You've probably seen the dreaded mission kits at Michaels or other craft supply stores. In 4th grade students have the pleasure of learning about the California missions and with that they get one mission to study and do a project on. Our 4th grader was given the Santa Barbara Mission.
Now, my husband and I spent the first days of our honeymoon in Santa Barbara so it is a very special place for us. However we had never ventured their with our kids, so I was excited for the road trip we were about to embark on.
You might think of Santa Barbara as a beach city and a summer destination, but there is a lot to do year-round. When planning our trip the first thing I did was contact our friends over at Visit Santa Barbara to see what sites we needed to take in and make sure we weren't going to miss out on any cool activities happening. Visit Santa Barbara is such a cool resource - all on one site you can find where to stay, what to do, history, parks, shopping, special offers and more. If you're toes are touching any ground in Santa Barbara be sure to check out their website.
We booked a room at the Inn by the Harbor. We'd never stayed here before but it was family budget friendly and had great reviews. When we arrived the staff was greatly accommodating, knowledgeable about the surrounding area and more than willing to make lunch and dinner recommendations. The hotel also offered a wine and cheese reception followed by cookies and milk (a hit with the kids) in the lobby. When we booked our trip we didn't realize we'd be staying over the night of a rainstorm so we took advantage of the thousands of FREE movies we could borrow, ordered Rusty's Pizza for delivery and snuggled up in our spacious room to enjoy some family time for the evening. Our room was equipped with a kitchen so if we were staying longer we definitely could have made up some picnic lunches for future adventures. Our only wish was that the room had a bathtub (our kiddos like to soak in the tub and do not enjoy showers).
Right after lunch we accomplished our mission of visiting the mission. Luckily it was only lightly drizzling during our visit so we were able to make our way throughout the grounds without getting too wet. The mission was beautiful and full of history. I can't believe on all our trips to Santa Barbara we've never stopped to see it before now.
On our way to the mission we spotted one of the coolest parks we'd ever seen and promised the boys if it cleared up the next day we'd make a visit. I'm so glad it cleared up because what we discovered at the park the next day made our trip. After the boys spent almost an hour exploring the HUGE castle playground at Alameda Park. We ventured across the street.
I almost couldn't get the boys to leave Alice Keck Memorial Gardens. It was so beautiful and full of ducks and turtles basking in the sun. My nature loving kids could hardly contain themselves. We'll definitely be making another trip back to this oasis.
We heard the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was very cool. We really wanted to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo, take the Trolley City Tour, and venture over to see the butterflies in Goleta but the weather and time wasn't on our side...so we'll just have to plan another trip!
#visitSb
We booked a room at the Inn by the Harbor. We'd never stayed here before but it was family budget friendly and had great reviews. When we arrived the staff was greatly accommodating, knowledgeable about the surrounding area and more than willing to make lunch and dinner recommendations. The hotel also offered a wine and cheese reception followed by cookies and milk (a hit with the kids) in the lobby. When we booked our trip we didn't realize we'd be staying over the night of a rainstorm so we took advantage of the thousands of FREE movies we could borrow, ordered Rusty's Pizza for delivery and snuggled up in our spacious room to enjoy some family time for the evening. Our room was equipped with a kitchen so if we were staying longer we definitely could have made up some picnic lunches for future adventures. Our only wish was that the room had a bathtub (our kiddos like to soak in the tub and do not enjoy showers).
Right after lunch we accomplished our mission of visiting the mission. Luckily it was only lightly drizzling during our visit so we were able to make our way throughout the grounds without getting too wet. The mission was beautiful and full of history. I can't believe on all our trips to Santa Barbara we've never stopped to see it before now. On our way to the mission we spotted one of the coolest parks we'd ever seen and promised the boys if it cleared up the next day we'd make a visit. I'm so glad it cleared up because what we discovered at the park the next day made our trip. After the boys spent almost an hour exploring the HUGE castle playground at Alameda Park. We ventured across the street.
I almost couldn't get the boys to leave Alice Keck Memorial Gardens. It was so beautiful and full of ducks and turtles basking in the sun. My nature loving kids could hardly contain themselves. We'll definitely be making another trip back to this oasis.
We heard the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History was very cool. We really wanted to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo, take the Trolley City Tour, and venture over to see the butterflies in Goleta but the weather and time wasn't on our side...so we'll just have to plan another trip!
#visitSb
