Archive for July, 2010

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Best Kept Secrets: Top 8 Family Spring Break Vacation Tips

If you’ve got kids in school, your family spring break vacation has special meaning for you. The kids get a week off and it’s probably the only real vacation they (and you) get during those six long months between the winter holidays and summer. Everyone needs a family spring break vacation. You’ve marked off the family’s spring break vacation dates on your calendar months in advance, and everyone is jonesing to hit the road.

How can you make the most of this precious spring break? You want something fun, enriching and affordable. What you need for your family spring break vacation is a Santa Barbara vacation rental home.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #1 – Escape The Rowdy Crowd: The phrase “spring break vacation” conjures up TV news footage of drunken bashes and out of control college students trashing hotels. When you’re planning a family spring break vacation, party central is the last place you want to be. The simple way to avoid these rowdy spring break revelers is to go where they aren’t. Santa Barbara is a great place to take your family on spring break, and a Santa Barbara vacation rental is the ideal place to base your trip.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #2 – Control Your Environment For Half The Cost: For a family, the simple tactical advantages of a Santa Barbara vacation rental are enormous. You get double the square footage for your family spring break vacation dollar. You get a two- to three-bedroom beautifully appointed home, instead of a generic hotel room with paper thin walls that will allow you and your children to hear everything the party animals are doing in the next room. (Aside from the noise level, there are some discussions you don’t want to have with your young kids: “Mommy, what’s a Jell-o shot?”).

By using a Santa Barbara vacation rental home for your family spring break vacation, you control the environment. You share no walls, you have your own porch, your own backyard, your own place to breathe without having to keep an eye on questionable hotel guests.You have your own media center, your own big screen TV, a place where you and your family can have all the loud fun and wholesome games you want without having to worry about someone banging on the wall. You get your choice of Santa Barbara vacation rental home each with its own view, unique style (Greek, Spanish Mission, Modern, Italian, French, etc.). Beyond doubling your family’s spring break vacation space for the same money, a Santa Barbara vacation rental home has a unique character so your kids will recall the details of your family spring break vacation for years to come.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #3 – Santa Barbara Is Family Friendly Destination: A Santa Barbara vacation rental home is more than just gorgeous house to have spring break fun in. What makes a great Santa Barbara family spring break vacation is Santa Barbara itself. Santa Barbara has tons of family-friendly activities and events that come into bloom during spring break. Downtown Santa Barbara has glorious shopping, family-friendly restaurants, historical sites and galleries to explore. There are lots of places that are specifically designed for families. There are so many family friendly activities that many families come back to Santa Barbara year after year for their family spring break vacation.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #4 – Santa Barbara Makes It Easy To Find Unique Family-Friendly Events: Year round Santa Barbara is bursting with festivals, events, shows and activities. On any given weekend during your family spring break vacation you will be able to choose from a wide variety of family friendly events. To get a listing of all events go to http://www.santabarbara.com/calendar/. If you’re looking for the latest in family friendly goings-on check out Santa Barbara Family’s Calendar of Events: http://www.sbfamilylife.com/coe.htm or Santa Barbara Parent http://www.sbparent.com/.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #5 – Explore The OutdoorsSanta Barbara has 300 days of sunshine a year, making it the perfect place to plan an outdoor family spring break vacation. Here are some of the most popular outdoor family spring break vacation activities:

Bring your dog. Unlike many hotels, you can bring your dog to enjoy Santa Barbara vacation rentals along with you on your family spring break vacation.
Walk along Santa Barbara’s many beaches.
Explore the grounds of the Santa Barbara Mission.
If you want a lovely stroll, go to the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens or the Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. If you love orchids, the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate is a must-see attraction that draws orchid lovers from around the world.
Find inner peace at Ganna Walska Lotusland
The whole family can rent individual bikes to check out the many available bike trails or you can rent a fun, covered, four-person Surrey bike.
If you love horses visit the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club or spend spring break horseback riding through the wilderness.
Play Frisbee in the backyard of your Santa Barbara vacation rental home or in one of our many parks such as Alameda Park, Chase Palm Park (which has a Merry-Go-Round).
Go camping.
Day trips through the greater Southern California area (Oxnard, Ventura, Los Angeles, Hollywood, etc).
Play tennis year round.
Hike along the Santa Ynez Mountains or along the beach. No matter which Santa Barbara vacation rental home you choose for your family spring break vacation, you’re not far from a hiking trail.
If you’ve got skaters in your family, Skater’s Point is Santa Barbara’s rocking skateboard park.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #6 – That Big Blue Wet Ocean Thingy Can Be Fun: Your Santa Barbara vacation rental home is never far away from something the natives like to call the Pacific Ocean. While the rest of the country may still be shivering in the cold, your family spring break vacation is the perfect time to enjoy seaside fun such as:

