We kicked off our anniversary weekend celebration with a day trip to Santa Barbara. To bring Buddy along or not was the big question. Mostly, I didn’t want Donna worrying about him and wanting to cut the day short to get home to him, so we opted to bring him along.
Our first stop was Lake Carneros, near Goleta. I spotted it on a map and it looked like a nice place to check out. The short hike around the lake started with a walkway over top of the marsh at the edge of the lake. When we stopped for photos we even noticed some large turtles floating around.
The rest of the walk around the lake was serene, with the exception of Buddy pulling on his leash. The entire walk probably only took about 45 minutes, if that gives you an idea of how small the lake is.
While walking through one of the coastal parks, Buddy got to say hello to some new friends. He always seems to small to me until I see him around other dogs, like these two. Of course next to a Black Lab, he does seem pretty small.
We found a staircase we never knew of, that goes down to the beach. Unfortunately dogs aren’t allowed on Santa Barbara beaches, so we couldn’t go the whole way down, but Buddy at least got to take a look from above.
Of course it was a great place for smoochin’ as well – afterall, it IS our anniversary, so we figured a few public displays of affection wouldn’t hurt anyone.
This was a historic home next to Lake Carneros that we thought was just beautiful. I don’t know much about the home but we joked about buying it as an anniversary gift to ourselves. Ultimately we opted not to, only because we knew we’d constantly have to deal with lake visitors walking through our front yard, admiring the home.
The harbor was beautiful as always. It was actually our last stop of the day – the photos here are a bit out of sequence.
We found a great picnic table for lunch, overlooking the ocean. Lunch wasn’t anything fancy, just some sandwiches from a shop we discovered a few years ago, that makes a great Italian sub with some awesome bread.
Eventually Buddy started to wear out. He didn’t nap all day and I think was just getting tired. We had to cut the day a little short because I was fussing with every step he took. Donna had treats and water for him of course, hoping they’d help keep him energized.
