Why travel? To celebrate a special occasion? Birthday, anniversary, retirement, new job, you name it.For a change of scenery? To alleviate boredom? To explore new regions, to be pampered or just sneak off and indulge? Whatever your reason, I love flopping onto a freshly made bed in a hotel room – preferably with a view […]
Why would anyone want to spend $55 million for a three-day trip to the moon on SpaceX (estimated cost in the future) when they could merely drive 15 minutes from Montecito to The Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort and book an “out of this world” spa experience? I indulged in “Body Melt,” an 80-minute treatment that has […]
There’s nothing more SoCal picturesque than cruising down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, in case you’re not a Californian reading this story) on a sunny summer day. I headed to one of Laguna Beach’s stellar spots: Crystal Cove and Montage Laguna Beach, perched elegantly above the Pacific and adjacent to a lovely seaside public park […]
What’s black and white and bright all over? The freshly open (but still in the process of being built out) super-duper redo of The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern – thanks to interior designer/design team AvroKO, par excellence, who has not missed a detail from the bootjacks outside guest room doors to leather tabs on the […]
After the deluge, I took a quick, much-needed weekend jaunt up the coast. Our Central Coast hills, highways, and byways were verdant after the rains, making it hard to believe it’s still winter. Well, California winter. Tourism was evident (but not too crazy) and staffing issues are still difficult in the hospitality trade. Los Alamos […]
Grab your cowboy hat and cowboy boots, throw your kids or grandkids (if it’s a weekend) in the car, or perhaps indulge in a midweek romantic getaway and head on up to historic Alisal Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley for a tootin’ good time. I’ve visited the downhome 10,500-acre Alisal Ranch several times over […]
My fall trip to Northern California wine country was designed to spend a few nights during the tail end of harvest season in Sonoma. This included checking out the recently opened Montage Healdsburg resort, a stunning and tranquil retreat set on 258 acres of heritage oak forest, also dotted with manzanita and madrone trees. Vineyards […]
I rarely travel in the summer: too many tourists and, as the summer of 2022 proved, oodles of delayed flights, piles of lost luggage, and cases of COVID contracted. Plenty of friends can vouch for these annoyances, including Rachel Kaganoff Stern and her sister Tessa Kaganoff, who were separated from their luggage in London for […]
My weekend trip to San Francisco began with a bang. I was bopping along in the fast lane of the 101, when just north of Gilroy and south of Morgan Hill, I heard a loud “clank” at the front left of my car. A few light, rain-filled moments later, I realized I had blown a […]
While the world was going to hell in a handbasket, I escaped to Rancho Santa Fe, a sort of Montecito for the horsey set, for a couple of glorious nights at lovely Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa, a Spanish-Colonial hacienda style resort set on 45 acres in north San Diego County that’s a three-and-a-half-hour drive […]
Wade Stewart Cowper is a political consultant and Partner at CCA Enterprise. Born in Alaska when his father was Governor, Wade is a 4th generation Santa Barbarian. His significant other, Paula Phan, is a Senior Customer Experience Specialist for Novartis who is originally from Dana Point, California. The couple decided to forgo a traditional wedding […]
It’s an eight-hour trek by car from our parts to Nevada City, but if you love history, historic hotels with a hip edge, and mountain scenery, it’s worth the miles. Located approximately 60 miles northeast of Sacramento, Nevada City was once a booming mining town – and they play off their past. A recently restored […]
It took me a while to get there. My destination? Grass Valley and Nevada City. I’d never been to either one and I was not only curious about the two towns, but also two historic hotels. One of Santa Barbara’s well-known restauranteurs, Sherry Villanueva, of Acme Hospitality Group (Santa Barbara’s The Lark, La Paloma, Helena […]
How can you — or your kids — not be happy when the GPS navigational voice instructs: “Make a left on Vacation Road.” Especially after that relentless, age-old question: “Are we there yet?” Even a high school friend of mine’s face lit up when I told him I was heading to San Diego’s Paradise Point. […]
La Paz, Baja California Sur, México. Sometimes, just getting to your travel destination and safely back home is good enough. But when you return and can brag about snorkeling with the biggest fish in the world, which have 300 rows of teeth and don’t eat humans, that’s something. Whale sharks (which are neither whales nor […]
Rome, Italy. Postponed. Las Vegas, Nevada. Posponed. Loreto, Baja, Mexico. Posponed. Spring 2020 — this was my dilemma (as a longtime travel writer with several assignments in place), when a nasty little virus called COVD-19 began wreaking havoc with the world. It was a year the world remembers well – and not particularly affectionately. Italy, […]
Pucci, Gucci, Prada, and Armani. Valentino, Versace, what will you score? Dolce & Gabbana? Shop the Via Condotti? Marni or Buccellati? More, more, more! Just two and a half days into my Rome explorations and I was beginning to know, understand, and fall in love with one of Europe’s most beautiful capitals spread over 500 […]
My first morning in Rome began with some much-appreciated exercise, as I was aching to hit the ground running. A person can run — or walk briskly as I did — with stops at historic sites on a special tour arranged by the dream team of concierges at my hotel Sofitel Villa Borghese. Along with […]
Rome, I barely know thee. I visited you briefly in the 1980s on a whirlwind trip through Italy on my first European travel writing assignment and carry a few impressions in my memory bank. Now, along with legions of visitors over the centuries, I too have fallen in love with Roma, la citta bella, one […]
“New York City is back!” I exclaimed to Gianni Valenti over a drink at Birdland, the 70-plus-year-old jazz club and theater cabaret that he’s owned for the past three-plus decades, on 44th Street in New York City. “It’s half back,” he corrected me, adding that his longtime landlord was very understanding of the economic climate […]
