5 years!

It had been a couple years since Mike and I did anything special for our Anniversary and we really wern't planning on doing anything this year, but with it being our 5 year and all we decided to book a last minute trip to Santa Barbara the first weekend in December. And I mean last minute as like 3 days before we planned to leave. I typically like to have everything planned out on trips and be all organized but with this being such short notice I did some quick research on places to eat and that was it, and I have to admit it made it more fun being spontaneous! On our way to Santa Barbara we were talking about how we were going to be driving right past Carpinteria. I of course brought up my two favorite things there, the candy and the spot..so we ended up having lunch in Carpinteria and picked up more candy then we should have but decided to get my mom some Turtles that she loves as a thank you for staying with Cayden =) When we arrived in Santa Barbara we decided to just walk around and check out the pier, there was a huge Christmas tree which was fun..The weather was PERFECT the two days we were there! It was cold but the sun was out..we loved it!

Mike saw an area over by the harbor that you can walk out on and wanted to go check it out..when we went over to it I saw nice little wooden posts to walk on but I braved it and went out with him..it took forever because I was slow and all we got to see were a bunch of huge dead seagulls at the end..it was nasty.

After doing a ton of walking and site seeing we headed out onto the pier to have dinner. We decided to try out the Shellfish Co. which ended up being a delicious place! We happened to get there right as the sun was setting so we had to sit outside!

Mike got a 3 pound crab that he devoured..nothing like eating seafood literally on the ocean with the sunset =)

After dinner we headed downtown to catch a movie..it was a great first day of our trip!

The next morning we decided to go to Solvang which is only about 45 min away for a delicious breakfast! I had been there when I was really young so I don't remember it and Mike had never been so we were excited to check it out, but mainly get some Abbleskeivers!

They were soo good, this particular restaurant has a homemade jam that my Nana gets every time her and my far far are in Solvang..we love it!

After breakfast we went into a bakery to get some Danishes and pastries which were also just as good! Then we decided to try and walk some of it off..

After hanging out in Solvang for the morning we headed back to Santa Barbara and ate lunch at the cold creek Tavern.This place has been on TV several times so I was anxious to try it. It was in a really cool remote place in the mountains and it was full of historical stuff!

A lot of the stuff is in its original form, it used to be a halfway stop for people were traveling back in the 1800s..this was the jail..

It was a lot colder in the mountains so we were really excited to see a spot open right next to a fire place..nice and romantic too =)

We both decided to get the famous bbq sandwich and it was really good but really huge! It didn't help that we had stuffed our bellies full of Abbleskeivers and danishes a few hours before but we really liked it!

After lunch we headed back to Santa Barbara and rented a bike to go ride around in..it ended up being free too because their machine was working =)

After working our butts off on the bike we headed to the little aquarium on the pier..

When we got to the first area there was a lady there who was talking to us so I assumed she worked there even though she had her kids with her. She told my to pick up one of the sharks and she would get a picture, I of course was all game, the one Mike was trying to hold did not want to be in the picture and ended up just getting him nice and wet. Well after the picture a guy came over and told us that we were not allowed to pick up the sharks and only touch them..I started getting confused if this lady actually worked there or if she just wanted to get us in trouble but it turns out she really did work there, she was just new =)

The starfish was stuck to my hand Here is a real dolphin with all of it's insides, and her baby =(

After the aquarium we headed out to dinner at the harbor and had one of our favorites, fish and chips then it was time to head home. It was such a needed vacation and well worth it. It was really hard being away from my little sidekick for two days and my mom could tell he was looking for us but he too had a great time being spoiled by grammie!