Time Flies

Don't you just love it when you go back to work after a few days off, having fun somewhere else?
It's such a letdown, LOL.  Plus all the piled up work and emails just make me wanna crawl back into bed.

Peppermint has been collabbing again.  She, along with Mariska of monalisasmiles, put together this beautiful kit called Brand New Day.  It's on sale through today (I know, I'm blogging late) for 20% off!



Here's my layout that I made with it, last week, before I left on my trip.

Credits: Brand New Day by One Little Bird and monalisasmiles; Template Set #10: Touch of Whimsy by me, Christine Newman.

I am so inspired by Peppermint's guest blog post today over at Audrey Neal's blog.  It is about storytelling.  You need to read it here, if you haven't already.  Peppermint joined the CT at We Are Storytellers in mid-2008 (the store is now closed).  She wasn't sure about being indoctrinated about journaling, but  thought she'd give it a try.  It's changed her scrapping forever.  Her journaled pages are the ones that her son loves the most.  I have a similar story too.  I made over 300 pages in 2008, but most of them were without journaling or storytelling.  When it came time to print them, I didn't find very many that I wanted to print out and look at over and over again.  So at the beginning of 2009, I set my goal to scrap less pages, but more meaningful pages with journaling.  I'm so glad I did, because my pages mean so much more to me and my family and friends now.  I find that my blogging and my scrapping go hand-in-hand.  A lot of times my journaling from my pages are copied straight from my blog posts.  Tell your story!

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Spa Day

Today was our last day in Santa Barbara. Checkout time at the Four Seasons is noon. Todd scheduled a massage for me at the spa at 10am. He said he had originally scheduled it for 9am, but they called his cell phone earlier in the week and kept asking for "Mrs. Newman". They wanted to know if they could reschedule my massage to 10am. Todd said he had to tell them, "You can't talk to Mrs. Newman, because she doesn't know she's coming there yet!". I laughed so hard at the story. Somehow the way Todd told it, it was really funny to me. Of course, my honey is always funny in my opinion. :p

So I've only gotten like maybe two massages in my life. This is not a regular practice for me. And to have a massage at the Four Seasons spa felt... quite intimidating. I was apprehensive about it, with feelings of inadequacy mixed in for good measure. Todd totally laughed at me because you're supposed to feel relaxed about getting a massage, but I was all tense just thinking about it, LOL. Like, I totally don't know spa etiquette! And I was afraid that the people who worked there would know just by taking one look at me. "Oh, she's not a regular for sure." "Oops, that was total spa faux-pas!"

So Todd walked me to the spa entrance and I timidly entered. I was signed in by this woman with a French accent, which didn't help with the intimidation factor. She asked me if I had been to their spa before, and I said no. So she gave me the orientation. "Here's the restrooms. Here are the saunas and steam rooms. Here's the lemon water, you can help yourself to it. Here are the lockers. Here's a robe for you, and some slippers. You can change into them and go through those doors. Your therapist Laurie will be waiting in the lounge for you to take you to your treatment room. Oh and the lockers have locks where you can press the C button followed by a four-digit code of your choosing, then press the key button. Just press the same buttons when you want to open it."

I tried to take it all in, but it was too much. What do I need a locked locker for? I didn't wear any expensive jewelry, and I really doubt that any of these Four Seasons patrons would care to steal my Target-bought t-shirt and my American Eagle jeans. Plus, in the locker room, you had to change in front of the other women! Gulp. I tried not to look at anyone else. I bet Todd didn't know he was traumatizing me, LOL. After I got my robe and slippers on, I went upstairs to the waiting lounge. I wish I had the guts to take photos of the facilities, but of course I did not. The place was absolutely amazing! Everything was luxurious and top-notch. The waiting lounge had drinks and snacks, all lined up on a buffet table and elegantly arranged. The other women sitting around looked like they belonged there.

No sooner after I sat down in a chair, my name got called by Laurie, my massage therapist. She was very friendly and had a soothing voice. She took me to my treatment room. I looked in and was amazed. There was a really big glass shower and bathroom in an alcove. The rest of the room was one huge room with a clawed-foot bathtub and two treatment tables. There was a fire in the fireplace, and the windows all faced out into the garden with views of the ocean. There was soothing music playing. She told me that the massage table had a heated blanket on it, and to let her know if the temperature wasn't comfortable. Then she said she'll leave for a few minutes so that I could hang up my robe and get myself situated onto the massage table.

I climbed in and it was all nice and toasty. I left my undies on because I was still feeling modest and intimidated! I read once in a magazine that it was okay to do that, so I did. :| Dude, the face attachment thing that you put your face into on the massage table? It felt like it was smashing my face! But the massage was very luxurious and the lavender oil smelled really good. She even got to my feet and rubbed them and pulled on my toes. I almost laughed out loud cuz it felt funny. I wonder if some people even more ticklish than me would have kicked her? So I was pretty much relaxed after 50 minutes of this "healing hands" massage. She had asked me if I had any areas that I wanted her to concentrate on, so I told her that I get stiff neck and shoulders a lot from working on the computer. She did a lot of work on my shoulders. Just when I felt fully-relaxed, it was over. She left for me to put my robe back on, and waited for me outside the treatment room to take me back to the waiting lounge. She said I could sit there all I wanted, and eat the snacks, or go downstairs and use the sauna. I was too excited to get out of there and tell Todd all about it, with some giggling involved, of course. So I just put my clothes on, signed out, and left.

