We opted to stay in Santa Barbara for 2 nights for some chill out time and to enjoy the weather which was really hotting up. I immediately loved the place. We had booked into a hotel right on the beach and it was lovely for the price. Free fruit, tea and coffee all day and complimentary wine between 5-7pm each night...bargain!

The pool was great too so the afternoon we arrived we chilled out there for a couple of hours.

We then headed into the old town for dinner and a drink or 3. We found an Italian which promised garlic dough balls every 10 minutes and large portions...I was starving as we had skipped lunch and had a tiny breakfast.

I wasn't overly keen on the dough balls which kept turning up but packed a few of them away regardless. We both ordered pasta and they were pretty large portions but mine had no sauce as such, just a lot of olive oil so I didn't eat a lot of it.

We then strolled into a nearby bar and were both asked for ID, hilarious! I actually thought the guy might had been joking but he said he couldn't serve us as we didn't have any identification on us...crazy Americans..

Fortunately we soon found another bar which realised we were over the age of 21 and it was karaoke night. The singing was poor to put it politely. We befriended a Jewish guy called Ori who was a bit of a character but a very bad singer. Another Facebook friend by the end of the night!

The next day we went to the beach which was nice. I amused myself by watching the pelicans dive bombing into the sea. I got very sun burnt though despite wearing factor 30. We also took a stroll along the boardwalk which was nice and had a look at the farmers market. If I could move Santa Barbara to the UK and keep the weather I would live there. It has a nice chilled out feel about it.