Where We've Been: Santa Ynez

During a recent visit to her hometown in California's Santa Ynez Valley, our senior home buyer, Alexandra S., took time out to explore a few of the back roads that wind through the region's horse farms and fields. A coastal valley tucked between the mountains and ocean, Santa Ynez is a quiet, agricultural community known for its vineyards. Spring was well underway in the aptly named Happy Canyon thanks to a rainy March, with winter's bare trees giving way to newly sprouted grass and bud break taking place on grape vines for the 2013 vintage. Alexandra described the impromptu trip as a rejuvenating way to connect with the place she calls home, proving that even landscapes we know well can be continuing sources of natural inspiration.