Santa Barbara love

E and I got back last night from a four day trip to Santa Barbara. Why so much travel so soon, you ask? Because my cousin Gordon was getting married in Santa Barbara, and I love to have an excuse to visit with my Dad's side of the family (my Jewish half!).

So we arrived in Burbank Saturday morning, and after renting our Prius, we headed north, towards the ocean. We stopped at a funny strip mall and had some of the best fish tacos of my life, and continued on up the coast. Before reaching our final destination, we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park visitor center in Ventura. As you know, E and I are crazy for National Parks, and this National Park is special, there are no services at all on the islands, so the visitor center is on the mainland.

After checking into our room, E and I went to the beach! We both love the ocean so much, and this beach was beautiful, sandy and warm. The water, however, was quite chilly.

After a shower back in our room we headed towards Santa Barbara and met my dad, Kimmie, and my aunt for dinner on the beach.

The next day was the wedding day, and finally everyone was in town. E and I headed up to where the wedding party was staying and visited with family for awhile. I don't see this protion of my family often, so it is really fun when they are all in one place. I found out something really cool, also. I've always thought I was about a quarter German, and a quarter Polish. Well come to find out, I'm not German at all. My Grandpa's family was Polish, and moved to the US before the Holocaust started (my Grandpa actually remembered Ellis Island, he arrived there when he was 6). My Grandma on the other hand, was Hungarian and Czech, now in my mind, that is really cool. All this time I thought I was German, and come to find out, I'm Hungarian!

After a great visit with family E and I headed to another beach up the coast. This beach is famous for dolphin sightings. Once there, sure enough, be began to see dolphins! They would swim up and down the coast, quite close. A couple swimmers actually tried to get out near where they were, which was fun to see too.

After a quick shower back at my dad's hotel, we dressed for the wedding. The wedding was going to be on the beach, and the reception was in downtown Santa Barbara. Well the wedding was splendid. My little cousin Sophia (the flower girl) ran down the aisle and full speed, it was so cute! The location was fantastic, the weather couldn't be better, and it was fun to be in our formal clothes, barefoot in the sand.

The reception was just as special, they had rented the roof-top patio at a downtown Spanish hotel, and it was awesome! A full three course dinner was served, there was an open bar, dancing, and lots of tasty desserts. My favorite were the crab cakes (not the dessert, the dinner!).

The next day (Monday) we headed back down the coast to Ventura to catch a boat that would take us out to the National Park. We were going to go to Santa Cruz, the largest of the islands. On the way there the boat stopped and we saw California Sea Lions (photo above), and we stopped again and we watched two blue whales come to the surface to breath again and again. Blue whales are rare, due to whaling, so it was really magestic to see the largest animals on earth so close to land.

The backs of two gigantic blue whales.

Once we got to the island we realized how desolate it was. I was imagining a tropical island, but Santa Cruz is really dry. And because it has been separate from mainland for so long, there are subspecies on the islands that can only be found here. E and I hiked up to the top of the mesa, and looked down to the ocean. We saw sea caves, birds, boats, and an incredible view. Afterwards we hung out on the beach, took another short hike, and caught the boat back to Ventura.

A view of the ocean from Santa Cruz Island

On the way back the boat stopped again and the sea looked like it was boiling, dolphins! Hundreds of them! The ocean literally looked like it was churning. We watched hundreds of dolphins jump and leap only feet from the boat. The guide said he would guess it was a pod of 500. Wow!

Back on mainland we headed towards Santa Barbara for dinner in downtown, E and I chose Indian, and it was fantastic.

The next day (yesterday) we checked out of our hotel and headed towards Long Beach. Something is very special in Long Beach: the Queen Mary, the original, built in the early 1930s! E and I both agreed it would be really special to see after just sailing on the Queen Mary 2, plus we both love vintage travel, and Ocean Liners are something we both love.

The Queen Mary was spectacular. We had lunch on board and looked all around the ship. I couldn't believe I was on the famous ship, I mean, this ship has so much history around it. And here we were, walking its decks, exploring its hallways, and touching its famous red funnels.

Afterwards we caught our plane, and arrived home safe and sound, only ready to plan our next big trip!

(Just a reminder, to see any of the photos a little larger, just click on them!)