West Beach Music Festival

Santa Barbara West Beach Music Festival

Amazing! Best day out ever. Just chillaxing in the sun, listening to great music. Was really looking forward to Ben Harper, but he didn't do it for me. But the rest of the music was awesome. Almost wish that we'd had 3 day festival tickets rather than just Saturday.

Out and about with Murray

After 3 long months we're finally together again! Murray arrived on Thursday morning for his first overseas experience, and to visit me here in Santa Barbara.

We went straight from the plane to Santa Monica where we enjoyed catching up and doing things like long romantic walks along the beach.

Thursday afternoon, after a bit of an afternoon nap, we went down to my favourite wine bar on Stern's Wharf to enjoy a cold bevvie.

Friday we spent the day out and about in Santa Barbara, checking out all the local attractions.

The Courthouse where you can get 360 degree views of SB is a great place to start.

(Maybe these two photos should be combined... please keep off the ladies?)

We walked through La Arcada checking out the turtles in the pond, and all the bronze statues.

For lunch we went to Brophy Bros. down on the Harbor. Everyone tells me constantly that I must go there and have thier clam chowder... of course I don't do seafood, so Murray had the honors of trying thier clam chowder and was very impressed.

Friday afternoon we went for a bike ride about town and stopped in at my work - where the golden tickets had arrived! We have one very happy Murray here with courtside tickets to Boston.

Friday night we took some drinks down to Hendry's beach to watch the sunset.

On Saturday it was our 6 year anniversary! YIKES! To celebrate we thought we'd try to drown ourselves by doing some Kayaking out at the Channel Islands.

The boat left early in the morning from Ventura Harbour.

And arrived out at Santa Cruz island which was surrounded by fog, which thankfully mostly cleared.

The Kyaking is not quite as peacefull as it looks. Or perhaps we just got a bad day. But we paddled out to the rock in the middle there which is covered in 'pelican snow' and into a cave there. There were also some other caves that we see further behind where I am standing.

After lunch we had pleanty of time to walk around the island and see where we had paddled.

And here is Murray with our guide (who manage to get tiped over by a swell inside a cave! We thankfully stayed dry.)

Free Willy - Whale Watching and Dolphins Diving

Leaving the harbour, it was a very grey looking day.


First sea creature sighting... Sea Lions i think...

This is way out by the Channel Islands, you can see the low cloud that is still around making everything very gloomy.

Believe it or not this is my first whale sighting. Not exactly the breaching blue whales I was hoping to see, but you can see the slight splash in the water made by a Killer whale.

Squeek Squeek!!!

Harbour and East Beach

In the Summer time when the weather is high,
You can chase right up and touch the sky.

I had a great day just hanging around the beach on Saturday, just soaking up the sun! Read more about the beautiful one day, perfect the next weather in Santa Barbara.

First I headed down to the Harbor and checked out where I'll be docking my boat when I'm rich and famous. Lots of people enjoying the sunshine, the market, and of course the restaurants.

Statue of a boy riding a seahorse, donated by the city of Puerto Vallarta, Santa Barbara’s sister city.

This is the dolphin fountain that is at the entrance to Stearn's Wharf, in between the Harbor and East Beach. Apparently some of SB's sister cities around the world have replicas.

So I just spent the afternoon being a lizard and reading my book while soaking up the sun before heading to the wine bar to listen to some Jazz. I think I might just stay here a while...