We checked out of the hotel and took some more photos of the gorgeous buildings and foliage.








Then we went across the street to the private club. If you stay at the Four Seasons, they give you a pass to go to the club and swim in their Olympic sized pool, and eat at the restaurant, and lounge around. So we thought we should at least go check it out.







We decided against eating there, because it was cloudy so the view wasn't quite as spectacular. Oh and it was very basic food... like, a $12 hot dog. So instead, we headed 20 miles south to another Rusty's Pizza! They happened to show the Buckeye game versus Georgia Tech there too, so Todd was excited. Plus, this time I didn't miss the photo opp with Todd and the Rusty's Special!


It was a great way to end our trip. We enjoyed the trip thoroughly, and even though the Cinderella life has ended, I've still got my prince! My thoughtful prince who treated me like a princess all weekend, and who will never live this awesome trip down. Oh yes, it will be talked about forever, and always with fond memories, a giggle, and a smile.

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The Grape Line

So if you haven't figured it out already, we didn't have internet access during our long weekend in Santa Barbara. I've been blogging the days since we returned home last night, but I've been back-dating them to the actual date when the events occurred, so they look right when I go back to read them on my blog.

Onto Saturday...

Todd booked us an all-day winery tour with The Grape Line.  The shuttle bus picked us up around 9:20am, then we went to other hotels to pick up the other participants.  At the last hotel, we picked up ten girls on a bachelorette party wine tour!  Wineries in Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley sort of sprung up in the last 40 years, but the wine tours really became a lot more popular after the movie "Sideways" in 2004.  There are over 150 wineries and tasting rooms in the Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara area.  Today we would visit four wineries and have a picnic box lunch.  Just a disclaimer:  Todd and I know NOTHING about wines, so I'll probably say all kinds of things that wine connoisseurs will scoff at.  Sorry in advance!

Kris, our tour guide, and Armando, our driver, were super-friendly and nice.  The all-inclusive tour was awesome because you didn't have to worry about the tasting fees at each winery.  You pay The Grape Line one set amount, and they take care of all the tasting fees at each winery.  Kris also boxed up all our complimentary wine glasses from each winery and put our names on the boxes.  AND she kept track of all the wine that everyone bought and put our names on there too.  That way nobody loses track of their stuff, after a full-day of wine tasting, LOL.

Driving into the Santa Ynez Valley was amazing.  We went through some mountain passes and saw all the green backcountry, as well as Lake Cachuma.







After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the first winery, a little boutique called Curtis Winery, actually owned by the Firestone family.  Yea, remember that dude on The Bachelor, Andrew Firestone?  He's one of the active owners of this winery.  Looks like he got married and had a kid, but NOT to one of the contestants.  The Curtis Winery specializes in Rhone varieties. We were whisked into their barrel/tasting room.  It was COLD in there! One thing I did learn on the tour is that wine tasting usually goes from white to red. So this first one was a 2007 Viognier.






We got a brief tour of their facilities. These are the fermentation tanks.


We got to try six different wines at Curtis Winery, and they had some pretzels with some delicious (and hot!) dips! We met a couple from LA named Liz and Lindsay (girl + guy) who were very entertaining. We continued to hang out with them at the other wineries.

Awesome view from outside the Curtis Winery.


Next winery was The Brander Vineyard. The tasting was outside and our host was incredibly entertaining and fun. 








We had a picnic box lunch here in the courtyard of the winery. It was at this winery that I really started to feel the effects of the wine tasting. Let's just say that I got super-talkative during lunch. I'm usually shy and reserved around strangers, but not to Liz and Lindsay! I talked and talked and asked them all kinds of questions. Turned out that Lindsay is a psychiatrist in LA, specializing in anxiety disorders.  My ears perked up when he said he specialized in anxiety disorders, so I told him that I had been reading the book "The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook", to help me understand and practice coping strategies with my anxiety.  He said he has that book.  Anyways, then we talked about OCD and hoarders too.  It was fun.  His wife Liz is a marriage/family therapist, so they have that similarity. 

After lunch we got into our shuttle and left for the next winery.  Here's a parting photo of Brander.


Next winery was Firestone, which ironically, is no longer owned by the Firestone family and has to pay a license fee every year to use the name. Todd was especially interested since he's from Akron, Ohio (the one-time tire capital of the world) and went to Firestone high school.








We had our tasting down in the cellar, where there were lots of barrels.




I decided that every winery stop will have one of these glass photos with people in the background.


The tasting list.




