Santa Barbara

Sunday - Day 34

Left Venice beach and cruised up the Californian Coast towards Santa Barbara. Had a stop for lunch at Ventura Harbour, another lovely little harbour on this very unusual coast. The drive was very interesting and again the landscape has me intrigued.

This scene is very typical of our drive. On the left of the pic the cliff falls away to the ocean.

Ventura Harbour

Captured out the passenger side window - mountains are for the most part arid and rugged.

Arrived at our latest airbnb accommodation after doing the block a few times due to one way streets and the instructions we were given were sketchy. This place is a one bed, freestanding apartment in a battle-lax block right in the heart of downtown.

The main street of SB is called State Street and we are just 3 blocks away – a short walk to shops, restaurants and the electric shuttle that takes you to the water for a cost of 50c a ride.

Decided to take the trolley to Stearns Warf, the pier, that actually decided the development of SB. Before the pier was built there was no way of getting building materials to the town due to the mountains and with the development of the pier all materials were shipped so that the town could develop. Along the harbour we ran into the local Sunday market, some interesting things but we didn’t part with any cash.

Mez trying to soak up some rays along SB Beach, with the pier in the background. It looks a lot warmer than it is just out of shot are the jumpers.

Monday- Day 35

Caught trolley downtown State Street to the pier to catch a $20, 90 minute tour of Santa Barbara. This was very informative and for the most part of it we had a personal tour just the driver and us. We visited the many areas of SB including the area where all the rich and famous have homes here, that being Montecito.

The first hotel built in Montecito was by Charlie Chaplin and if you look closely you can see his picture above the name plate.

The driver rattled off so many celebs that have homes here it was amazing, Oprah bought a home here for 90mil after it had just been refurbished throughout and then she guttered the inside to suit her and doesn’t spend hardly any time in this part of America and pays the local taxes of over $100,000 a month- sorry to me that’s just a gross waste.

We visited the Old Mission they call the Queen of all the missions and an interesting fact is that the missions up the coast are in areas that are a days horseback ride from the other.

Above and below pics of the Queen of all the Missions. This mission is also unusual as it has 2 sets of bells. The story goes that after the earthquake of 1812  the mission was destroyed and hearing this another set of bells was sent from Spain and when they arrived they found that the existing ones survived so therefore both had to be installed.

Later we took ourselves uptown to the Court House Tower to get a great view of the entire town.

To me it is the most picturesque town we have visited on the Californian Coast so far.

The courthouse architecture is very typical of the majority of buildings in SB. There is a huge hispanic influence with white buildings with the terracotta  coloured roofs.

View from the top of the courthouse to the coast and below towards the mountains. As you can see the landscape is very green with the majority of the trees being palms and in amongst are the white and terracotta buildings - this makes for a very picturesque city.

We can look out from the balcony of our accommodation and look at the mountains and they are very similar, at times, to Switzerland just not as high.

View from balcony the mountains are so close.

Tuesday- Day 36

Decided it was about time this convertible, that we hired, got a run around with the top down so we did just that.

The convertible

It's funny I don’t think anyone around here even notices that u are driving a mustang convertible, not like at home, as cars are so cheap over here and we are in a town that has money around, although it is not a pretentious town far from it.  Anyway we enjoyed ourselves. We called into the Marina and harbour for a quick look around, then onto hilltop drive for a view over the beaches. From there we headed to East Beach, a favourite of the locals and the beach where the first pro beach volleyball tournament took place way back in the 60’s.

East Beach and the many volleyball courts that are packed each day. It would be so could if we could have councils to do this at home.

Along the promenade at SB is a strip of grass in between the beach, walking track and the road. Many moons ago a prominent woman purchased this land and planted palm trees all along it so that the people of the town could enjoy the beauty of the coast - how generous.

Had a look around Montecito but didn’t spot any rich and famous.

After much cruising around we decided the harbour was the best place for a very late lunch.

View from lunch spot looking over SB Harbour. If you look closely at the bottom left, there is a black rail, that is where we're sitting - stunning spot.

The weather is still well below the usual summer temps over here.

Wednesday-Day 37

Today we went back down south only a short distance(15 minutes) to a lovely place called Carpinteria(unusual spelling). This place is the last beach you can visit before coming to SB.

Pics of the beach and town in Carpinteria - again heaps of palm trees

It is a place in a time warp, why do I say that –well after spending a few hours on the beach, which is supposed to be touted as the safest beach along the coast and was lovely, we ventured into town for lunch about 4pm and checked out the shops etc. It was like walking into stores from way back, Mez even said one place reminded her of stores she would visit as a young child with her Grandmother.

This is a real down to earth holiday place with camping area etc but I was amazed at the cost of the units etc around the area.

Heading to San Luis Obispo tomorrow.