Santa Barbara has many of California’s best beaches: Arroyo Burro Beach, Goleta Beach, East Beach, Leadbetter Beach. Butterfly Beach (a little hard to find) is where the locals go to have a great beach experience.
Cruise Santa Barbara’s beautiful waterfront on the Santa Barbara Water Taxi.
Boat lovers can go to the Yacht Club, charter a boat or do some sport fishing.
If you’d love to see what spring looks like under the sea, you can get supervised scuba diving and snorkeling lessons.
Grab your wet suit and go surfing.
Fishing is popular at the many lakes and ocean fishing is also available to give your family an unforgettable adventure.
For those of you with older children looking for spring break adventure, Santa Barbara is great for kayaking where your kid can get up close with dolphins, sea lions and more.
There is no better place on the coast for whale watching than the Santa Barbara Channel.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #7 – Don’t Tell The Kids They’re Learning: The deep dark secret of a Santa Barbara family spring break vacation is that you can turn off your brain, but you don’t have to. There are plenty of cultural and educational opportunities you can enjoy on your family spring break vacation:

Take the trolley tour, which will teach you the history of Santa Barbara in 90 fun-filled minutes.
The Ty Warner Sea Center is a great place for hands-on science.
Visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Santa Barbara’s Zoological Gardens is one of the best small zoos in the country.
For the museum minded, explore the Contemporary Arts Forum, El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, The Museum of Art, South Coast Railroad Museum, the UCSB Art Museum.
For evening fun you have your choice of theaters playing comedies, musicals and dramas.
In addition to Santa Barbara’s thriving music scene you can listen to the symphony, chamber orchestra, choral society and more.

Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals’ Family Spring Break Vacation Tip #8 – You Don’t Have To Stay With The Kids The Whole Time: Finally, if you want to take a spring break from your own children, the concierge of your Santa Barbara vacation rental home can arrange to have your kids entertained by experienced (and vetted) professional babysitters. While your kids are having fun with one of the baby sitters, you can explore the other side of Santa Barbara, one of the most romantic destinations on the planet.

Your Santa Barbara family spring break vacation will be the highlights of your year, a cherished memory that will last a lifetime. Families fall in love with their Santa Barbara vacation rental home and keep coming back year after year, sometimes stretching into the third generation. That’s the best kind of family spring break vacation, the one that keeps giving long after you leave.


Graham Farrar is a Santa Barbara local with specialized knowledge in the popular destination’s attractions and activities. He is a Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals expert and offers tips and advice for traveling to Santa Barbara on the www.sbluxuryrentals.com blog.


www.PersonalizedSantaVideo.com. This short excerpt was taken from a personalized video message just like the one that Santa Claus will prepare for your child, grandchild, niece, nephew or young family friend when you place an order at http In addition to Santa’s downloadable video message your child will also receive Santa’s latest album “Santa Sings Chistmas” as downloadable MP3 album. All for just .95. Santa will also be making phone calls to children this year.


Question by Ha: How does Norad track santa by radars and do they actually track the actual santa?
Cause i have been wondering, does norad actually track a real life santa?

Best answer:

Answer by Kthxbye
It’s by a process of elimination. All the actual planes have an identifying signature on radar, so the one thing flying up there without a signature is Santa.

What do you think? Answer below!

30 comments - What do you think?
Posted by santa - July 27, 2010 at 11:49 pm

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Card Making of a Christmas Card

It’s that time of the year again.

For most of us, December is our favorite month. It is that special month when special things happen. The festivities on the month of December gives us a long holiday for work and such break gives us a chance to reconnect with our friends and family. It is that special time when we remember everyone who is dear to us in one way or another. The yuletide season is also that wonderful time of the year when we get to bond with them and spend quality time with them.

Christmas is also the special time for sharing. It is that time of the year, aside from our respective birthdays, that we would give each other gifts that would express our love and gratitude for that person. For most of us, the gift should have said everything. It should have signified everything that we wanted the person to know and fee. But to be sure, there is always a Christmas card. Not everyone would understand how we feel just by a single gift, sometimes it is way better to articulate our feelings in words so that we could get our message across clearly. Christmas cards have always been there for us. It has always expressed things and emotions that we could not say personally.

Although there are many available Christmas cards in the market, it would still be helpful if we could take time to make our own Christmas card. Card making plays a very important role in the way we express our feelings. Next to the message written in the card, the way that the card is made also says something. The effort that we would pour on card making for Christmas card weighs a lot. Why? Everyone knows that unlike birthdays, we have to give everyone a gift. The fact that you took time to make a card for this person makes him or her special above the rest.

Making a card for someone really means a lot. Everyone knows how time consuming Christmas card making is and how patient you should be in order to successfully come up with one. This is why if anyone happens to receive a personalized Christmas card they are sure to cherish it for the rest of their lives. They would keep it and each time they would feel sad and blue, the personalized card has a magic that could instantly make them happy and special.

