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Santa Barbara is a college town and home to State Street that is lined with bar after bar serving mediocre well-drinks to weekend revelers. But cocktail lovers rejoice! Now there is a place where you can get a properly made craft cocktail, along with some tasty bites. Located on Canon Perdido Street, just a block and half east of State Street in what was originally Santa Barbara’s Chinatown, but is now called the “Presidio District”, is the Pickle Room. Located next door to Three Pickles Deli, the Pickle Room is in the place of the historical Jimmy’s Oriental Garden bar. With no sign out front except for a red sign that says “cocktails”, Pickle Room is like a speakeasy meets neighborhood bar. More importantly, it is a “grown-up bar,” owner Bob Lovejoy explained.
Sometimes all you need is a weekend getaway to escape the weekly grind. My recent getaway to Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort in Solvang, California, the heart of wine country, was the perfect destination. After a long week, we left Los Angeles after dark, and after traffic, to drive up to Santa Barbara. Two hours later we drove down a dark country road and found the driveway into Alisal Guest Ranch.    We settled into our private guest cottage, one of 73 in total. With no telephones or televisions, it was a well-needed escape from reality. Only a few minutes from the touristy streets of Solvang, Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort is a secluded hideaway that has been a full-service guest ranch since 1946.  From horseback riding and a petting zoo to two 18-hole championship golf courses, a huge spa and fitness center and tennis courts to a 100-acre spring-fed lake for kayaking, canoeing and fly fishing to, of course, wine tasting, there are activities for everyone!
20131027_125832 Just east of State Street and sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and Highway 101, near the AmTrak station in Santa Barbara, the Funk Zone has popped up. Home to artisan shops, wine tasting rooms, microbreweries and eateries, this is Santa Barbara's hottest destination. The newest addition to the area is the McTavish Family's Santa Barbara Art Foundry. And, while there, stop for a wine tasting at the Fox Wine Company tasting room inside the Foundry. 20131027_141130 The Foundry offers free tours to see how bronze sculptures are created. Featuring the artist Tim Cotterill, otherwise known as The FROGman, visitors can watch the entire process firsthand while artisans work on the "lost wax" method and create his original frog sculptures.
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