The most iconic local building is the Santa Barbara Courthouse. Built in 1929 after an earthquake destroyed its predecessor, this building is renowned for it’s impressive scale and beauty. Peek around inside—it is public, after all—and enjoy the magnificent ceiling frescoes and tiled floors.
Almost directly across the street is SB’s latest culinary hotspot, Elements. Elements has great food, stunning views, and the best drinks in town—happy hour is lively. Also terrific and within a block is Milk & Honey, a locally-revered tapas restaurant; to say every local recommends it barely exaggerates. For those who crave the nightlife, Club Tonic will keep your feet moving until they can move no more. Tonic is the place to see and be seen, and the crowd is diverse with UCSB students getting down with the Santa Barbara jet set.
After a great night’s sleep at the aptly named Harbor View Inn, we headed north towards Santa Ynez. The Santa Ynez Valley is home to several dozen respected vineyards and wineries. The country lanes heading to most of the wineries could be better maintained, but our smooth-riding Rondo easily quieted any bumps in the road. Steep hills and sharp curves? We saw them, but didn’t notice them, particularly; our Rondo handled them so nimbly that our eyes could dwell on the scenery. Speaking of scenery, the Santa Ynez area is well known for its supporting role in the Academy Award winning film Sideways. Many of the film’s key scenes were shot in and around Buellton, another of the valley’s small communities, at sites like the Windmill Motor Inn and two local mainstays, A.J. Spurs and the Hitching Post II. Both restaurants are supposedly quite good and thanks to their newfound fame they are always packed. Reservations are a must, and sadly we didn’t have any. But while the hot tables are hard to get, there is ample, quality lodging available in Buellton, at about half the rate of a comparable room in Santa Barbara. We stayed at the Marriott, sinking into a pillow top bed after yet another exhausting day of having way too much fun. I don’t know if that was an exceptionally comfortable bed or exceptionally great wine we drank, but we slept like logs.
We finished our road trip by passing back through Santa Barbara, this time via U.S. 101 through Gaviota Pass. This stretch of the California coast is stunning; the Santa Ynez Mountains come down almost to the water and the beaches are narrow strips of sand. We stopped at El Capitan State Beach and came across an old, intact, and very narrow bridge that was once part of the original Pacific Coast Highway. Finding this rickety antique was bittersweet. Maybe it was just the Sunday blues, but it reminded me how quickly these bare coastal stretches are being developed. South of here, from Malibu to Tijuana, places like this hardly exist anymore.
As the sun set on both our day and our short vacation, I was thankful for so much. The Rondo took great care of us, accommodating everything we threw at it (and in it). Everything was perfect. I made one last stop to fill up before heading back home and bought a lottery ticket. You never know, maybe I won’t have to drag myself back to work on Monday, and I can stay in this beautiful place forever.
For more information about where to stay and what to see, consult the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce’s website, SBChamber.org.
