I think I am still recovering a little from our weekend. Monday was Chris’s 31 birthday, so we celebrated all weekend. The highlight of the weekend (for the non-birthday girl) was Saturday we spent the day in Carpinteria, CA. About 10 miles south of Santa Barbara is the little beachside town of Carpinteria. It’s a cute little artisan town just off of the 101 freeway full of mom & pop shops & restaurants that are just steps from the beach.

At the beginning of every October the town hosts the 30 year old, super popular California Avocado Festival. And after Saturday I can totally see how someone can spend the entire day wandering around this cute little town.

We started our morning a little late. We parked near the Amtrak station & walked down to the beach. It was probably one of the best beaches I have seen in a long time. In Orange County we are used to busy beaches, where you have to fight for a spot on the sand. This sand was so soft, it wasn’t too crowded, & we were able to fall asleep for a full hour & no one bothered us. Yes I said we fell asleep for a full hour. It was amazing, it was relaxing, & I can’t wait to head to the beach again.

When we decided it was probably time to get up & be real people we headed down Linden Ave. to scour for somewhere to get a bite to eat. We walked down to Carpinteria Ave. to the Nugget Bar & Grill. It’s a cute little restaurant, which was across the street from an open air market that Saturday. It was super cute to walk around & see the handmade soaps, old books, & little trinkets.

Once we did our little window shopping around the market we headed back to Linden Ave. where we stopped in all of the little stores. There was such cute clothes & jewelry. I love shopping in mom & pop shops because I can appreciate the store owners hard work & efforts to keep their company afloat. Right in the middle of all of the shops was the Carpinteria Arts Center. Its just a lot between two buildings with an exhibit that rotates at the beginning of the month. In August they had Yarn Blast, with tons of yarn curtains throughout the yard of the Arts Center.

According to a few locals, the breweries in town are definitely something to try. Unfortunately we didn’t make it into Island Brewing Company or Rincon Brewery but they are definitely both places we want to try on our next little day trip up to Carpinteria.