Weekend Wanderer: Santa Barbara

Once I realized that Santa Barbara is only an hour and fifteen minutes away from my apartment, I was sold on road-tripping out there for the first time since I was seventeen. The boy and I did SB how I would love to do any city--adventurer/explorer/cartographer style (except we never stopped to make an actual maps). This means we were "feathers in the breeze." As such, we had an amalgam of experiences and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We spent awhile at the beach, walking the pier and checking out all the cool and creative ways the homeless are making cash on the beach (not pictured, but a few key phrases were "Not gonna lie, need beer" and one vet made the seven wonders of the world out a sand--they were only okay).

After eating our weight in both pizza AND fish and chips (Captain Capricious had a craving), we drove into the sunset on an absurd mission to find a dive (read: cheap) bar. We never found the bar, but we did find the Santa Barbara Mission, an OAF church that crumbled and tumbled on two separate quake occasions and had to be rebuilt. But nonetheless, it was beautiful.

After stumbling upon the mission and not going inside to see anything (they wanted a $5 donation and we're poor), we followed the signs with arrows to a "scenic drive." It was certainly scenic and beautiful, particularly once we saw a random, neighborhood park nestled into a hillside. The idyllic-ness was too much, we had to stop! Where we stumbled on this little fellow:

You can't see him too well because he and Mr. Darcy were playing a lot together. I guess if you find a pal your size, you gotta stick with 'em. My philosophy exactly: