Day 2 of our Santa Barbara trip was just as amazing as Day 1.
(get ready for picture overload)
We started out the morning at a little cafe down the street from where we were staying called Crushcakes and Cafe. It is actually an extension of the main Crushcakes bakery and is only open from 7:30am-2pm. They serve breakfast and lunch and then it turns into a bar at night. We had walked by the night before, looked up the menu online, and thought it sounded good (and close!) so we thought we would check it out.
And we were not disappointed.
Seth had a breakfast quesadilla and a coffee. And I had an onion bagel with cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Not fancy, I know, but I was saving my eating for what we were doing later in the day.
Oh, and I had this AMAZING vanilla latte.
And let me tell you. I normally only like vanilla latte's at Starbucks. I am not a non-Starbucks coffee shop drinker (I wish I was, but they just taste too much like coffee/too bitter for me usually) but this vanilla latte was amazing. Perfect. So of course I had to take a picture to remember it by :)
After breakfast, I wanted to go to the original Crushcakes Bakery (the one featured on Food Network : On the Road!) so we walked back to our car and drove over. It was shortly after 9am and they had just opened and the cupcakes weren't all ready. The girl at the counter told us to come back in 15 minutes so we went to investigate this Santa Barbara Public Market that I had read about. I had this idea that it would be like a farmer's market type of thing. I was wrong, it so wasn't, but it was so amazing!
I was so bummed we were there so early because practically all of the stores were still closed. But, in retrospect, it was pretty nice to be able to walk around and take it all in without there being wall to wall people (because I envision that's what it's like most of the time). There was a juice bar, a coffee shop, a bread place, a small little grocery store/farmer's market, a butcher, a wine store, and much more. Such a cool little place.
By now it was about 9:30am so we walked back over to pick out our cupcakes.
Holy moly, the decision was hard but we finally settled on these six to try. I don't remember the exact names of them all but from top to bottom, left to right :
double chocolate, red velvet, peanut butter cup, oreo, marble, cinnamon swirl
We didn't end up eating them until we got home but they were all DELICIOUS.
We dropped the cupcakes back off at our room and still had some time before our tour in the afternoon, so we went to explore the mission. Everything is so close in Santa Barbara and Mission Santa Barbara was literally 5-10 minutes away from where we were staying.
We paid to take the tour around the mission and it was worth every penny. The whole mission was beautiful. The only place we weren't allowed in was the chapel because it was Sunday and they were having service but I was able to take a couple pictures when we peaked in in-between services.
I mean... the way they did the tile work was just AMAZING.
And before we left, we couldn't miss this photo op :
Meet Friar Tubby and Friar Jellybean.
Coolest mission ever!
After we finished at the mission, we went to get coffee. I had heard of this "must see" coffeehouse and being the coffee lover that Seth is, I knew we needed to check it out.
Of course, the reviews did not disappoint and we had some of the best coffee we've ever had.
Seth got an iced coffee and I got an iced vanilla latte.
Delicious.
After coffee, we decided we would head down to the waterfront where we would be meeting our tour. We still had quite a few hours but there was lots to do down there so we thought we would make sure we could find parking early.
Parking was a breeze and so we decided to walk around. Santa Barbara is known for it's wineries and the area down by the water had a place called "the wine trail". Well, it's not really one place, it's a group of wineries that are all within walking distance of each other. We knew we were going to be drinking later on our tour, so we didn't want to hit up too many, but we walked around and came upon one called "Corks n' Crowns".
This place was legit! They had beer tasting, wine tasting, and champagne tasting. We were in heaven. Seth opted for the beer tasting and I opted for the champagne tasting. Why? Because the champagne tasting CAME WITH CUPCAKES. Yes, you heard that right.
The cupcakes were from Sugar Cat Studio. The cupcakery is local to Santa Barbara and also might have happened to be on Cupcake Wars. I'm not sure if they won or not but their cupcakes were amazing. The key lime cheesecake one was gluten free and was one of my favorites.
I wanted to buy every cupcake and every champagne to take home, but I refrained since I knew we were going to be going on a walking tour for the rest of the afternoon and I really didn't want to carry around 3 heavy bottles (but seriously, that might have been the only reason I didn't buy them!)
And now... I hate to do this, but I'm going to leave you hanging again until tomorrow. I didn't realize quite how many pictures I took on our trip and I just can't narrow them down anymore, so part 3 will be tomorrow!
Oh WOW! So much goooooood food! What a perfect day together! I'm so happy that you and Seth got to do this together!!
ReplyDeleteOh, those cupcakes make me drool!
ReplyDeleteLove this! And all the food looks scrumptious!!! I am so happy that you two got this time together. Makes me want to visit Santa Barbara realllll bad!
ReplyDeleteUmmm....those cupcakes?! Yes, please! Such beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteA weekend with James would be heavenly!! Did ya'll make a game plan of what you wanted to see or did you just take in the sights as they came?
ReplyDeleteI have my weekend in San Diego packed with plans. I'm one of those people who has to see as much as possible!
You totally saved the best for last! Cupcakes and champage tasting! So perfect! Lots of beautiful photos in this post!
ReplyDeleteOooohhhhh, cupcakes...me want them ALL! :)
ReplyDeleteMandie ~ http://badbrewpack.blogspot.com/
You are making me wish we spent more time in Santa Barbara! We just drove through and stopped for lunch at a place called "Three Pickles".
ReplyDeleteyou seriously hit like all of my fav sb spots!! crushcakes being the top of my list! they have a strawberry thingy that's the best like EVER. its like heaven. i love me some SB and their plethora of goodies :)
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like a great morning! Coffee, cupcakes, champagne, and more cupcakes?? Sign me up! :) I love that the one coffee place served it in mason jars - my absolute favorite thing to drink out of. Can't wait to hear about the rest!
ReplyDeleteThe mission looks awesome! I had no idea it was even there, or that it was destroyed by an earthquake…
ReplyDeleteBut, let's move on to the champagne and cupcakes!!!!! Go ahead and just sign me up for that now. Oh.my.gosh. Heaven.
Can't wait for part 3!!! Part 2 was amazing! So jealous you've visited somewhere that was on Food Network! I'm a bit obsessed! :) Such a fun little getaway!
ReplyDeleteWow I never knew how much there is to do there. So awesome how much you guys did in such a short amount of time! And yummy to all the desserts!
ReplyDeleteCrushcakes is so yummy.
ReplyDelete