Three On Two Defense

With Grandpa, AKA Macho Pop, in tow, we decided to attack Santa Barbara’s animal world today. We call that Three on Two Defense for understandable reasons. Coffee was prepared the night before, Peets brewing by our 6am wake up call. We walked down to Esau’s Cafe for a classic Carpinteria greasy spoon breakfast. Yum. Yum. Yum. I had the best french toast…corn flake crusted. Sounds weird, but let me tell you, it was delicious! And post breakfast? A little chance to burn off those extra “ya ya’s” at the Tomol Interpretive Center which combines a play structure and Chumash Indian education. This fourth grade teacher was pretty geeked out.

The boys packed up and headed for the Amtrak station to take the train to Santa Barbara to appease Drew’s “CHOOOO CHOOOO! CHOOOO CHOOOOOO!” obsession. He can hear it from cities away and has been so excited to watch it pass by. I drove the car so that we’d have transportation options once we arrived. Matt reported that Drew became very worried when the train arrived at the depot and started crying upon boarding. Luckily he quickly recovered once the train got moving and seemed to love the ride.

We spent an hour at the Ty Warner Sea Center on Sterns Wharf. It was the perfect small and simple size for our kids, age 22 months and 5 years. A little pricey, but with a two for one coupon and Drew still free, not too bad overall.

Next we drove across town to La Super Rica Taqueria on North Milpas. Worth the wait…if alone for the amazing homemade tortillas. YUM!. Julia Child was a fan, so seriously….why not trust that, and the regular mentions in Sunset Magazine over the years?!? 🙂

Due to our membership at Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose, we had reciprocity at the Santa Barbara Zoo and saved ourselves $36 in admission fees! We got in FREE. The Zoo was so well done! The perfect size, great exhibits, and strollers for rent. We brought a stroller on the trip—-but realized today that we’d left it at the bookstore in Ojai 2 days ago. Oops. Who knew Ojai would play such a regular role in our trip?! The kids did great considering the amount of activities we were trying to squeeze in. The adults were ready for a nap, but…that was not to be.

After pulling in at our home away from home, Matt took over, and Kerry and I departed on our next adventure—back to Ojai we went in pursuit of the lost stroller. Not in the original plan, but a wonderful time in the car, a chance meeting with a gracious and kind state patrolman {that story can be saved for later!} and the stroller was recovered.

Kerry watched the boys while Drew napped and Alex caught up on Cartoon Network so Matt and I could dine out child free. We had a wonderful happy hour wine tasting and cheese & charcuterie sampling at Corktree Cellars. We also picked up dinner for all three adults at Siam Elephant—because clearly we needed MORE food. Drew slept from 2:30-6:45pm, so obviously 1.) we tuckered him out today and 2.) we are on our knees praying he actually sleeps tonight!

Tomorrow evening promises some fun former summer Westminster Woods summer staffer visitors which will ease the sadness of sending Grandpa Kerry off after a waffle breakfast. After today’s non-stop fun, we are looking forward to a day close to home at our local beach.