On the last weekend of Fernando’s five week business trip, I took off a couple of days of work and met him in Santa Barbara.  Neither of us had been to Santa Barbara, but Fernando had already been offshore on an oil rig for two weeks before I got there. We stayed off of main street in a cute hotel that was walkable to all of the shops and the beach.  Santa Barbara is a really cute town with a Mediterranean style of architecture.  The city has strict codes which assures that all buildings are stucco with red tile roofs.

We rented surrey and rode along the boardwalk.

We saw this amazing tree right next to a busy street, called the Moreton Bay Fig Tree (largest in North America). The roots of the tree were at my shoulder, this picture hardly does it justice.

Where’s the ladder?

Pretty clever homeless person

This pelican had its eye on us

Beautiful boardwalk

View from Santa Barbara Courthouse

A rare picture together

Beautiful homes in the hills

Borders bookstore — tribute to George Castanza

There were some amazing restaurants

Santa Barbara mission

Courtyard in the mission

And the best part of this trip was that Exxon payed for our hotel and half of all our meals!