We went to Santa Barbara for the whole next day (Sunday) and just got to know that town alittle better. It is so beautiful there! the city was having a car show that day and they closed down one of their big streets with all the shops and we just walked down the whole street right to the beach. We took a harbor tour on a pirate ship (well just men dressed up in striped shirts trying to act like pirates) it was so funny so we had to take the tour. After that we ate on the pier that was over looking the ocean and we ate the most AMAZING seafood! Spencer and I stuffed our faces and ate like pigs and then made our way back up the hill to where we parked!
We went down to Ventura and caught a boat out to the Channel Islands...what an awesome place! We hiked and spencer snorkeled there. The weather was a little rainy so hiking was really muddy but it was so worth it from the pics we got on top of the hills!
In california they are really big on buying local and supporting the local farmers markets. They have a market open somewhere everyday there so we found a farmers market and I was in heaven! fresh strawberries, raspberries, grapefruit, honey, lemons, avocados, almond butter, basil I think I spent more at the farmers market than anywhere else on our trip I just kept buying all the fresh produce. Spencer is a skeptic on eating food all by themselves-like they need to be cooked or mixed with other stuff-but he was even eating the fruits with me--so that means it was good stuff! :)
We went diving a few times and rode our bikes on the awesome seaside trails while we were staying at Refugio Beach. The Diving at first really got me scared because first thing I did when I got in the water was get a mouth full of sea water and then I was paranoid I was going to drown or something. Spencer (what a great dive buddy) calmed me down and I was just fine for the rest of the week of dives. We got some starfish and some cool shells and stuff but when we brought them out of the water and let the starfish die (know we are horrible people) the starfish turned this yucky black color...I learned my lesson, if you are going to take stuff out of the sea be sure you know how to preserve it the right way or else nothing bright colored will stay that color!
There are so many more stories I could tell like how we got lost a few times and went to ostrich land and fed the huge birds but overall we had such a good time together and it is a trip well deserved and well needed for both of us. Spencer is going to start an internship with Cedar Breaks National Park this next week and I think it was a good vacation/graduation trip for him and a big break from Costa Vida for me!
