Santa Barbara - Part 2

So after our wonderful tour of Westmont, we had a nice lunch then took a scenic route through town. This worked great as if gave the kids, especially Boopy a chance to take a quick nap. We ended our driving tour of the hills of Santa Barbara in town just off the beach at the zoo. I was SO impressed by the Santa Barbara Zoo. You wouldn't even have known it was there if not for the road signs. The zoo was by far one of the best bargains of the trip, considering we got in free with our Fresno zoo pass (thanks again Uncle Five, Aunt Kathie & Jakub!!!). It's beautiful and very well maintained. The arrangement of animals keeps you moving throughout the zoo with something to see almost every where you turn.

They even had a train that goes throughout the zoo that we tried to ride but it had some maintenance issues. Big Boy settled for the stationary train ride instead.

We were told by a zoo employee that they had just put in this play area for kids in the last week. It was fabulous! Big Boy especially liked the spider web climbing. There were play and picnic areas all throughout the zoo. Such an inviting and fun place!

The kids gave rolling down the hill a try.

After the zoo, we went into town to the open courtyard mall, ate dinner and called it a night. We had a very full day and wore out the kids wonderfully! Sunday morning found us leisurely hanging around and then venturing to the beach to walk around. We also spent time at the Sea Center which had terrific exhibits for the kids to touch sea life and get up close to see things like jelly fish and octopus. Big Boy even got to touch a small shark. Surprisingly Boopy acted a bit afraid, although she got kind of daring when a crab got loose and it was crawling on the ground to her. Had Aunt Kat not picked up her, I'm not so sure she wouldn't have gotten super close to it! The escaped crab certainly added a bit of excitement to our sea center adventure!

Santa Barbara coast and the Sea Center at the end of the pier.

Big Boy didn't want to have much to do with the water, unlike Boopy, but he did love chasing seagulls and making sand angels.

Boopy had no problems with the water, which surprisingly for March was not very cold and fun to put our toes into. She loved the rocks and shells.

While MUCH small than somewhere like Monterrey Bay Aquarium, the Sea Center did offer almost everything to be hands on and encouraged a bit more of a learning experience rather than just looking. And even though quite a bit of the "learning" was a bit over both kids heads, they still really enjoyed it.

I have a feeling that Big Boy would love to have a hermit crab of his own after getting to "play" with one.

The Sea Center even had a spot to do a puppet show and books to sit down and read!

So that wrapped up our quick weekend in Santa Barbara. Well, that is all except for the fun ride home in the late afternoon, with me alone with two small worn out creatures....but that's another story. :)

Santa Barbara, here we come!!! - Part 1

Okay, so we've already gone, but we'd gladly go back! Believe it or not, with as many places as I have been to, especially within California, I had never been to Santa Barbara. So this was just as exciting for me as it was for the kids. We left Friday night after work and drove the 4 hours down to visit Aunt Kat. For a weekend visit, we packed in A LOT, but yet had no real time structure and were able to just go at a pace that allowed us to enjoy all the activities we could.

We started out with a nice leisure breakfast on Saturday and then drove over to Westmont College campus to see where Aunt Kat is teaching. The campus is way more than I expected. It's a beautiful school built on an old estate in the midst of multi-million dollars homes in the lush wooded areas of Montecito. The best way I could find to describe it is like a mountain retreat center, peaceful, relaxing and simply gorgeous. I can see why Aunt Kat enjoy her undergraduate years there so much and is loving the opportunity to teach there for a semester. The kids thoroughly enjoying running around the campus looking at the flowers, ponds and buildings. I think they could have easily stayed there all day!

Ever wonder what an almost 2 year old looks like when they try to dress themselves? Well, wonder no more!

The kids took some in the morning to read while Aunt Kat & I got ready.

Our first stop on the Westmont campus was Aunt Kat's office in the Psychology building. Big Boy loved the spiral staircase and even got to write his name on the chalkboard.

Perhaps a future Westmont student?

Boopy stopped to smell the flowers and we managed to get a quick picture of the kids and Aunt Kat.

After Aunt Kat's building we wander around enjoying the scenery.

We found a little courtyard where the kids played a round of ring-a-round the rosey.

And that was just the first part of our Saturday in Santa Barbara! I've got more pictures coming of the Santa Barbara Zoo, the beach and our adventure at the Sea Center! Stay tuned for Part 2!