The sights of Santa Barbara - March 7th

There are a lot of rich, beautiful people in Santa Barbara as real estate is very expensive. Enormous houses dot the hills around the city with a fine view of the sea. There are also a lot of homeless people hanging out downtown. California is good to bums, and if I were homeless, I’d want to hang out in Santa Barbara too. They are the mellowest tramps I have ever come across, they loiter in the sun on the palm-tree lined streets not bothering anyone.


David in front of Santa Barbara Mission (click to enlarge)




We were very un-Californian and packed in a lot today. We started with the mission (1786), then the courthouse (1929), then some shopping and then the art museum. The Courthouse reminded us of an ayuntamiento in Spain – especially because of the moor-inspired tile work. It could have been in Granada. It had great views of the city from the tower. The art museum had a great exhibition on; Renaissance to Rococco. This exhibition has been all around the world and Santa Barbara is its only Western US host. The rest of the museum was really interesting too. I have never been in a gallery where the European and American section is organised by subject genre instead of period. Ingenious.

http://www.sbmuseart.org/

That night, although we begged Amy to take us to “In and Out Burger”, she recommended tacos. There is a sizeable Mexican community in the region and you can get very good, authentic Mexican food. We went to a scruffy taqueria and ate delicious meat and veggie-filled tacos and tamales.

We enjoyed Santa Barbara so much that we actually considered staying longer, but it is time to turn around and make our way slowly north, back up to San Francisco and hopefully a flight on Sunday (we are waitlisted).