Photos From the Road: Carpinteria and Santa Barbara

Just after Christmas we went up the coast for a family wedding in Santa Barbara. Here are a few photos from our trip...

The Thomas Fire had passed through the Carpinteria area just days before, and we passed a lot of hills that looked like this:

We also saw signs hanging all over Carpinteria thanking fire fighters for saving the town, which had been in serious fire danger. This one on a business near Padaro Beach was typical:

The smoke was gone and it was a beautiful day at Padaro Beach Grill:

Eating at this gorgeous beachside wonderland, you'd never know how bad the air quality had been due to the fire just a couple weeks before:

The burger was great!

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Carpinteria Inn, which was festively decorated for the holidays:

The hotel was friendly and quite clean, though it was time to refresh our room; the wallpaper was starting to look shabby. It was a good value compared to hotels further up the coast in Santa Barbara.

The morning of the wedding we enjoyed breakfast at the Summerland Beach Cafe. Summerland is a small community located between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.

And here's the First United Methodist Church of Santa Barbara, where the wedding was held. A beautiful church and more importantly, a lovely wedding!

The reception location, the Santa Barbara Woman's Club, was also beautiful! A very happy day.