April 8th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
One of the best ways you can you can create a beautiful and drought-tolerant garden is by planting your space full of plants that are native to Southern California. Head to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for the annual native plants sale to help you get started. The sale lasts a month and features native plant events to help you carefully select what you’ll be planting this spring. Stop in to see a huge selection of manzanita, ceanothus, sage, and coral bells.
Where:
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
1212 Mission Canyon Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
When:
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April 7th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Who knew there were so many ways to judge a kite? Find out what they are at the 30th Annual Santa Barbara Kite Festival. Categories include most beautiful, largest, and highest-flying. Bring your own commercial or handmade kite, or buy one on site. There’ll be a kite-tail chase for kids, kite fighting and sport flying for skilled flyers, plus a large free-fly zone for all ages. Come see what’s up!
Where:
The Great Meadow–West Campus Lawn
Santa Barbara City College
721 Cliff Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
When:
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April 6th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Join the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and guest lecturer Neal Graffy for the “Santa Barbara Then and Now” presentation. Author-historian Graffy presents a fascinating journey through Santa Barbara’s past and present. His approach to history is described as “delightfully unfettered by convention,” and his presentations are always entertaining, fun, and educational. Through images, you will see views of the waterfront starting in 1852, learn the secrets of Santa Barbara, and ponder if every building in town has been a restaurant at least once in its life.
Where:
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
113 Harbor Way
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
When:
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April 3rd, 2015 at 8:30 am
When ice cream shops in Santa Barbara are being discussed, one is on the tip of almost everyone’s tongue: McConnell’s.
At age 66, McConnell’s is legendary not only in its hometown, but also up and down the coast. The family-operated firm pasteurizes its own grass-grazed dairy ingredients in its creamery downtown, mixed with fresh local, cage-free organic eggs, and pure cane sugar. The handcrafted ice cream is made from scratch, in small batches.
The team regularly churns out a wide variety of flavors that have kept customers coming back for more since founders Gordon “Mac” McConnell and his wife, Ernesteen, opened their first store on West Mission Street in 1949. A recent look at the menu includes Brazilian coffee chip, California lemon zest, churros con leche, Santa Barbara strawberry, Turkish coffee, and Vermont blueberry. Sorbets are offered, too, as is a dizzying array of frozen yogurt including red velvet cake, Southern salted butter, toffee nut, death by chocolate, and graham crackers and milk.
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April 2nd, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Home designs are capitalizing on the popularity of in-home suites. Commonly referred to as in-law suites, this home addition is now being occupied by more than one demographic. Most traditionally, an in-law suite was a place for older generations to occupy and be close to family and loved ones. However, now grandparents, boomerang kids, caretakers, and even dual-career homebuyers are seeing the potential that can come with having a segregated living space. According to a 2013 NAR study of buyers, an in-law suite was one of the rooms that buyers were willing to pay the most for, with 20 percent of buyers saying they would be willing to pay a median of $2,920 more.
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