Santa Barbara Day 2 ToDoTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities Travel

	Santa Barbara Day 2 Date: July 2, 2026

Santa Barbara Day 2
1st day winery tour

We toured wineries on Thursday & Friday July 3-4. We had plan on discovering Santa Barbara proper on Saturday.

The Marriot does not have a continental breakfast. So our first act was to find a breakfast before our day at the wineries.
The person at the Marriot desk told us about a great close by breakfast place. We walked FAR past close by and settled for Goodland Waffles

After Goodland we started our hour long trek up CA 101 to Fess Parker Winery
If there was a highlight to our trip it was this winery.

At one PM to eat we traveled ten minutes away to the Hitching Post Restaurant II restaurant used as the main set  for Paul Giamatti’s Wine movie Sideways. The regular restaurant was not open for lunch but the gril that shared their parking lot was. The Hitching Post II, was a great place to eat and what a view.

Thirty minutes later we were on our way to Michael Jacksons former Neverland Ranch. One thing you will learn about California wine regions where Paso Robels just to the north, Napa or Sonoma, is if something is a mile away, like Neverland Ranch on the back of Fess Parker Winery, it could be an hour driving apart. California is NOT like the Midwest with roads every mile.

So, after burgers we drove the fifteen minutes to the former gate of Neverland Ranch now owned my a Real Estate developer. The place is not the tropical pathway we expected. It is located in the middle of dry California hills.

Our next tasting was at the tasting room for Stolpman Tasting Room a few miles away.  Tasting rooms are small restaurant size places that the winery allows people to taste their wine when they don’t want them at the vineyard. If there was a low point on our trip it was Stolpman.

We then drove back to Santa Barbara. When we got back we rode around the area and discovered the Santa Barbara Public Market with a variety of food and easy parking about a mile from the hotel.

We did some hot tub time and rested for the evening.

We ate pizza at the Santa Barbara Public Market on Thursday. End of our day 2.

Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com