One of the things I loved the most about living in Chicago was all the different summer festivals. Every weekend there was some kind of street fair celebrating a culture or holiday. Since I've moved to LA, there has definitely a lack of fest-ing in my life, so this summer I decided to do something about it. While looking at multiple lists of possible festivals to attend, the California Wine Festival was a for sure MUST. The festival, featuring 60+ wineries, takes place twice during the summer; once in Dana Pointe & once in Santa Barbara. 3 Days of different events, endless tastings & a ton of vendors all beachside; there was only one thing to do. I rounded up 3 of my wine-loving girlfriends & we headed for Santa Barbara.
One of my friends found us an AMAZING Airbnb about 20 mins from town. The property was huge & consisted of multiple places to stay. Our little home was the building on the right. The best part of this house though was the views.
Given that my friends & I all work, we were only able to attend the beachside tastings on Saturday. We decided to take a car service since we knew we'd be drinking, however, we ran into a little bit of a problem getting the car out of the driveway.
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| Saddest Lexus ever |
One AAA call & an hour later, we were on our way. We decided to purchase the VIP tickets prior to attending the festival, which got us the tickets at a discount. Our tickets included early entrance (so much for that) to the tasting, access to a private pavilion that provided food, reserve wines & most importantly, shade!
Given that we got to the festival 2 hours late & because I didn't pay any attention to what time the festival ended until the car got stuck, we had to make up for lost time.
Luli quickly became one of our favorites. Now if only we could find them in actual stores...
In addition to the 60+ wineries in attendance, there were also a ton of other vendors: jewelry, chocolates, clothing, hot dogs...you name it.
Needless to say, we had a great time at the festival!
When the festival was over, we decided to continue on our wine seeking adventure & made a stop at the Santa Barbara Winery tasting room downtown.
After this, we were just about spent. But needless to say, we had a great day!
Things we learned:
-Stay closer to town when using a car service
-Pay attention to the start & end times of festivals
-We will for sure be coming back next year
So glad to learn of this event from your blog! It looks like something I'll have to plan on doing next summer.
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