Day 2: Santa Barbara

The next day we got up early and drove up to Forest Home camp at the base of Big Bear Mountain to pick Hannah up from junior high church camp. It was her last day and we decided to pick her up on the way instead of having her ride home on the bus. The camp was in such a gorgeous wooded area near a river. We drove through Yucaipa on the way there...there was a dense fog and it was lightly raining...it kind of reminded me of Washington, more green than I had expected. Maybe it was just because it was overcast and rainy..haha

With Hannah now in tow, we drove on through LA and out to Santa Barbara. The southwest area near Malibu was beautiful....I had never been in that area and was pleasantry surprised. We got to SB in the afternoon and first headed up to see the SB Mission. Wow, it was amazing...it was built in the late 1800's and overlooked SB and the water.

Next we went into the downtown to do the “red tile” walking tour, where you walk past all the the red tiled buildings....duh...
I am into architecture and so have been looking forward to going to SB for such a long time!! It did not disappoint.

First we went to the courthouse and climbed up the tower where you can see in every direction. Awesome. We even got to watch part of a wedding :) Abigail wanted to stay and watch the whole thing!

The whole downtown is filled with quaint white buildings with red tile roofs. We learned that the style comes from the early missions. The roofs were originally made with straw, but the indians kept burning them down, so the catholics got smart and started using tile roofs!!

After our walk downtown we went out to the pier...which we could drive on...and had some yummy chowder. Abigail freaked out that we were driving our car on the pier and kept wanting to know how well it was built!!
Then we went to the beach and let the girls play in the sand. We meant to stay longer, but it was pretty cold.

Of course I had to do the thorough cleaning of sandy feet before anyone was allowed in the car.

After and not so great italian dinner, we got in the car and headed up to Santa Maria for the night. I had an impossible time finding an inexpensive hotel anywhere near SB or SM for that matter, even using priceline; which I used for every other night. So we stayed in a crappy old motel that cost way too much for what it was. It was our most expensive night at $85....and by far the cheapest I could find!! The Motel 6 was around $125 if that gives you any reference! We were just glad to go to sleep!! :)


If you have ever driven through Palm Springs these will be familiar! There is a huge "windmill farm" outside the area along the freeway. They look bizarre, like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Yes, even Starbucks has a red tile roof

The Santa Barbara Mission

Views from the top of the courthouse

Abigail found her favorite store...it was filled with glitzy jewelry...it was quite overwheming and difficult to capture in a photo!!

Yummy chowder.....