A few years ago, while traveling the west coast of Canada, I met a future travel buddy. Over the past few years, it has turned into a travel group. We try to meet at least once a year and this year we all reconnected in California. We were driving along the coast, stopping in towns along the way. One of those stops was Santa Barbara. This is a place for everyone, unique shops (bargain silver outlet), a beautiful beach, easy to navigate, great food. While it does seem that it would attract those with more expensive tastes, it has a very casual, friendly and easy going attitude about it. Take the time to visit the Fig tree, which has a cute, romantic story. At the beach there is a paved trail, which makes this ideal for any traveling runners out there!