On the outskirts of Santa Barbara is the village of Montecito – very exclusive, with homes starting at over $1 million.  We ventured into Montecito one evening to have dinner at San Ysidro Ranch. With rates between $795-3,990 per night, we had to see what it looked like. On entering the ranch, we knew we were in the right place when we passed olives trees and rows of blooming Spanish lavender. 

Before having dinner at the Plow & Angel Bistro, we wandered through the ranch’s beautiful gardens, where Vivien Leigh and Sir Lawrence Olivier exchanged vows.  After we made our way back to the restaurant, we chose a table outside so we could continue to enjoy the surroundings.  With the white linen-covered tables, pea gravel and limestone fountain, we felt like we were having dinner at a private estate rather than a restaurant.

At the other end of the ambience scale, we had lunch one day in Santa Barbara at La Super-Rica. This is the taco shack that Julia Child loved to go to.  After standing in line to order (it doesn’t matter what time you go – it’s always busy) you sit at picnic tables in a covered patio area and enjoy freshly-made corn tortillas, pork and roasted peppers – not fancy, but very tasty.

If you love almonds, stop by Andersen’s Danish Bakery & Café right on State Street. Besides many other desserts and pastries, they have an almond tart that is truly delicious.

What weekend in southern California is complete without a celebrity sighting?  While shopping at a few of the boutiques in Montecito, we passed a group of four friends having lunch at the Cava restaurant. On closer inspection we saw that it was Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres with their significant others.

With its beautiful setting and great shopping, restaurants and outdoor activities, Santa Barbara is a perfect place for a girls getaway.

Related links:  Santa Barbara (Part I)  |  SantaBarbara.com  |  San Ysidro Ranch

Regular readers know that there are few subjects that dominate my thoughts like chocolate. When it comes to finding places with chocolate, I’m usually the designated driver.

I ran across a handy tool that’s sure to be put to use on our next girls trip. It’s called ChocoMap.com and – you guessed it - features chocolate cafes and shops around the globe.  Choose a city and click on one of the little pushpins to find that great place that serves decadent Mexican Hot Chocolate or hand-made truffles.

Check it out at: http://www.chocomap.com

The holidays are a great excuse to make some wickedly delicious drinks.  Readers of my blog know that if it has chocolate in it, I’m interested.  My husband and I were talking about our upcoming trip to South Padre Island, and I mentioned that I wanted to serve some fun drinks.  He pointed me to a great site called DrinkSwap.  DrinkSwap has a huge selection of both hot and cold holiday drink recipes to choose from: 

http://www.drinkswap.com/index.asp?seasonal=drinks

It has martinis, ciders, eggnogs, spiked hot chocolates, you name it.  They even make you work for the recipes by dodging the snowflakes.  Cheers!

I just spent a few days in Los Angeles with my sister and thought I’d share the highlights of our girl trip.  We spent most of our time in the West Hollywood area – a great neighborhood with lots of restaurants, shops, and beautiful homes within walking distance. Speaking of walking…I think I wore out a pair of shoes, but it was a nice change from driving everywhere. 

Here are some of the places we went in West Hollywood that you may want to try:

- Urth Caffé on Melrose Ave (see past article).   This is one of my favorite places anywhere -  My lunch (chicken curry sandwich and banana cream pie) was delicious (everything is delicious here) and a great place for people watching. 

 - Shopping on Wilshire - very up scale clothes and furniture shops in a nice neighborhood setting.  Don’t be surprised to see Rodeo Drive like prices.  It’s fun to shop even if you can’t afford to buy a $350 white cotton blouse or a $1000 cashmere sweater.

- Tour architect Schindler’s home on Kings Road - This small 1922 home is surprisingly current in its design.

 - Dessert at Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose Ave.  This bakery/café has wonderful cakes that look as good as they taste.  We enjoyed a slice of seven layer cake and a berry filled English trifle with French press coffee.  While we were there, a steady stream of custom cakes were being picked up for private events.

 - Visit the Farmer’s Market on a Sunday morning – flowers, wonderful fruits, vegetables and rustic bread - just around the corner from Urth Caffe and a fun place to visit on a cool Sunday morning. 

- Stroll around the neighborhood to see homes with beautifully landscaped courtyards and gated entries.

Just a note to you single girls - you’ll find many attractive males in West Hollywood. However a large portion of them are interested in other guys, not girls.

