We've been a little quiet over here this week because I am the world's worst (or is it the best?) procrastinator and have waited until the last days to complete my annual continuing education requirements to maintain my CPA license. So the times that I am normally able to post updates on this little blog of ours have been consumed by learning some super cool accounting things.
Anyway, finally, pictures of our trip to California! The trip came nearly a year and a half after our last trip to the Sunshine State with a baby, but last time that baby was Olin (see post here)!
As I mentioned earlier, Josh, Odette and I made a quick trip to Santa Barbara while Olin stayed with Grandpa and Grandma. It was a nice opportunity to give Odette our undivided attention for a few days and for Olin to spend a little more time in Indiana.
Santa Barbara was beautiful (although we really fell in love with Montecito), but we unfortunately were not able to enjoy the perfect weather they are famous for as we timed our trip with a highly unusual heat wave that brought 90 degree days!
We stayed at The Biltmore Santa Barbara, which is in the movie It's Complicated (one of our favorites!) The hotel was made up of one main building and several smaller buildings which made for the prettiest setting and we had the loveliest little terrace off our room from which we were able to enjoy all the lush greenery on the property.
As recommended by our hotel, we had breakfast on our first day in Montecito at Jeannine's and loved it so much that we had breakfast there the next day too. They had the most serene patio out front and incredible food. Because Odette is so well behaved at restaurants right now, primarily because that sling is like baby Ambien, our breakfasts at Jeannine's were so leisurely that we actually got to read the newspaper as we ate and drank coffee! And it seemed that the locals skewed toward "grandparent age" in Montecito so Odette got a lot of attention from both patrons and passerby's, which she loved.
Speaking of eating because that is mostly what we did, we also made a trip to La Super-Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara, which was made famous by Julia Child and recommended to us by my brother, Rob.
Full from our tacos, we headed up to the Santa Ynez Valley for Odette's first wine tasting. Three months is an appropriate age for the wineries, right?
While visiting the wineries, we also drove through the little town of Los Olivos at the recommendation of our hotel. Unfortunately, this cute general store pictured below was about as interesting as the little town got. Perhaps the concierge was drunk from all those wine tastings when she visited the town and decided to recommend it to hotel guests!
Back at the hotel for a little relaxation. And yes, that is a Whole Food's bag that Josh is carrying... leave it to me to find the nearest Whole Food's no matter where we go.
Date night in Montecito at Tre Lune, where our waiter was from Newark, of course.
We fell in love with Montecito during our trip and I took about a million photos of its main street area and farmers market, but don't worry, I narrowed the photos down slightly.
Day two included mexican for lunch at Cava and then ice cream at Rori's in Montecito. It was probably some of the best ice cream we've ever had (I had the honey lavender and Josh had lemon curd) and they even made their own sugar cones! It was so good that I actually found myself feeling bad for Odette that she couldn't try it.
Next up, Odette's first trip to the Pacific Ocean!
And this is the last photo we took of our trip to Santa Barbara, right after dinner at Bouchon. She never fully recovered from the blow-out and I think she continued to harbor hostile feelings toward us for embarrassing her by making her go to dinner naked. Clearly, it was time for us to head home.
Anyway, finally, pictures of our trip to California! The trip came nearly a year and a half after our last trip to the Sunshine State with a baby, but last time that baby was Olin (see post here)!
As I mentioned earlier, Josh, Odette and I made a quick trip to Santa Barbara while Olin stayed with Grandpa and Grandma. It was a nice opportunity to give Odette our undivided attention for a few days and for Olin to spend a little more time in Indiana.
Santa Barbara was beautiful (although we really fell in love with Montecito), but we unfortunately were not able to enjoy the perfect weather they are famous for as we timed our trip with a highly unusual heat wave that brought 90 degree days!
We stayed at The Biltmore Santa Barbara, which is in the movie It's Complicated (one of our favorites!) The hotel was made up of one main building and several smaller buildings which made for the prettiest setting and we had the loveliest little terrace off our room from which we were able to enjoy all the lush greenery on the property.
As recommended by our hotel, we had breakfast on our first day in Montecito at Jeannine's and loved it so much that we had breakfast there the next day too. They had the most serene patio out front and incredible food. Because Odette is so well behaved at restaurants right now, primarily because that sling is like baby Ambien, our breakfasts at Jeannine's were so leisurely that we actually got to read the newspaper as we ate and drank coffee! And it seemed that the locals skewed toward "grandparent age" in Montecito so Odette got a lot of attention from both patrons and passerby's, which she loved.
Speaking of eating because that is mostly what we did, we also made a trip to La Super-Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara, which was made famous by Julia Child and recommended to us by my brother, Rob.
Full from our tacos, we headed up to the Santa Ynez Valley for Odette's first wine tasting. Three months is an appropriate age for the wineries, right?
While visiting the wineries, we also drove through the little town of Los Olivos at the recommendation of our hotel. Unfortunately, this cute general store pictured below was about as interesting as the little town got. Perhaps the concierge was drunk from all those wine tastings when she visited the town and decided to recommend it to hotel guests!
Back at the hotel for a little relaxation. And yes, that is a Whole Food's bag that Josh is carrying... leave it to me to find the nearest Whole Food's no matter where we go.
Date night in Montecito at Tre Lune, where our waiter was from Newark, of course.
We fell in love with Montecito during our trip and I took about a million photos of its main street area and farmers market, but don't worry, I narrowed the photos down slightly.
Day two included mexican for lunch at Cava and then ice cream at Rori's in Montecito. It was probably some of the best ice cream we've ever had (I had the honey lavender and Josh had lemon curd) and they even made their own sugar cones! It was so good that I actually found myself feeling bad for Odette that she couldn't try it.
I am laughing in the photo below because just after Josh so cutely threw Odette in the air, he handed her off to me and then she proceeded to spit up all over my dress, which I had to try to wash off in the ocean because we were on our way to dinner!
One of the things we were most excited for was our dinner on our last night in Santa Barbara at Bouchon, which came highly recommended by many. Anyway, as luck would have it, just as we were parking at the restaurant, Odette had her first ever dirty diaper away from home and she made it count. I will try to spare you all the details, but suffice it to say, it was everywhere including all over her little outfit. It was so bad that Josh held her (at arm's length) while I frantically wiped, just throwing the used wipes on the ground (don't worry, we cleaned it all up once Odette was clean). People that passed by us must have thought we were crazy. And if that wasn't bad enough, we didn't have a change of clothes for her and because our reservation was in 5 minutes, we didn't have time to drive back to the hotel to change her. So, the poor little thing had to go to dinner, at what is probably one of the nicest restaurants in the area, naked. Luckily it was sweltering outside and I wore her in the sling so you could barely notice, but she still didn't seem happy about it.
And this is the last photo we took of our trip to Santa Barbara, right after dinner at Bouchon. She never fully recovered from the blow-out and I think she continued to harbor hostile feelings toward us for embarrassing her by making her go to dinner naked. Clearly, it was time for us to head home.
It was such a special trip and we are so happy that we were able to make these memories with our little girl. However, we missed Olin so much that I swore that we would never leave him again so I think this was a one-time deal for us!
Also, it just occurred to me that blogs may be the modern day form of the torturous vacation photo slide shows of years past. If so, sorry about that.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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