our amazing weekend thanks to horny toad.

if you don't know about hornytoad... well... you should. please take a second & go look at their website. amazing clothes. amazing company. i mean, i know i am now very biased, but i loved them after deciding their chakra skirt is something i wanted to live in always. it now has three holes in it but i still wear it! 

i won their pinterest competition.  they asked that you make a board 'hornytoad, what's in your bag?'
 it was anything to do with travel: clothes, destinations, etc. 

here's my board, if you wanna gander. it was so much fun. i stayed up until 4 or 5am, just pinning away. i'd forgotten about it until i got this super exciting email from safia!  "you've won our sweepstakes, so you & a companion are coming to santa barbara for three nights! (& as if that wasn't enough) you won 5 pieces of clothing!!" i mean, i was jumping up & down, shrieking. pretty sure i woke maya up from her nap. how cool is that?
that stuff is real & happens? 

well it did. & these three ladies made it happen. so cool! 

we headed to their headquarters as soon as we got our rental car. only appropriate our first stop was to thank these amazing people! they had no idea how much we needed a weekend away together! we've never taken a trip, just us. it's always been to visit friends or family.

then we headed to this incredible hotel next door for a beer and to toast our good fortune.

the view.

the botanical gardens was right around the corner, so we headed there next. it was gorgeous.

and then we headed on to 'the cold spring tavern'. which is a really old cool place that several people recommended we go by. it was pretty cool.

and we ended our first night doing a wine tasting. we're not huge wine people, but how do you go to california without doing that?!!!

and then we took the long way back along highway one. it was breathtaking.

we were hanging out on the train track, taking that self portrait above &
i'm like 'is that a train?' oh sh*t! we ran up the lil hill just in time. eek! people.
train tracks are dangerous!

i mean, okay one more shot.

the next morning we hit up the farmers market & got a crate of strawberries. 

we ate them all within maybe 3 minutes. so good!

bryan was wearing his cardinals hat & some guy with awesome dreads said 'ya'll from louisville?' he'd moved out here 7 years ago & was loving it.

then we hit up tupelo junction cafe. yummy breakfast.

we called nana & the kids to check in. finn was adorable telling us how much fun they were having.

our awesome hotel, hotel indigo, had bikes you could take out. 

so we decided to go for a ride along butterfly beach. it was beautiful!

bryan's photo below  :)

this made us miss the kids, but we quickly got over it, once we agreed to bring them one day.

i believe this is why they call it butterfly beach, there were dozens of butterflies in these bushes.

then we hit up the seafood festival. bryan was so excited. i don't like seafood- 

so he was going to have at it.

my favorite boat.

we had decided to support local food & shops the whole weekend and we stumbled on mcconnell's. oh my goodness. run, don't walk. it's SO good.

the next morning we went kayaking with channel island outfitters.
hornytoad set us up with them & they were great!
(i didn't have my camera, so these are from matt)

our awesome guide, matt.

bryan did some kayak surfing.

i, surprisingly, got a lil sea sick. which is crazy because i did a 6 day kayaking trip in mexico 

while i was 6 months pregnant with maya & never got sick! so i was draggin' a lil, but enjoying my 

seal friend that kept following me & peeking it's head out right next to my kakak.

we visited the mission santa barbara. it was really neat.

& then we hit the courthouse. incredible building & views.

and then dinner & drinks at the boathouse at hendry's beach. 

so yummy & amazing view with a sunset.

i got lots of practice with the self timer, i mean exercise.

the next morning we woke up & walked to the pier, got chai tea & a yummy muffin.

bryan wants to paddleboard next time.

& this is as close as we got to the famous channel islands thanks to the government shutdown. 

next time. next time!

& then home to our babies & the most awesomest nana in the whole wide world. they survived & hadn't exploded from all the candy, coke & treats! 

go figure :)

hornytoad. 

we can not thank you enough. you guys are amazing & we are customers for life. 

thank you so much for the chance to reconnect with my honey, 

we'd forgotten we didn't know everything about each other after almost 10 years :) 

and really enjoyed each others company- 

just us & a beautiful town. 

thank you.