Napa and Sonoma certainly have their upsides, but how about someplace with a little less travel hassle, just as serene with plenty of good food and wine to boot? It doesn’t take too long for gorgeous Santa Barbara to materialize in your brain’s pleasure center as a perfect quick get-away. A relaxing 5 hour train ride from the downtown San Diego Santa Fe Station puts you smack dab in the middle of this enchantingly peaceful town.

Mira Monte Resort.

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As with any other form of transportation, the train has its pluses and minuses. Amtrak is not terribly expensive ($100 roundtrip in business class) and it’s such a pleasure to take any form of transportation that does not require a strip search. You can bring almost anything on board from monster pizza to a picnic lunch, accompanied by liquid containers over 3 ounces. Arriving 20 to 30 minutes early is fine and you can actually keep your seat reclined the entire time. Reminds us of air-travel back in the old days. Train stations can be a little on the skanky side, but avoiding long security lines is worth a little dirt under the nails. We did experience a bit of a setback when our Engineer had a “medical incident” in San Juan Capistrano and we had to sit and wait for another one to arrive from Oceanside. Kind of like being stuck on the tarmac for a few hours, but here you can eat, drink and use the bathroom every five minutes if you feel like it. You might even get some free wine if you ask nicely. Just make sure your Engineer isn’t on “new meds” like ours was.

The train adventure aside, everything was picture perfect. Arriving at the tiny Santa Barbara station isn’t too far from a stop at Petticoat Junction. The building is ancient, well maintained and a 5 minute cab ride from just about anywhere. Many of the hotels are within walking distance, as is State Street which is where you’ll find the majority of the action.

The Mira Monte Resort was our nesting place for the three day stay and it proved to be comfortable and clean. The hotel is right next to the fabulous Fess Parker and was just purchased by Hyatt who has a needed facelift in the budget for this oceanfront hotel. If you stay here, a couple of tips. First off, spring for the oceanfront room. There’s nothing worse than looking out over an asphalt parking lot in the back when you know the mighty Pacific is surging 20 feet behind you. That said, the mountain view is pretty spectacular in itself. Still, spring for the beach view. Second, no matter what they tell you this place is not walking distance to downtown. We arrived around 5 pm and were informed that it was not “that safe” to walk the 30 minutes due to the “aggressive” homeless people who call the beach front path home. Being two guys who can handle Tijuana at night, we did it anyway, but we get their point. You’re not going to want to hoof it an hour round-trip every time you feel like a little diversion, and the transients are a bit territorial. Come to think of it, Santa Barbara is where I’d go if I had to live al fresco.

For a lovely and completely tourist oriented experience, do take a walk to the end of the pier which is rich with historic plaques and little trinket shacks. We stopped at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company towards the end, pulled up a bench along the wall and had ourselves a lovely locally produced Pinot Grigio, some fresh shucked oysters and rich, luxurious clam chowder. This place was full of locals as well, most of them feasting on Dungeness crab from one of their many holding tanks. A little slice of heaven hanging out over the deep blue. Sigh….

Numerous and varied eateries fill this college town, along with a retail district that appears to be suffering just as much as anywhere else during these tough times. High-end shops are flanked by “for lease” banners, but everyone here is calm, happy, and zenned-out. Julia Child was a big SB devotee and her picture is everywhere with a “Julia ate here” claim. One place we will recommend is the La Super Rica Taqueria taco shack that apparently hosted the venerable Ms. Child many times. Be prepared to wait for 45 minutes in line on the sidewalk for the honor of ordering through a little glass window. Once you get to the front, order an extra beer for the trouble and wait for them to call your number so you can dive into the number 4 taco combination. If you’re hungry, order two. These are delicious, but not big.

The Farmer's Market.

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For dinner, the locals all demanded we try Opal Restaurant & Bar which we did and were glad for the suggestion. The place was a mob scene on a Thursday, but it was the happiest dang mob I can recall. Everyone was leaning over to the next table asking “what did you get” and “where are you going tomorrow?” Our sumptuous meal included Paella with fresh steamed mussels, clams, shrimp, chicken and chorizo sausage (yeah, it was good) and Sautéed chicken on penne pasta with a homemade chipotle cream sauce (yeah, that was good too). We completely agree…include Opal’s in your plans.

Café Luck was also recommended, and not quite as successful. Be prepared to be wedged into your end-table sized space and just wait for the evening to unfold. We will say that our dining selections were on the avante gaurde side including fresh sea urchin, oysters and roasted frogs legs, none of them presented or prepared particularly well. Wonder if that taco place was still open at that hour? I guess we should’ve been a little apprehensive when we learned the place is owned by the guy who created “Lucky Jeans”. He was there holding court, and perhaps should stick to creating ratty looking denims. Not that we have an opinion or anything.

Friday is the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market and what a joy it is! Minstrels, real live hippies with “home grown” everything coaxing you in to try their wares. The pistachio butter and the hand pressed olive oil from Joelle Olive Oil were two real finds if there is room in your suitcase. Some of the best stuff ever. Our only regret was being in a hotel room without a kitchenette so we couldn’t cook up some of those Chanterelles with some fresh Sea Bass. We settled for a few bunches of fresh lavender that at least made the room smell nice.

Santa Barbara has more than enough to keep you entertained. Throw in the relaxing train ride home and you’ll feel like you were gone for a week.