Santa Ynez Road Trip Photodiary

Road trip time!

For the long weekend, we took my parents on a road trip to Santa Ynez! My parents only eat McDonalds during vacation, so it was mandatory to get Micky D’s breakfast to kick off the trip. And some starbies too. My parents love the sausage egg mcmuffins and Michael and I like the mcgriddles~

One of my favorite Scenic DriveS

We’re lucky we live in California where the road trips are so amazing. There are so many charming towns to visit up and down the coast that make for the best pit stops. The drive is also heavenly beautiful…I’ll never forget the first time I did this drive back in 2015 seeing the sun sparkling over all the hills and lakes. I’ve done the drive over 5 times now and I never get tired of it (I just hate the LA leg where you get stuck in awful traffic).

First Stop: Mission Santa Barbara

Another cool facet of Californian road trips are the 21 missions! They’re each so beautiful and I love learning about the history of them, such as: it’s said that the mission and the town of Santa Barbara itself were named after Saint Barbara, a Christian martyr who was beheaded by her father…

Walking Through Downtown Santa Barbara

Then we roamed through the gorceous (Nancy Meyers-esque) olive tree lined downtown Santa Barbara~ Their downtown strip along State Street is over a mile long so start at the Sola Street intersection and work your way down through all the cute shops and lively restaurants!

It’s also a great place to grab a quick bite. We shared some delicious sushi from Sushi Tyme!!

Exploring Los Olivos

Then we spent our afternoon in Los Olivos which gives you all the boujie countryside yet low-key quaint small-town feels. Adorable little gift shops and lots and LOTS of wine tasting.

It was also golden hour so it made for fun photos 🙂 I posted all my outfit details here!

Visiting the famous Pea Soup Andersen’s

And lastly, we had a comforting dinner at the famous Pea Soup Andersen’s in Buellton. I had seen it when I was younger on Girl’s Next Door and I had always wanted to try it! It was a lovely way to end day 1 of our mini road trip!