The Sun, The Sand, and The Surf ~ all. by. myself.

For Christmas Derek gifted me vacation to visit Miles in Santa Barbara, California.

(My camera settings were off for the first few photos before I realized they were blurry - I wasn't trying to be arty or anything that cool {grin})

Miles was thrilled to see me.

He got my sleeping quarters all set up before my arrival. {grin}

I left cold, snowy Kansas and arrived to find this

and this

and this.

As soon as I arrived Miles took me to the beach and then downtown to State Street for some shopping.

I was excited to get to Saks Fifth Avenue

but Miles was dying to pick up a few accessories. {grin}

I actually took these photos for Ella - I thought she'd fall over from delight after seeing these images.

The day after I landed in California I came down with a terrible bug and was on my death bed with a fever and body aches. After a day or two I felt well enough to go on an outing. Miles and I went to a winery and the historic court house.

 

We ran into Oprah at a juice bar and she invited us to her estate for dinner.

Isn't the view from her patio lovely? 

Oprah was too shy to get in the photos.

Ok, I'm just kidding.  No Oprah.  These are the views from the court house tower.

You can tell in the photos I still wasn't feeling top notch. Luckily Miles was patient and I had a bottle of Tylenol in my purse.

After the courthouse we had a Spanish picnic on a bluff overlooking Thousand Steps beach. The staircase was originally constructed in 1923.  Going down was a lot easier than going up!! The California grandpas and their beach dogs were kicking my booty on the stairs!

 

We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at the Anderson on State Street.  This was my favorite restaurant that we tried. It was so cute and the sandwiches were dee-lish!