Ethan Austin’s Post

Personal update: We are officially in Santa Barbara now! Santa Barbarans ( ?) Santa Barbarians (?) We've been here a month and love it...so now I'm going to be like some kind of Unpaid Internet Ambassador and recruit friends to move here. Seriously though, if you are considering a move to the west coast, or are even remotely recruitable to moving, here's my take after our first 30 days. SB is a hidden gem! Even better than we expected. It has a rural feel but with all the amenities of a much bigger city. Everyone here has been unusually kind, friendly, and it feels a bit like living in the 90s in the sense that kids are out and about with freedom to play. We go to the beach like twice a week and there are hiking trails 8 min from our house. Plus all of our walks anywhere feel like we are out in nature. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood and we will just walk over (unannouced) to their houses like Cozmo Kramer to play on their driveways (or sometimes pop in for an emergency bathroom stop). As background: we had been looking to get back to the west coast for two years and we did a TON of research into different places up and down the state with the following being our top criteria: 1. Family 2. Nature / daily access 3. Community 4. Weather 5. Schools If any of those are high on your list, you should check out Santa Barbara. We're loving it here and want friends to join!