Before I met Brian, Santa Barbara was a soap opera – not even a town. Now when this is my last name, I tend to use the phrase “no, I don’t live in California, it is my last name – and no, I have not been there yet but hear it is pretty” about once a week. So, it was a must visit – just to see the faces of the locals when we said our last name.

It didn’t disappoint – gorgeous town. Hills, Spanish influenced architecture, the ocean with sail boats … a small paradise. We stayed in a nice boutique-like hotel Montecito Inn and packed one studio room with 5 of us. The professional travelers (kids) reviewed the room as 4 since it had jacuzzi but faced the road (they need to go in a hut again).

Of course, the highlight of the trip was our whale watching expedition. Dramamine for all 3, quick gathering of some sort of “windy” clothes and we were off! 4 hours on a boat scared me a bit but it was great. We learned a lot about whales and they are truly amazing creatures; for example:

• Blue whale is the size of a Boeing 747, her tongue weighs as much as an elephant.
• They come up to California to eat, crill mostly as the water is too warm down in Costa Rica.
• They come in groups of 2,000 and are surrounded by so many dolphins who protect them from sharks too. Of course, dolphins were like a nuisance on this trip, they were so common!

Mia thought the whale spotting was a bit too long and hard to do – “they jump out and go back in, I can’t see them properly”.  I just loved that noone threw up as it was windy and wavy!

Our next adventure was the surrey?! Yes, surrey – I never heard of it either but we biked on the beach with the 5 of us on it, but only 2 of us really doing any work – man it was tough!

And of course, how could we not get some namesake chatchki – in a place that we literally own on paper? Because in reality, we couldn’t afford to live here and I an see why.