We did venture outside West Hollywood to Hollywood Blvd and on impulse took a guided tour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Rodeo Drive.  The tour was really interesting (i.e. – we saw Bruce Willis’ house which is a few feet from Demi Moore’s house) and pointed out several celebrity homes and homes used in well-known movies like Gone with the Wind and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan. 

After the tour we shopped on Rodeo Drive, which was closed to motorized traffic for an evening event.  As we wandered from store to store, we saw an army of event planners – most dressed in black — prepare a stage on Rodeo Drive, set-up catering and arranged outdoor displays of shoes for the “Walk of Style” in honor of shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. Unfortunately, we had to leave just as the celebs were arriving, but we did catch a glimpse of Tim Robbins.

On our last day, we toured the Getty Villa which is located off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.  Although much smaller than the Getty Center, the Villa is modeled after a famous Roman villa and has some wonderful gardens and mosaics.   If you plan to go, be sure to get tickets online (free) in advance.  They offer several free tours each day – we got a lot out of the Architecture and Gardens tour.

Tour Info: All Star Showbiz Tours van across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater

San Francisco is one of my favorite cities.  And it’s easy to see why.  It has a spectacular setting, moderate weather, cable cars, great shopping, interesting people and fabulous restaurants.  It’s a great place for a girls-only get together. 

To help you plan your next trip to the Bay Area, here’s my top ten list of favorite things to do in and around San Francisco:

1. Walking around the Marina District and seeing Chestnut Street, Marina Green and the Palace of the Fine Arts
2. Shopping at Union Square
3. Spending a Sunday in Golden Gate Park and watching the remote control boats and visiting the Conservatory
4. Driving down Lombard Street, the world’s crookedest street
5. Taking an informal walking tour in the Pacific Heights neighborhood (near the Presidio), where you can stroll by beautiful Victorian mansions
6. Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands overlook for a panoramic view of San Francisco Bay, the bridge and the city
7. Spending an afternoon in Mill Valley, a misty storybook-like village just across the bridge
8. Having lunch at Sam’s in Tiburon, one of the few restaurants right on the Bay
9. Shopping at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto (borders Stanford University)
10. Exploring the mansion and gardens at Filoli

Few desserts are as perfect as ice cream when strolling around on a warm summer evening.  Not only is ice cream portable, it also comes in a dizzying array of flavors – Baskin Robbins has created 1,000 flavors alone!

When choosing, I tend to lean toward any flavor combination that includes chocolate, key lime or pumpkin.  Given the variety of choices for ice cream, what would you guess are the top selling ice cream flavors in the US?

According to the International Dairy Farmer’s Association, who tracks this sort of thing, the top five ice cream flavors are:

1. Vanilla (26%)
2. Chocolate (12.9%)
3. Neapolitan (4.8%)
4. Strawberry (4.3%)
5. Cookies n’ cream (4.0%)

Not sure who’s buying all that vanilla ice cream, but if you like trying new flavors, here are some recent introductions by Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs. 

• Mayan Chocolate (H-D) – Dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon
• American Pie  (B & J) - Apple Pie ice cream with apples and pie crust Pieces
• Neapolitan Dynamite (B&J) – Cherry Garcia and Fudge Brownie, side by side
• Black & Tan (B&J) – Cream Stout swirled with chocolate
• Vermonty Python (B&J) - Coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl & fudge cows
• Strawberry Kiwi Swirl - Chunky Strawberry sorbet swirled with kiwi sorbet
• Sticky Toffee Pudding (H-D) - rich vanilla ice cream swirled with a sticky toffee sauce and morsels of moist, brown sugar cake 

Having lived in Vermont, I’m partial to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. If you happen to be in northern Vermont, be sure to stop by the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury for a unique tour and sample some freshly made ice cream.  Yum!

Ben & Jerry’s web site  |  Haagen-Dazs web site 

Here are some highlights from July:

• The Getty Museum (Los Angeles)
• Summer Travel Specials
• Local Getaway - have fun in your own home town
• Summer Entertainment Sampler
• Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, Oregon)
• Win a trip to France!
• Top Ten Bakeries
• Organizing a Girls Trip? Check out TripHub.
• San Juan Islands, Washington
• When the Girl is away…
• San Juan Island Lavender Festival
• Who’s the queen of chick flicks?

I live for dessert.  The expression, “Life is uncertain - eat dessert first” describes my outlook pretty well.  When I visit a new city, one of the first things I do is search out the best bakeries and dessert places.  Enjoying a slice of decadent chocolate cake with a cup of decaf coffee definitely puts me in a happy state of mind.   

Here, in no particular order, is a top ten list of my favorites from around the US: (more…)