictures in an upcoming post.

There are a lot of wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley on the other side of the mountains behind Santa Barbara. We took the opportunity to sample the local offerings. But first, aebelskivers (pancake balls) in Solvang, a Danish-themed town.

And these boots were quite tempting, too. But on to the wine!

Too much wine for Figgie?

Millie reminded me of my Mookie.

While we were tasting at J Ludlow in Los Olivos, we met fellow tasters Lori and Bob. Bob makes his own moonshine, distilled from merlot. He shared some moonshine with us; this one was cinnamon flavored. It was DELICIOUS. Thanks, Bob!

A very fun trip.

I came home and knit these coasters as a gift for our hosts, and will get them into the mail this coming week. Onward!