This is a special blog post on one of Santa Barbara’s special events: The Santa Barbara Car Show!!!! This last weekend I had the pleasant surprise to get to attend the car show on State Street in downtown SB! I was originally going to take a trip downtown to see a movie with my buddy cole, but upon pulling into the parking lot right off of State Street we saw the madness outside! The entire street every single block had been blocked off and filled with thousands of cars!!!! 
The event started earlier that morning and went well into the afternoon finishing around 3:30 ish. So this really can be a whole day event! Its free and is super cool! Cole and I walked around for a good hour and a half looking at all the different elegant cars! There were cars for everyone, old classics or new sports cars this car show had it all!!! The most interesting part about this though and something I would highly recommend is getting the stories from the owners behind the cars! Ask them how they got it and just show some interest in them as well as there beautiful car and your down to hear some great stories! 
State Street is located in the heart of Santa Barbaras downtown! Its the main drag and is really centrally located to the whole city! So just in general State street is a great place to check out filled with many great SB restaurants and stores as well as larger department stores! State Street really is THE place to go and shop and find something new and cute! 
After looking at the cars for a while we got hungry and decided to find a lunch spot! Kyle’s Kitchen just down the street across from Paseo Nuevo and the mall district is a awesome spot! They have some great food! Burgers, salads, sandwiches, and even milkshakes and some delicious lemonade!!!! Kyle’s Kitchen has it all and is an affordable awesome spot to eat!!! If your ever downtown check it out and see what its all about! I promise you its great!
In general this was a wonderful weekend full of great Santa Barbara Spots to check out!
Montecito, California a place of beauty, expensive houses, long driveways, and fast cars, and at the heart of it all is Coast Village. Coast Village is the center of Montecito, hosting nearly anything! shops, restaurants, boutiques, and of course Starbucks (What shopping area doesn’t have a Starbucks?!)
This past weekend/week I had the luxury of getting to stay at the Bacara Resort and Spa for my dads work. I was surprised late Tuesday afternoon and was told to drive there immediately after my lacrosse game! I was very excited!
As well as the many things you can do on your own there are also a fair amount of organized camps and sports! SBLA is a lacrosse club here in Santa Barbara that has brought in kids from all different ages from 1st graders all the way up to 7-8th graders! On Saturdays like I said before I coach for all the different age groups throughout the day and get to experience the park at its whole. As well as lacrosse there are also coed rugby teams, soccer, baseball, softball, and even quidditch, which let me just say is hilarious to watch if you ever see a game going on make sure to stay and watch!
I have been around Newport Beach and Laguna my whole life, its where I was born and is where I spend a lot of my time during vacations, so needless to say I’m an expert. This weekend I was especially fun because I got to host my girlfriend while I was there and show her around!
The first thing we did and what I would recommend would be to go to Fashion Island. If you want a fun place to shop and walk around or get a bite to eat this is one of the best places to do all of the above! Fashion Island is an outdoor mall so getting to walk around and enjoy the fresh air and sun while you shop is a bonus! With plenty of fountains, live music performers, and even a fish pond this extravagant mall is kid/dog friendly and is an awesome spot!
Next up we have Balboa Island!!! This is probably my favorite place to go while I’m down south! The Island itself is right in between two channels where there are hundreds of boats parked and ready to get taken out to the open sea. As well there are tons of cute homes and little boutiques and shops! This is probably the cutest part of Newport and Laguna. Across the main big channel there’s a fun zone! accessible by ferry you can drive your car, bike or other vehicle across the channel or even just yourself. At the Fun Zone there is a lot to do! With a Ferris Wheel, about 5 arcades, and many other rides and gift shops the Fun Zone is well, FUN!!!!
In Newport and Laguna there are also lots of amazing beaches! Some are private beaches to the residences of the specific gated community such as Emerald Bay or Irvine Cove, but there are many amazing beaches that are open to the public! One of my favorites is Crystal Cove beach, although it is a state park and you have to pay a small fee to get access it is THE place to be! White soft sand beaches, no dogs, and great waves and tide pools, this beach has it all! Another fun one that is free but more touristy is Main Beach in Laguna, with a few volleyball courts, basketball courts, a park and some of the better tide pools and centered in downtown Laguna this is where all the tourists come and the locals stay away from. If you want to go local though check out Divers Cove. There are even some famous beaches here, The Wedge and Victoria Beach are two extremely famous beaches for huge sets and great skim boarding!! Overall you cant really go wrong with any beach though!
To wrap up some of the best places to go lets talk about food! There are so many awesome places and everything is great! My personal favorite taco place is Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, the original one is in Newport but now they are all over the coast. Anything on the menu is delicious but you have to try the taquitos!!! As for Asian food, Mandarin King is the best Chinese around and the owners are so nice, my grandparents have been eating there the whole time they’ve lived there! Then there’s the Teppanyaki place called Ichiburi this is the most fun place to eat! The chefs prepare the meal in front of you and are super funny and great people! If you go ask to have the guy pictured below though (he’s the best). You cant really go wrong with any restaurant in Newport or Laguna everything is really good and you can always cross reference online!
Overall awesome trip and place to visit!
This past weekend I checked out another awesome hike with one of my buddies Cole. After going on 7 falls a few weeks before I was in to trying something new! So we decided to go and do Inspiration Point!!!! This is definitely one of the favorite hikes Santa Barbara offers! 
We met up at noon for the hike at the bottom of the trail. The thing that’s nice is that all of the hikes in Santa Barbara or the vast majority start in the same place so once you know where the trail head is your set! So we began the 45 minute to an hour trek up the mountain.When we went it was a hot sunny day on spring break so there were lots of people out and about exploring the trails and the cool wildlife Santa Barbara has to offer! With the trail going from sun to shade and back again like that it was plenty hot so bring water for sure!!! 
With boom box in hand blasting some of our favorite tunes Cole and I started the march down the hill. The music makes the hike more fun in my opinion so if you have a small portable speaker you might wanna bring it just for fun. 
The trail itself isn’t too difficult, with a injured ankle Cole was still able to do it so if your not in the best shape of your life or have physical problems this hike isn’t too rough compared to the other trails Santa Barbara has to offer.
The thing thats interesting about farmers markets is that they are all around the world! No matter where you go you can find someplace like a farmers market which just makes it super cool to think about how people all around the world are buying things the same way you are! Anywhere from Italy, China, Argentina, or even Ghana some form of farmers market exists, which is why I love the local market we have here in Santa Barbara!
Santa Barbara Spots 