Blogs from Santa Barbara, California, United States, North America

From 2020: For the last 10 or 12 years, I have been a loyal and supportive Amtrak passenger. In preparation for my Trans-Siberian Railway trip (2014) across Russia, I started taking Amtrak trips as a "training" trip. My first was a trip from Seattle to San Francisco, and the second was the "California Zephyr" from Chicago to San Francisco. Both were pleasant trips, with the Coast Starlight a particularly special trip, for several reasons. One was the beautiful scenery en route, and two was the wine tasting sessions in the club car. I won't mention the sexy passenger who sneaked into my roomette in the middle of the night! And you will definitely not see a sunset like this on an airplane! The Zephyr trip was also quite insightful. The amount of interaction among passengers adds ... read more

While the entire trip of our journey from Seattle to Los Angeles was spectacular and unlike anything we'd ever seen before, I have to say that I feel we saved the best for last! We entered Santa Barbara unsure of what to expect. Yet, it blew us away with its beauty, history and culture. After checking into our boutique hotel, we made a beeline to La Super-Rica, a taqueria just outside the city that we'd read about for months. Apparently, famous chef Julia Child was a major fan of the establishment, known for its innovative and delicious tamales, which are also incredibly fresh and authentic. We both got chicken tamales with Verde sauce and we were pleased to find that there wasn't a major crowd. Until that point, I'd always maintained that the best meal I'd ... read more

We have now been back home four days, staying at Scott's Dad's apartment, and what a busy four days it has been. We've spent hours on the phone sorting out car insurance and AAA, and calling gas and electric companies. We've been to Sprint and had new phone accounts set up. Scott made a seven hour trip up north with his dad to collect my car from where it was being stored. On the way up, he spent five or more hours opening mail from the past year! Meanwhile, I stayed at home with the kids and did some much needed shopping for shoes and shorts for them. Things are starting to get organized! Tomorrow we are moving back into our empty house with just four futons as furniture. At least I bought new cute bedding ... read more

As we peered through the flowers and saw the floating marine layer wafting through the hillside at Godric Grove in Elings Park, we could see why she loved “her Santa Barbara” so much. Just this small slice of her home town revealed to us the beauty and grandeur of a place she held so dear. We had arrived with many others to celebrate the life of one of TravelBlog’s own, Tara Cloud. We always enjoyed her blogs, her comments to other bloggers and her stunning pictures. But most of all, we appreciated her candor on all subjects and love for her native California. It was more than obvious that she held the Golden State in the highest regard and had a running love affair with Santa Barbara, a smaller coastal city north of Los Angeles, which ... read more

Well here we are, the night before moving out of our house. It is finally here, after all the waiting and planning! We don't technically set off tomorrow in that we don't fly until August 30, but we now are officially vagabonds, bouncing around between relatives' homes and motels for the next two weeks until our flight. People keep asking if we have packed yet. Truthfully, our time has been consumed with getting the house ready. It really has been a long haul of writing lists, getting our house ready to show each weekend, selling all of our furniture on craigslist, sorting out shots and medical insurance, and just last night finally taking a closer look at clothes and supplies, and doing a trial pack. It is so hard to get it all in our luggage ... read more