Our story begins with a mutual family friend, Andy Hawkey, who knew that we both were attending UC Santa Barbara and had a feeling that we should meet.

Kendall specifically remembers watching swine showmanship at the Alameda County Fair with the Hawkeys and Andy was telling her that she needed to meet this guy named James Harrison. She told her that he was the youngest son of a lovely family they knew from the Strawberry Music Festival and he also went to UCSB. Kendall told Andy “Well, Andy I have a boyfriend” to which she replied “Well, when you’re done with that…” accurately foreseeing that the relationship would not last much longer.

James remembers having Andy and Steve over for dinner at the Harrison’s one summer when he was home from college. Andy brought up that one of Serena’s friends Kendall was at UCSB and that she thought he’d get along with her and should try to meet up wither her sometime. She told him “Kendall has a boyfriend, but I don’t expect that to last very long.” James knew a few people in the sorority that Kendall was a part of but hadn’t crossed paths with her.

We finally connected in February of Kendall’s senior year and James’ 5th year in Santa Barbara, got coffee to get to know each other and our journey together began. The timing was just right for each of us as many of our curricular and extracurricular commitments were winding down at the end of our college careers. This allowed us to spend lots of time getting to know each other during our final few months in Santa Barbara and we decided we wanted to give the relationship a shot post-grad.

Things to Do

Recommended Local Activities from our Venue:

Another Guide to Visiting Mendocino County: