Jeff took the day off of work, so after nap time we decided to go somewhere we had never been before. We picked up Nana and Papa on our way and headed to the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens. A lovely place for all of us to explore. Ellie enjoyed it very much, insisting on being barefoot and hiking down the rocky dirt paths ahead of us. This child loves the outdoors.

We were only there for maybe fifteen minutes before my camera battery ran out. Of course. So, half of these photos are iPhone photos. I was very bummed, because the beauty of this place made me itch for my regular camera. I was glad to have my iPhone though to at least document my silly girl enjoying nature.

It had been socked in with fog all morning down by the beach, but by the time we made it up to the hills of Santa Barbara, it was a beautiful, sunny day. The gardens had a lovely main meadow full of poppies and other California wildflowers and a path that took you through a coastal redwood forest.

It was like Disneyland for this little one. She wanted her shoes off so she could experience every sensation. There were rocks (and benches like this one) to climb and dirt paths to run along. When the trail got a little tricky she was not thrilled with Mama or Daddy when we tried to help her by carrying her. She wants to do it all by herself, all the time.

We will definitely be returning to the botanic gardens again. There was so much more we didn’t get to see before dinner and a long drive home came calling. A lovely afternoon in nature.