Santa Barbara, CA

What a fun girls trip! Marie-Lyne, Natasha and I spent my birthday weekend in the beautiful city of Santa Barbara. We stayed at the lovely Belmond El Encanto and had a blast on a wine tour the day of my birthday. We're already trying to figure out where the next girls trip will take place!

Someone's getting married...

Heading out to dinner on day 1!

Our first dinner was at an Italian restaurant called Olio e Limone. Delicious!

For my birthday, we booked a wine tour with Grapeline Tours. We visited 4 vineyards (Firestone, Koehler, Blackjack and Lincourt). It was a lot of fun and by the end of the tour, we were all silly happy if you know what I mean!

 

Santa Barbara is so pretty. We drove around, walked around and enjoyed some drinks on the beach.

Santa Barbara Mission

Heading out to dinner at Toma Restaurant & Bar. 

Celebrating my birthday!

Goodbye Santa Barbara. We had a great time celebrating my birthday. Till next time!

Albuquerque & Santa Fe, NM

Hot date trip! We hadn't had one of those in a long time. Patrick was in NY with his grandparents so we went away for a long weekend. After doing some research, we picked Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was our first time in the state and going on a hot air balloon ride was on our bucket list. I had second thoughts about the balloon ride following news of a horrible deadly balloon crash in Texas. After doing some extensive research on the balloon company we were planning to use, I swallowed my fear. The experience turned out to be amazing. It was one of the most unbelievably exhilarating experiences of our lives.

I'm going to talk about the balloon ride first since it was the HIGHLIGHT of our trip. We rode with Rainbow Ryders. We can't say enough about the group of guys who took care of us - professionals in every way. It was fascinating to watch the process from the beginning (how they pick the spot to take off and how they inflate the balloon) to the end (how they land).

 

We stayed in a lovely boutique hotel called the Hotel Parq Central.

We took a stroll around historic Old Town.

We ate the best burritos ever at the High Noon Restaurant & Saloon.

Their margarita with cucumbers in it was amazing.

We couldn't help ourselves and stopped at the Rattlesnake Museum.

We saw some freaky things in there!

We had a very good dinner one at the Artichoke Cafe located near our hotel.

 

We also had dinner at MAS Tapas Y Vino in downtown Albuquerque. The food there was okay.

 

We drove for the day to Santa Fe, stopped at San Miguel Church, known as the oldest church in the United States.

We walked around Canyon Road billed as a top art gallery destination in Santa Fe.

Another great trip on the books!