Adventures

Liza's sister Whitney came to visit us this week. We wanted to show her a good time in Santa Barbara, so we kept busy. We started by hiking up to Montecito Peak, one of the most prominent peaks in the area. It's a 7 mile hike up to a peak of 2400 feet, with about a 2000 elevation gain from where we started. We started at the bottom of the Cold Spring Ridge trail:



We didn't quite bring enough water up to the top; it was HOT. The trail has a lot of exposure, and we started a little bit after noon. Luckily the East Fork of the Cold Spring trail had a lot of cover on the way down, and we drank from the very clean creek. Refreshing! Rufus did great. He's a trooper and he's going to be the best hiking dog ever. He doesn't like it when any of his party gets separated--he constantly runs back and forth making sure we're nearby. Must be his herding instincts. We signed the logbook at the top, and enjoyed the great views:





On Friday, we went surfing. We bought a few hours of lessons from the Santa Barbara Adventure Company. We started out in Carpinteria right off of Santa Claus Lane, but we moved down further south to Faria Beach where, apparently, the surf was better for beginners. I still got dunked a couple of times. The water really grabs the surfboard with a huge amount of force. We were already sore and tired from our hike the day before, so it was a real workout! None of us managed to stand up on the boards, but we managed to get up on our hands and knees and rode a couple of waves in. Definitely something to try again.



On Saturday we went up to Solvang and tasted some wine. Much more relaxing!