v-day getaway

Kent and I took advantage of the Valentine/President weekend by scooting up the coast to Santa Barbara. We were originally going to fly to New York or Isla de Las Mujeres (right off the coast of Cancun) with some Delta vouchers that we have, but we soon realized everything else would add up fast-hotels, food, excursions, etc. Traveling is the best, but it's expensive!

So, we decided to stay in good old California and it was wonderful. We drove to Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon in the rain, but arrived in time to see a beautiful sunset. Travel side note: It usually takes about 2 hours to get to Santa Barbara from L.A., but Google Maps told us that it could take up to 3 hours and 20 minutes with traffic. How long did it take us? 4 hours. Google Maps is smart.

I love Kent's smile here. It's like a kid's smile when his mom keeps taking photo after photo of him repeating "say cheese!" again and again. He's a good sport.

We stayed at the West Beach Inn, which is located across the street from the beach and harbor. We didn't know much about the place other than what we learned on Trip Advisor-the photos looked nice, people gave it good reviews and it fit our price range-so we settled on a garden/patio room with two double beds. I was a little bummed about the two beds, but when we got there, they had moved us to a single king room. I liked that place from that point on. Plus, you could walk to the pier, State Street and we even had a fancy hot tub that we actually used. The first night we were by ourselves, but the second night we were joined by a couple that we couldn't figure out. Amazing the people you meet in public jacuzzis.

The fancy hot tub.

I thought I'd include Kent's favorite flower, the "Lily of the Nile". (I actually think it's called a Bird of Paradise, but Kent kept calling it by the other name, so it stuck.) There were several by our hotel.

On Valentine's Day we took a long run along the coast (training for our relay in April-woohoo!-Kent loved me for making him go 5 miles), relaxed, ate a late lunch at Ristorante Aldo's and relaxed again. We were so lazy, but it felt so nice. We were still full when dinnertime rolled around, so we just walked to a place called The Natural Cafe (fitting for Santa Barbara) and enjoyed a light dinner consisting of soup, salad, a sandwich and a smoothie. Maybe not the extravagant Valentine's dinner one might expect, but it was perfect. We even stopped by See's candies and picked out our favorite chocolates. It was a perfect Valentine's.

On Sunday, we visited the famous Santa Barbara Mission after church, then headed up the coast a little more to check out San Luis Obispo. We had heard it was nice, so we thought we would take a look. It was definitely fun to drive through, but we ended staying the night in Pismo Beach. We got an room with a partial ocean view (seemed like a full view to me) and it was great. Definitely the best Best Western hotel I'd ever stayed at.

We also had the opportunity (really, it was a chance of a lifetime) to eat at this place called AJ Spur's Steakhouse and Saloon. It was fantastic. Taxidermy animals everywhere you turned, famous cowboys and outlaws on the wall and our table top was a plastic picture of the mountains and sky flanked by hot pink/fuchsia bench seats. When we sat down we were served a pot of soup. Apparently, it comes with every meal, as does a root beer float. I forgot my camera, so you'll have to use your imagination on this place. It might be better that way anyway.

This is a partial view, but I thought it was great!

We headed home on Monday afternoon and enjoyed listening to Achtung Baby a few times. It has had a revival in our house lately. Kent thinks it is U2's best album. I'm not sure I agree because there are so many good U2 albums, but I do love it.

All in all, a wonderful Valentine's weekend. I loved spending so much time with Kent and I loved Santa Barbara. I think we'll be visiting again.