Trails, Towers and Tales

It is not like me to wake up early when I am given the luxury to sleep in.
However, I felt that my current proximity to the beach was a worthy reason to pull myself out of the marshmallowy king size feather duvet and explore a little.
So I decided to go for an early morning run.
Gotta love it when you can run from your hotel room to the beach in about 12 seconds!

I spotted a hill in the distance and decided that it must be conquered!

The view from the top.

The trail actually just came to an abrupt end at the top so I had to turn around and go back down.

I think the trail was more for show than exercise, because once I got to the bottom of the hill it ended again.

At least there were whimsical flowers along the way.

I have never seen flowers like this, but they look like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

The joke of a trail ended about 1/2 mile from where it started.

I didn't wake up at the crack of dawn for nothing, so I decided to take my shoes off and continue my run on the beach!

Running barefoot with the wet send between you toes is a liberating experience, plus your feet get a free exfoliation!

In fact, I was having such a carefree time that I forgot that Santa Barbara's beaches have naturally occurring tar from oil deposits.

Upon returning to the room to take a shower, I was reminded of that once I saw the bottom of my feet were cemented with black sticky tar. Lovely.

I guess the sand doesn't exfoliate that well...

Although the day started out dreary, the sun soon came out and Santa Barbara was showcased in it's full beauty.

Pool right next to the beach? Yep, I think they're doing it right!

Spent a few hours lounging by the pool drinking cocktails and listening to the waves, it was incredibly relaxing.

After soaking up the sunshine and a few margaritas we headed to the pier for some ceviche and crab sandwiches.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the food, but here's one from the pier where we were sitting.

Next we went downtown to the courthouse which is one of Santa Barbara's finest attractions.

There's a city wide ordinance that prohibits anything being built higher than it, so it has a pretty great view at the top.

I've always thought it would be the perfect place to have a wedding.

After a long day of venturing through the streets of Santa Barbara, we journeyed back to our room to relax on the balcony with a nice big bottle of bubbly.