Visit Paper Mill Direct to know more about Gift Sets.


Learn how to make a birthday card on a computer and more in this free arts and crafts video taught by an expert. Expert: Elouise Hester Bio: Elouise Hester is a paraprofessional and homemaker. She uses her creative talents to make personalized stationary and cards for her friends and family. Filmmaker: bobby Hester


Question by Bob E: how does making your own christmas cards make you be more sustainable?
there is reasons because it saves paper and youc an recycle them but what else how does this effect the environment or just how is it more sustainable

Best answer:

Answer by Mark Jameson
I don’t know. Why don’t you Google it?

Give your answer to this question below!

7 comments - What do you think?
Posted by santa - July 26, 2010 at 10:19 pm

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Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

Ebenezer Scrooge once famously said: “If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

Perhaps Scrooge was a school calendar coordinator in a previous life. Or, maybe he was an advertising manager for a major retailer. Or, perhaps, he was a city coordinator charged with hanging “holiday” lights in the town square in December. Whatever his situation it seems he had much in common with many individuals in modern society who simply do not like the term “Merry Christmas”.

As sure as there is an “x” in Christmas you can bet that someone, somewhere in our modern world is going to get pushed out of shape by hearing the words “Merry Christmas”. To some people, the term “Merry Christmas” can be worse than the f-bomb.

The word merry, as otherwise more politely recorded elsewhere on our festive pages, means “joyous”. So to wish someone a “Merry Christmas” means only to wish them a joyous Christmas season.

That’s not the problem.

The problem is the reference to Christ. Some who do not believe in Christ become offended that one would invoke His name in a sentiment of goodwill.

Think of it this way: you say “Have a nice day”, and no one would be offended by that. But if you say “Have a nice day, in Jesus’ name” – and you got trouble. That’s the beef amongst those who decry “Merry Christmas”.

It is a stupid beef.

“Christmas”, as a word, sure enough has sacred leanings. It is a simple contraction of an obviously religious term, “Christ Mass”.

But thousands of years later with plenty of congressional debates behind us we also recognize Christmas as a secular day, observance, term — and sentiment.

After all, we have Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas candy, and Christmas cards. None of these things have anything to do with “Christ Mass”.

Associated with the word Christmas are things like mistletoe, the Grinch, stockings, Santa Claus, wassail, and really, really mediocre Christmas tunes by a Jewish boy named Neil Diamond. (White Christmas, the most popular of all modern holiday tunes was penned by another Jew, Irving Berlin, is also completely secular).

None of these things had anything to do with “Christ Mass” either.

So, in essence, the term “Merry Christmas” means joyous “sacred” Christmas OR joyous “secular” Christmas, interchangeably. How convenient.

In an ironic twist of merry fate many try to placate those who would be offended by Merry Christmas by substituting the obviously safe and politically correct term “Happy Holidays”.

It is only ironic because of the passionate throngs who insist that “Merry Christmas” must be said in order to preserve, protect and defend the right of Christmas to exist (because they think there is a terrible never-ending war on Christmas staffed by armies intent on pulling the plugs on all the lights).

Their arguments are goofier than those who blanch at the words Merry Christmas. They build websites, sell buttons and crusade on Fox News about how brave folks need to be in expressing their constitutional rights to say Merry Christmas – and to be wished the same when they shop. They boycott any retailer who refuses to say “Merry Christmas” in their ads (unless they have the cheapest price and then never mind).

I work in retail and during Christmas 2008 I was helping a customer load her purchase into her vehicle and upon finishing I said “Happy Holidays to ya!” I was just being friendly and thanking her for her business. She turned cold and thin lipped.

“You can’t say Merry Christmas to me? What’s wrong with you?”

I honestly didn’t think a thing about it when I said “Happy Holidays”. For a jolly person buying her loved one presents during a season of peace she sure was hostile.

And that, after all is said and done, is the point.

Both terms are universally defined as well wishes – and who could ever be offended by either one?

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Agent Rob Thielke of this Seattle-based insurance company wishes you all a Merry Christmas and extends his greeting to several different religious groups. Only problem is the dude seems a bit too enthusiastic (read: INSANE) about it. www.vernfonk.com (updated this info since I forgot to mention this isn’t THE Vern Fonk, he died a couple of years ago, thanks people who pointed that out)
Video Rating: 4 / 5


Question by Scooter_The_Christmas_Squirrel: Merry Christmas wishes?
I want to take the time to wish everyone(contacts non contacts & friends) a wonderful & Merry Christmas. I also want to wish those who don’t celebrate christmas Happy Holidays(Hanukkah & Kwanzaa) Hope you all have a happy one.

Best answer:

Answer by CBK
And a Merry Christmas to you too.

Add your own answer in the comments!

38 comments - What do you think?
Posted by santa - July 25, 2010 at 10:52 pm

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