Santa Barbara Meanderings

Last Sunday, Adam and I drove up to Santa Barbara for the day. Along the way we stopped by a truck along the side of the road and bought freshly-picked strawberries. They were the most perfect strawberries I've ever eaten.

It was a gorgeous day for a coastal drive.

And the hills were alive with wildflowers.

We stopped at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club - a client of Adam's.

We saw the horsies.

And more flowers.

I fell in love with the varied architecture in Santa Barbara.

We breakfasted at Pacific Crepes.

{photo by Amanda S.}

We stopped at the park across the street from Mission Santa Barbara, aptly named Mission Park.

We then walked over to the Mission, which has a lovely fountain out front, complete with lilypads.

The Mission had beautiful wrought iron and wooden window details.

The central courtyards, or quadrangles as the guidebook called them, are beautiful and serene.

The pathways held hidden beauty all along the way.

The cemetery was a peaceful place sheltered by an ancient, massive Australian Bay Fig.

Did you read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell in 4th grade? Most of us in California did. That was actually based on a true story and the woman (named Karana in the book) left on San Nicolas Island for 18 years is buried in the cemtery at the Santa Barbara Mission.

Adam decided to become a friar.

Then, we took a scenic drive through the hills of Santa Barbara.

We almost went to the Botanical Gardens but instead, Adam took me to Alice Keck Memorial Gardens, a gorgeous oasis in the middle of the city.

There was a pond in the center, complete with turtles, koi and ducks.

I played with my macro settings.

The colors were amazing.

We commemorated our park visit with a picture.

After the park, we lunched at Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch.

{photo by Dale K.}

We left then to beat the traffic home, but I might have suggested a shortcut that ended up being a longcut and our trip might have taken a  t i n y  bit longer. We entertained ourselves by exasperating the people behind us who were very unhappy whenever we didn't pull the entire two feet forward as traffic inched along.

It was a lovely day. :)