Jonny Sport heads south to Lotusland and Santa Barbara.

May 6, 10:58 PM

I am recently back from my ladycation. It was my first trip ever away from my baby. He is 5 now so it was about time. My 3 pieces of Jonny Sport luggage and I headed south to Santa Barbara to meet my friend, the ornamental horticulturist and beverage professional extraordinaire, Peggy Boston. For three days we wandered around the Santa Barbara area and toured amazing gardens (and a house and a building too) by day and in the evenings we enjoyed a fabulous selection of wines, spirits, lovely food, great company and even 3 nights of tranquil sleep in a clean reasonably priced, unscented, and very comfortable hotel, the Avania Inn.

The highlight of our garden tour was Lotusland. This is an incredible 37 acre botanical wonderland. Reservations are required so check out their website and read the brief bio of Ganna Walska, the polish Opera singer and socialite who purchased the estate in Montecito, CA that is now Lotusland. Now I think I’d like to read her autobiography, There’s Always Room at the Top.

To keep my entry brief I am compiling a list of places we visited and posting photos at the end.

As a vegan/pescatarian eating on the road can be a bit tricky but I did some research at Powell’s Books in Portland before I left town and found a great travel guide, California Healthy: The Adventurer’s Guide to Local Delicacies, Fine Wine, Great Walks and the Good Life. This book made my vacation even better as we ate exclusively at small, local places like the Chamomile Cafe, in Carpinteria, and the Sojourner Cafe in Santa Barbara, . Being from Portland and having access to great coffee, I find it important to seek out a good coffee shop when traveling. I had my daily espresso and local people watching fix at the Coffee Cat, 1201 Anacapa St.

On our last day in Santa Barbara, Peggy and I had the good fortune to have a mini-spa experience at the Biltmore 4 Seasons Hotel. We enjoyed swimming in the heated saltwater pool and walking around the grounds of the Spanish Colonial hotel built in 1927 and hanging out with 2 other lovely lady friends of Peggy’s from San Francisco who just happened to be in Santa Barbara hosting a small conference at the Four Seasons hotel.

Then it was off to Berkeley CA for one night (Peggy and I made it back in time for tapas at Cesar) and San Francisco for one day before hopping on the airplane to Portland.

While in San Francisco I finally got to eat at the Slanted Door at the Ferry Building. I had been to the original Slanted Door in the Mission District years before, in 1995, with Jon (of Jonny Sport fame) and my mom and her friend Ellen and her daughter Mimi. Back then the food was good but on this trip it was amazing; and next time I go I will eat at the bar because it is a little more intimate than the huge but tastefully appointed modern dining room.

I was so full from lunch that even after walking around the mission dropping Jonny Sport postcards at coffee shops, and second hand-mid-century furniture stores, a few boutiques, and a vegan restaurant called Herbivore that I have to try next time I am in the Bay Area, that all I had room for by the time we reached Coco 500, in the late afternoon, was one of Peggy’s Special Margaritas made with organic 4 Copas Tequila and organic agave syrup and lemons and limes. Simply delicious. Peggy works at the bar at Coco 500 as well as at the Moss Room, at the Academy of Sciences. She is as I said, a true beverage professional.

One last story before I leave you with pictures of plants. On my walk (with my luggage) to the Bart Station to take the train to the plane, I was stopped by a couple who were loaded up with grocery bags from a nearby Whole Foods. They stopped me because they were gluing their eyes on my bags. (The Everything Bag and the Weekend Bag) Luckily, I had a postcard to give them and a brief explanation of the still pretty new company, Jonny Sport.

Goodbye for now,

Rachel Elizabeth

1. The term “ladycation” was invented by my friend Nancye Benson of Moxie Rx. Definition: a vacation taken with lady friends.