A few weekends back Jesse and I took a much needed weekend getaway up the coast to Santa Barbara. Neither of us had ever been for vacationing purposes, and really wanted to go somewhere relaxing, where we could bring the dogs and do a little bit of easy sight-seeing.
In our relationship, I am the planner. I just feel peace of mind when I know the outline of an itinerary, whereas Jesse is a lot more spontaneous and go-with-the-flow. Of course, being the amazing person that he is he loves to pay for all of our adventures (even when I insist he doesn’t). For this trip, I made all of the necessary bookings or reservations and he was able to quickly and easily reimburse me via a phone app. We’ve been using the Circle app because unlike similar apps there is no fee, and your payments aren’t posted on a feed for the rest of the world to see (as a couple, we don’t really care to share our personal finance transactions with everyone). The app was a huge help for booking the trip, but I also find it’s incredibly useful if ever we are out for dinner or shopping and one of us forgets our wallet…(not naming names!)
(If you’re interested in downloading the app, you can get it here if you have iOS and here if you have Android).
We stayed at the Hyatt Santa Barbara which has dog-friendly rooms, woo hoo! We had an amazing view of the ocean and probably the biggest, most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in – I wanted to take it home with me! All of the employees here are super friendly and it made for such a relaxing stay – we will definitely be back.
We drove up on Friday afternoon, so after a few hours in the car we knew we needed to get the dogs out to run around, and we also wanted to see the sunset! Butterfly Beach is dog friendly so we were able to let the pups off their leashes to run and get out some pent up energy, and the sunset view was pure perfection for us.
It was hard to choose our entrees because everything on the menu looked so delicious, but we ended up splitting the Roasted Cauliflower and Tahini Pizza and we were not disappointed.
This place had a great patio for our dogs, and was really close to a lot of other shops and restaurants. They are not completely vegetarian or vegan but they do have a lot of vegetarian options that can be made vegan with adjustments. I had the black bean enchiladas with no cheese or sour cream and J had the Good Karma burger without mayo. We also got the S.B. Special and Lisa Fellini smoothies — both were incredible. We were both craving smoothies as this day was pretty hot but you’d be surprised that most places we found in SB put yogurt or sherbet in their smoothies… not The Natural Cafe though!
I had heard the architecture in Santa Barbara is amazing, and that the courthouse was a prime example of that. We didn’t get to see too much of the inside because we walked over straight from lunch and had the dogs with us, but what we saw from the outside was stunning.
Oh wow, all three restaurants that you ate at, have superb and SO delicious looking food. 🙂
Great photo diary and thanks for letting us know about the Circle app, might come in handy!
http://lartoffashion.com
I am seriously interested in trying out Circle Pay! I'm curious though, does the other person have to have Circle Pay as well in order to send money? I know a few people who use other apps, and some might not want to download any app.
Hmm… great question! I believe you could send the money to them without them having the app…but if they wanted to withdraw that money to their bank they would need to download the app. It is free and really easy to use, but I totally get people not wanting a million apps.
Love your circle purse. It's just what I'm looking for!
xo Kate
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your travel diary!
I was wondering if you could tell me the name of the cursive font you used in your "travel diary" title graphic? I have been looking everywhere for that font and can't seem to find it. 🙂
Thanks!
Thank you! The font is called "Sacramento". 🙂
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I can stop obsessing now. 🙂