My family and I recently snuck in a quick two-day getaway to Santa Barbara. It's a place we go to often as it's close to where we live and yet it feels like we're worlds away. It's also where my husband can surf some of the best breaks California has to offer. Most of our time there is spent on the beach, as my husband's surfing addiction demands close proximity to the waves from morning till night. Which means I pack my beach bag more like a survival kit and stock it with everything from a sun-protective rash guard for paddle boarding (mine is by , a stylish line of SPF clothing designed by former Vogue editor Alexandra Kotur) to an extra large beach blanket (like this chic one by ), which can accommodate my entire brood, to extra bathing suits (The Outnet has a lot of cute ones on sale right now, such as this ). I also pack a cozy, warm sweater like to wear when the sun goes down, a ski jacket (this is not overkill--it gets seriously cold and windy post-sunset!), workout clothes for when the mood strikes, crazy amounts of food and refreshments, and some good reading material (, , The Marriage Plot). Read on for trip highlights...

We kept busy on the beach, building forts made from driftwood, boogie boarding the sand dunes, and burying each other, in this case, my youngest son.

This is the entrance to the beautiful house we rented. It was perched way up high on a mountain in what my husband calls the back country (perhaps because it's 2.3 miles away from the ocean!) It had a ping pong table in the garage, which allowed me to resurrect my childhood skills and beat all of my competitive opponents (i.e., my husband, and four and seven year-olds). We also played musical beds. My kids have a knack for evicting my husband and I out of bed in the middle of the night and into their twin cots whenever we go on vacation!

I definitely felt like we were in the back country on Sunday morning, when about a dozen vultures circled above us as we ate our breakfast on the porch. I managed to capture a picture of one, as we braved a brief hike outside our house. I seriously felt like we were in the movie Birds!

We met up with some friends on the beach and ended up barbecuing and pool partying. Evidently for the kids, it was an all-out rager!

We got treated to this pastel-perfect Santa Barbara sunset before driving (bumper-to-bumper) back to reality on Sunday night. I am already looking forward to our next trip!