So it was time to leave behind the glamour and scandal of vegas and head further north to a city called Santa Barbara.If you have been reading our previous blogs you will remember our day of fun at the beach in long beach with the cyclists.One of them was called Adam and when we had mentioned that we were planning to visit santa barbara it turns out his family live there and he offered to set us up with a place to stay for a few days!!We jumped at the chance and as a result we ended up spending our three nights with a lovely couple called Jim and Catherine!As soon as we arrived Jim was fixing us up with a glass of wine and a beer so we knew we were in very good hands! For our first night Catherine had prepared us a lovely meal and we spent the evening chatting and getting to know our new friends.The next day Jim and Catherine had fixed us up with maps and recommendations of places to visit and things to do.First stop was State Street which is the busiest most well known street in the town.State street houses lots of nice one of a kind shops, bars, restaurants and the best bit not a McDonalds or a KFC in sight!!We spent the morning walking round taking it all in, window shopping and stopped at one of the cafes for some brunch.The town centre has a very laid back mediterranean feel to it with the buildings painted warm colours and lots of colourful flowers everywhere.After brunch we made our way down to the waterfront and took a walk along the pier which had some fish restaurants and tourist shops.After walking around the pier and taking some lovely photos of the houses on the hills of santa barbara we walked further around the waterfront to the marina and harbour area which had lots of commercial fishing boats as well as private yachts and cruisers.Having felt we had done quite enough walking we took a well earned break relaxing on the beach for a couple of hours.With our car parked miles from the beach we took a leisurely stroll back along State Street, stopping for a quick drink on the way before collecting our car and heading back to Jim and Catherines to get washed and ready for dinner.Much to our delight when we got back to the house Catherine had prepared us another delicious meal which we had not expected but were delighted to accept as you don't get much home cooking in America (just ask my ever expanding waistline and my ever tighter bikini!)We had our meal out in their lovely garden and again spent the evening chatting about a host of subjects, mike and I just glad to have someone else to talk to other than ourselves!Day 2 and Jim had given us a few suggestions of things to do outside of the centre of Santa Barbara to allow us to see more of the countryside.First stop was brunch in a small town called summerland and a café recommended by our hosts called café luna.The next part of our day tour involved going rural, off the beaten track and heading up into the mountains surrounding Santa Barbara.A slow winding incline soon gives way to some of the most amazing views of the city.If you imagine a road barely wide enough for 2 cars that snakes up the side of the mountains with a sheer drop to the right and no barriers to break the fall, definitely a few grey hairs from this drive!.From the top it was clear that the drive had been worth it the views from every angle were breathtaking and having passed only one car in the two hours we had been driving we were really in the middle of nowhere with truly unspoiled views. We followed the track a little further in search of some hot springs and soon found ourselves on an unpaved version of the road we had been on previously!Unfortunately after following the track to the end we found what was maybe once a hot spring but in the California heat had almost completely dried up boooooo!We turned the car and headed back to the main road down the mountain and to our surprise actually passed another car which we hadn't done for over an hour!The other car is a BMW and the occupants are a couple in their 60's, suddenly the man rushes over and flags down our car.He asks if we know where we are or where we are going to which we confidently reply yes and wave our map at him.He then informs us that he and his wife are lost with no map and are running short on fuel!If you haven't already got it from my description this is not the kind of place you want to run out of gas.The man asks if they can follow us off the mountain in case they breakdown and need a lift to town.So the next 90 minutes are the two cars snaking their way down the mountain us taking them on the scary dirt track and them probably wondering where the hell we were all going!Every corner we turn I have to remind mike to check they are still behind us!At one point we are so busy laughing about how angry the lady must be with her husband that we forget to look for them and have to stop and hope they catch up!About 90 minutes later we are at the junction of the main road to town and the man jumps out the car, comes over to mikes window and says they can take it from this point, throws mike a $20 bill and says get yourselves a drink cause you just saved my marriage!It was just so funny because we had been doing impressions of them and their fighting the whole way down the mountain!It all worked out ok in the end and we had the days fuel paid for with the $20 so happy days all round!It had been such a long hot day in the mountains that on our way back to the house we stopped off for a swim in a lake (well mike had a swim, I saw the big long grasses poking above the water and decided to watch from the side).It was then back to the house and another one of Catherine's delicious meals, this time she had got lots of different cheeses for us to try as a starter so we were in our element but a bit bummed that this was our last night of being looked after!We had a lovely evening of storytelling and laughs with a few glasses of wine along the way.We were so lucky to have met Adam in LA and for him to have set us up to stay with his family we enjoyed every minute and will definitely be keeping in touch with Jim and Catherine filling them in on all our crazy goings on!