santa barbara getaway: the food

so phil had vacation time for the first two weeks of november.  back in august when we were throwing out ideas of what to do with the time, phil suggested taking a mini-vacation somewhere WITHOUT the kids.  i was ALL for that idea, even though it would require extra planning, extra coordinating, extra driving, and extra overall effort.  but if we could pull it off, it would be SO WORTH IT. 

a week or two later, while talking to my dad on the phone, i mentioned the possibility of leaving the kids with him and mira– just to see if they were at all interested in having the grandkids at their place for a few days.  my dad jumped at the offer and november couldn’t come fast enough.  when he told mira about it, she was just as excited though a little nervous about taking care of lauren since she didn’t have that much experience with babies.  my dad assured her they’d be fine and so we were all set to start making this little vacation happen for real!

so for our first-ever getaway (in the five and a half years that we’ve had kids), we decided to stay in santa barbara since neither of us had spent much time there and it seemed to have plenty of fun stuff to do as well as good food to eat.  even though it meant we had to drive an hour and a half beyond it to drop off the kids and then drive the hour and a half back to santa barbara (witness the extra planning, coordinating, driving…).  but it worked out well since we stayed the first night at grandpa’s house with the kids so that they’d be a little more comfortable being there even after we left.  turns out all three kiddos took to being at grandpa’s place right away, slept great, and didn’t have much trouble letting us go the next morning.  except for allie who got teary when we were saying our goodbyes.  she dried up before we actually even left though and was fine the rest of the time.

and the verdict…  was all the extra effort worth it in the end?

ABSOLUTELY.

we’d do it again tomorrow if we could.  it was beyond wonderful to have extended time to ourselves and to just enjoy each other’s company and discover once again that oh yeah, we DO still like each other after all!

phil did an awesome job planning fun outings as well as finding great restaurants for us to try out.  our only stipulation was to do the things that aren’t as easy to do or as enjoyable with our kiddos.  the only thing we didn’t get to was seeing a movie in the theater, but that was mostly because there really wasn’t anything out at the time that either of us wanted to see.

and of course, i have a TON of pictures.  so i decided to divide them up in two installments– a food entry, and a fun entry.  so here we go with the food, the glorious food.

we relied on yelp quite a bit to help us decide where to eat.

en route to santa barbara, we stopped in pismo beach (my old hometown!) for lunch.  i wanted to go to the splash cafe for their clam chowder in a bread bowl, but we decided we could do that on the way home with the kids.  so we went fancy (something not easily done or as enjoyable with kids, remember?) and ate at the lido restaurant.

we chose to sit outside to enjoy the beautiful view.

cool and refreshing!

we started with two appetizers– cornmeal crusted fried calamari served with a curry aioli.

and grilled black mission figs with duck prosciutto, goat blu, candied walnuts, and balsamic.  (i didn’t think i’d like this one, but was surprised by how GOOD it was and it ended up being my favorite dish of the meal!).

phil had the lido half-pound myers ranch burger with white cheddar, bacon, and stealth fries.

and i had the warm scallop salad which was served with rock shrimp, spinach, and avocado.

an excellent way to kick off our little vacation, to be sure.  after lunch, we strolled along the cliffs and stopped for this photo op.

we decided to have dinner at our hotel’s restaurant, called eladio’s.  i didn’t take my camera with me because i figured we were just eating simple and wouldn’t need pictures.  kicking myself now because it turns out that i had the BEST chicken marsala that i’ve ever eaten in my life there (and i love chicken marsala and have tasted quite a few versions).  it was soooo good– even the spinach served with it was cooked perfectly– (phil agreed that it all was indeed tasty) that i ended up eating every bite and it was a pretty generous plate of food!  so i was kinda bummed that i didn’t get a picture of it after all.  but phil took a picture of their menu for me the next day.

the next morning, we headed to pierre lafond wine bistro for breakfast.

i had the bistro strata: prosciutto, roasted mushrooms, and gruyere.

phil had the california omelet:  ham, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and he substituted cheddar instead goat cheese.  (he claims that he only started liking stinky cheese (like feta) since meeting me, but goat cheese goes too far.  i like it though.)

have to slip this one in– phil (who lately has been taking pictures at crazy angles) took this shot of me wearing my new turtle necklace i picked out while browsing in a store earlier that morning.

for some reason, being without kids to me means getting coffee every morning.  i discovered that i really like it, but only crave it when the kids aren’t around.  when they are, i guess i’m too busy to think about cravings?

zooming right along, for lunch we headed to the cajun kitchen cafe.  (turns out we should have flipped this around and eaten here for breakfast and the wine bistro for lunch since they’re better known for those respective meals– but oh well, live and learn.)

neither of us were very hungry since we weren’t used to eating such big meals every few hours.  but we had to press on and keep eating while the eating was good!

phil had the red beans and rice with a pork chop:

i had the blackened chicken breast sandwich with fries:

and for a late dinner that night, we went to bouchon.

we started with the heirloom tomato ‘napolean’ salad.

and the warm sweet onion and blue cheese tart.

phil had the blood orange and mint-marinated chargrilled rack of lamb.

and i had the bourbon and maple-glazed california duck breast.

and we finished with a blueberry upside-down cake.

overall, i was kind of disappointed with this place.  granted, i had pretty high expectations for it.  but i think we had a server who was new (at least i hope he was!) and so our service was really slow, my entree was cold (i don’t normally send dishes back to the kitchen, but i sent this one back!) , they brought phil a different entree than what he ordered (he originally ordered the bison but started eating the lamb, and decided to keep it since the server was taking forever to come back to us and since phil figured this probably tasted better- based on what a different server advised the table next to us).  and for some reason, they thought it was our anniversary though neither one of us said anything to that effect.  so they stuck a candle on our dessert plate.  we played along.  though i have to say our anniversary dinner at the steak house was WAY better than this meal was.  as well as the service we received there.  no comparison.

okay, so for our last day of our mini-vacation, we skipped a sit-down breakfast (still being too stuffed from all the previous meals!) and opted for coffee and a muffin (bagel for phil) to go.  i’ll show you tomorrow where we went with our quickie breakfast.

we headed out of santa barbara and got to pea soup andersen’s in buellton by lunchtime.  phil mentioned how they’d always driven by the signs when he was little and he was always curious to try the pea soup.  so we decided it was high time he tried it!

though i thought we were there for pea soup, phil wanted to check out his options first.

his very first taste of pea soup, andersen’s style.

dabbing away the excess.

he decided that he liked it.  but the boy likes peas, so this wasn’t too much of a stretch for him.  unlike me who still cannot eat peas.  though i serve them to the kids quite often.  probably because i want them to eat their veggies.  unlike me.  i couldn’t finish my soup so phil got a second serving.

ok, the fun stuff is coming tomorrow!  and happy early thanksgiving!!