“Let’s motor down to MiamiLet’s climb the Grand Canyon WallLet’s catch a tunaWay out in LagunaLet’s get away from it all”– Lyrics from “Let’s Get Away From It All” (music by Matt Dennis and lyrics by Tom Adair, published 1941) commonly associated with Frank Sinatra One of my best female friends and I have traveled […]
I’m swaying in a heavenly hammock on the porch of an absolutely charming room (#18 of 18 guestrooms) with views of the creatively landscaped central courtyard at the Hotel Ynez and life is good. Located just off Highway 246, in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley, and nestled between Solvang and Santa Ynez, this […]
If you recently moved into the neighborhood and you want to fit right in, these few tips should assist in the transition from city slicker to Montecitan. Despite almost a half-century of living here under my belt – and summer forays in my youth with my best friend whose grandparents had a second home in […]
I recently fled the post-COVID couldn’t-wait-to-travel-again-May-gray blues for a five-day escape to the Coachella “sink.” It’s not really a valley (this is a misnomer), but a geological basin, I learned on a lively San Andreas Fault Red Jeep Tour. I went to visit a few friends, have a little R&R with pool time, learn more […]
My “first outside adventure” in a year (a trip to L.A. to visit my hermetically sealed mom on display for her 90th birthday doesn’t count) was on February 20, 2021. My fellow community activist, board member, and civically minded neighbor John Nicoli texted me a message: “You still looking for a shot?” he wrote, “Available […]
Now that I’m fully vaccinated, after “Our Year of Perpetual and Unusual Confinement,” I’m gearing up to hit the road again. Living on travel memories has been OK, but there ain’t nothing like the real thing. I’m ready to fire up my jets and dust off my suitcase, beginning with some weekend escapes. What’s a […]
The recipes – tied to each season – in Santa Barbara-based lifestyle doyenne, cook and gardener Valerie Rice’s forthcoming cookbook Lush Life: Food & Drinks from the Garden are absolutely mouth-watering. Broken into seasons, don’t let that stop you from preparing leg of lamb stuffed with feta and oregano, Hope Ranch mussels with chorizo and fennel, or Indian-spiced […]
It appears to be something out of the Alfred Hitchcock flick The Birds for residents on Finney Street on the Summerland cliffs. The nesting cormorants who have been chased off of the eucalyptus grove aside the 101 with mylar balloons have changed just moved nesting plans just down the beach. People are pissed. Much more […]
Last month, I wrote about The Big Yellow House – now the big white house – which evoked lot of reads and plenty of memories for many people. In one of our early morning Facebook Messenger chats, Wullbrandt texted me photos of one of the old Green Gables restaurant (pre-Big Yellow House) jackets he wore, […]
A true Montecito treasure, Brad Bartholomay (November 29, 1949-December 23, 2020) went on to greener pastures in the sky a few months ago. I meant to note his passing, but was waiting for word from his beautiful daughter (Fiesta flower-girl-turned-architect) Schuyler Leigh Johnson, who I do believe got caught up in the whirlwind of grief, […]
Belated birthday greetings to Bert at the Summerland Post Office. We appreciate you!
Summerland boasts an array of natural beauty. The sea is the most obvious asset, but gently rolling hills dotted with wild mustard, when rains and Mother Nature have cooperated, and other spots beckon nature lovers and wildlife, including Brandt’s cormorants, which I will get to in a moment. The landscape has long lured artists with […]
What’s the first thing you want (or wanted) to do after getting vaccinated? Hug somebody? A trip (who’d a thunk it?) to the dentist? A trip – any kind of trip? I’m down for all of that as well as aching for a massage and/or a chiropractic adjustment. (Reminder to self: Call Charlie Bissell in […]
What a delight it was to meet the Ru family at the Summerland Fire Station on a recent Sunday afternoon where the rather precocious and terribly adorable two-and-a-half-year-old, Teddy Firestone Ru, was practicing his firefighting skills with great aplomb under the kind guidance of Interim Summerland-Carpinteria Fire Captain Johan Nilsson. He handled the hose with […]
On the last Sunday of every month, the Summerland Post Office parking lot on Lillie Avenue fills up with a cornucopia of flea market and food vendors. Even volunteers from CALM (Child Abuse Listening and Mediation) are onsite to raise funds and awareness of the nonprofit. While parking may be a challenge – “It’s a […]
The Internet and townsfolk are all abuzz about the Big Yellow House’s new “yellow” paint job. About a month ago, I received a text with a photo of the building being painted. It read: Dear Summerland correspondent, The Big Yellow House is being painted cream. Signed, Nancy Drew I was relieved that the super bright, […]
Kevin Frank and his wife, Katie, owners of K. Frank, the Montecito men and women’s luxury and designer clothing store on Coast Village Road, moved to Summerland six years ago after being attracted by the “small town charm and walkability.” It wasn’t until they toured their house that they became gob smacked by the incredible […]
Summerland merchants have banded together to spread some Valentine’s Day weekend community love this weekend! The town will be bursting with chocolate, flowers, cookies, champagne, pop-ups, tastings specials, and more. Participating businesses include Red Kettle Coffee (heart shaped cookies), Garde, Mary Suding Antiques, Sweet Wheel Farms & Flowers, The Bikini Factory (20% off red and pink […]
We can’t think of a sweeter Valentine’s gift than the one from generous Summerland resident and philanthropist Nora McNeely Hurley and her husband, Michael Hurley. Summerland School’s very tired tennis courts will be undergoing a complete renovation thanks to a two-year grant from the Manitou Fund. Nora McNeely Hurley is a Trustee and Chief Programming […]
It’s no surprise that Lou Cannon does a pretty good imitation of President Ronald Reagan. After all, he covered Reagan from his governorship in California to his time in the White House through to his final days, writing five books about California’s former governor and president, including President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, among […]