At this winery we hung out with a couple from Temecula. They were super-fun too. He was British, but she was not. Sometimes it's just fun to talk to someone with a British accent, especially after having some wine!

Next and last stop, is the Fess Parker Winery. Fess Parker played Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on TV. It just happens that he passed away at the age of 85 last Thursday. We wondered if the winery would be open, but it was.  This winery was really gorgeous.





The place was hopping! This was probably the most crowded of all the wineries we went to today. Notice the little coonskin hat emblem on there?


By now some of us were... tipsy. So there was spontaneous singing of the theme to the show "Davy Crockett".

A cool view of the window to the outside from inside the tasting room.


Most of us fell asleep on the shuttle ride back to Santa Barbara. Todd took photos of people sprawled about, but I'm not showing it on the blog, LOL. When it came time to drop people off, some of them had to be waken up with quite a few pats on the shoulder. As for me... well, let's just say I took a nap before heading out to dinner at Cava in downtown Montecito. And even then, I didn't feel like eating my awesome calamari salad, LOL. No worries though, I felt better in a couple of hours. What can I say, I am a lightweight since I don't drink wine or alcohol regularly. :p

After dinner, we went back to our room and watched the DVD we brought, a documentary about LeBron James called "More Than A Game", which was excellent, by the way. If you're a basketball fan, you would want to watch it.

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State Street

I love leisurely mornings with nothing scheduled! Well, except for some basketball-watching! We ate some fruit and pretzels for breakfast, because we knew it would be a big-food day ahead of us! The fruit was awesome. The Four Seasons have fruit in your room when you check in, just sitting there waiting for you! The sign said if nobody eats it, they would just remove it the next day. Well, we weren't going to waste some perfectly good strawberry, orange, pear, and apple. No siree!

We left our hotel around 11:15am and drove over to State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. State Street is the main drag in Santa Barbara, and it's filled with shopping and restaurants. The end of State Street is the Stearns Wharf Pier on the ocean.

After we parked our car in the garage at Paseo Nuevo, we walked a few blocks north on State Street and found our favorite Danish bakery and restaurant, Andersen's.


We found this place the first time we visited Santa Barbara in 2004.  We just love the pastries and marzipan here!  Todd and I both ordered the Reuben sandwich, except he got it without the Havarti cheese.

I would probably say it's the best Reuben sandwich I've ever had. The corned beef was cooked just right, and the sauce was awesome. After lunch, Todd picked up some pastries to go. We got the apple strudel with cream filling, a butter ring, and a Kringle (marzipan roll). It might have sounded piggish, except that we were saving two of them for breakfast tomorrow morning. So we took our pastries down the street to our other favorite place on State Street: Northstar Coffee Co. 


We have so many good memories of the caramel latte there.  We ordered one to go with our cream-filled apple strudel.




I just love the atmosphere in this coffee shop. It reminds me of someone's living room. The fireplace makes it even cozier in the winter. One year we came right before Christmas and it was all decorated up like Christmas in someone's living room and it was just so inviting.




After latte at Northstar, we walked down State Street to Stearns Wharf at the end. We saw the weirdest phenomenon! The marine layer formed a thick fog that surrounded the coastline. The temperature must have dropped at least 10 degrees when we walked across the street onto the pier!


It almost looked like the smoke monster from Lost attacking the coast line!


Not only was it cold, it was extra windy on the pier!








I've always loved this fountain with the dolphins at the entrance to the pier.


We picked up a menu at Rusty's Pizza, our favorite pizza in Santa Barbara, because we planned on ordering a pizza later and taking it back with us to the hotel so we can watch the Buckeyes play March Madness basketball while eating pizza.


The entry way into Rusty's is so cool The door looked like portholes.


The round rotunda had a spiral staircase to the lighthouse at the top.


And there were old photos on the walls.


After picking up the menu at Rusty's, we walked back up north on State Street and stopped in to shop at World Market. Todd found a soap he liked, and I got a bath fizzie for the hotel bathtub. Then we went to Borders Books (one of our favorite memories of Santa Barbara as well) and browsed magazines and books. Todd brought up that every time we go to Borders together, he's reminded of our date ritual in college, which was to eat at TGIFriday's (steak on a stick), then go to Borders. I had sort of forgotten about those memories for some reason, it was so cute for him to remember it and bring it back.

After Borders, we stopped by Sur La Table and picked up some silicone basting brush and a silicone turner. Then it was time to order the pizza and pick it up for dinner! We couldn't find a parking space, so Todd stayed in the car and I went in and picked it up. Rusty's Special!


I usually take a photo of Todd with the Rusty's pizza every time we've come there. This time Todd was too excited to eat it, and we were in the car... so I forgot!




We finished the awesome pizza back in our hotel room while watching Ohio State play UCSB (Univ of CA at Santa Barbara), ironically, in the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes beat the Gauchos easily. I was tired from walking around all day, but it was so much fun to visit all our favorite places on State Street. After a shower (there's a rainshower head in the roof of the shower!), I flopped into the fluffy bed. So blissful!

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