Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara is a pretty magical place. Not like unicorn magical but magical because I’m not sure there is one word that can accurately describe it - so I went with magical. When you mention Santa Barbara to people you almost always get back a happy sigh or that look on the face that happens when you reminisce about a place that made you feel different than other places do. Not because of who you were with or what you did necessarily, but the energy that place infused you with. So in that sense, it is magical. BOOM! There are so many things - natural beauty, cultures, restaurants, wine bars, people and parades. There is a lot to love. What we love the most however, are our friends, our old neighborhood and all the places we used to go and things we used to do when we lived there.
It was heartbreaking to leave and every time we visit we are reminded of why it was so heartbreaking. Our little family basically lived out it’s toddler and little kid years there - filled with tantrums, power struggles and experimentations with fashion. Santa Barbara mirrored, in many ways, those toddler years we were there - quirky and raw, yet authentic and beautiful. We developed organic friendships - made amazing life-long friends - both our kids and ourselves. While at times it felt like we were just avoiding tearing the band-aid off with our visits up there after we moved, it would have been even more painful to not stay in touch with everyone and lose that feeling one gets about Santa Barbara that is so difficult to describe. It does feel like a bubble - but it is a super-happy-irridecent-magical-unicorn bubble. And I hope that never changes.