GIRL’S TRIP!!! woot woot…wait, I should preface that my idea of fun is mani/pedis…and baking cookies…and basically being a grandma so please don’t expect this post to be about the best bars or clubs…maybe next trip 😛

Anyways, this past weekend, I went to Santa Barbara for my birthday! My friend, Ariana, booked us an Air bnb at the “Treehouse”. I’ve never done an Air bnb and I was pleasantly surprised to arrive to a one bedroom decked with tiny Christmas lights (gotta love Christmas all year long!), asian inspired art and jadeite dishes decorating the kitchen. I will admit I was bummed the place wasn’t actually in a tree since I had images of me living like Tarzan…but that’s a different story 🙂

Aside from hanging out in the pretty little treehouse, we basically ended up eating all over Santa Barbara. If you’re in the area, I recommend the following places:

• Los Agaves: my friend recommended this place to me because I’m a huge fan of Mexican food. The place had a line out the door the entire time we were there. I ordered the meat burrito and it was delish! I will admit that my favorite thing was the homemade chips and the Mexican coke! 
• Finch & Fork: this beautiful restaurant is on the main street of Santa Barbara and Ariana and I had brunch here on my birthday! We both shared the gorgeous pink deviled eggs and poached eggs. I should let you know that I love eggs if you couldn’t tell 🙂 The sweetest thing was they celebrated my birthday by sending me their banana marshmallow milkshake! It’s never too early for dessert I guess 🙂
• Scarlett Begonia (Valentine’s Day pre-fix meal): this place was highly rated on Yelp so I had to try. Unfortunately, my birthday is on Valentine’s Day and for the most part I love this because HELLO I get gifts no matter my relationship status :), but I hate how whenever I want to go out to dinner, I’m forced to get a pre-fix meal…anyways, at least this meal was amazing! I had the sea bass with the white wine and I highly recommend it!
• Andersen’s Bakery: our last stop on the eating tour was to celebrate Ariana’s birthday (yes we are almost bday twins, she’s the 15th). We did high tea at Andersen’s since it was the only one rated on Yelp. I’ll be doing a separate post on the high tea so keep an eye out for that one! Overall, it wasn’t what I expected but it was a cute mom and pop place.

Besides eating, we got a lot of pampering done and just relaxing and recharging. I recommend Santa Barbara for a quick weekend getaway! It really does feel like a retreat from the city and we all need some retreat time 🙂