May 12, 2016

May 12  Santa Barbara

   

    We were anchored outside of the Santa Barbara marina this morning.  There is the usual marine layer of cloud, the temperature was 14 C and a light wind. The ship had no problem sailing here on time, even though it was three hours late leaving San Diego.  We ate breakfast in the dining room with Marsha, Rustina, Russ and Marilyn. We took the eight minute tender boat ride to the marina pier. Each boat holds about 130 people. As we walked to the shore, the clouds started to break up.  At the pier entrance, an information tent was set and there were six people there to assist guests.  There is a Santa Barbara shuttle bus costing 50 cents per ride to take people around the ten block downtown district, which is about half a mile from the waterfront.  We walked a few streets along the waterfront then turned down State Street, the main shopping and dining street to get to the downtown to follow the “Red Tile” self guided walking tour.

    We enjoyed the southwest/Mexican architecture of the buildings on our way to de la Guerra Plaza which was the site of the first elected common council meeting in 1850.  Most of the civic government offices are still in this area.  Next we saw the preserved adobe home of a late 19th century wealthy Santa Barbara family, which was close to the El Presidio.  El Presidio is a small garrison fort that was usually located near a mission as protection. Presidio Street is a short street that is the oldest one in Santa Barbara. At its north end is the small north guard house of the former El Presidio.  A few newer streets south is the old southern guard house, across from the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park which is the preserved old fort established in 1782.  We found the gardens of the Santa Barbara museum courtyard with grape vines growing on a pergola.  There was also a garden with a fountain at the back of Casa Covarrubias, a large adobe house built in 1817 and lived in for four generations of the same family.  We walked south and found the El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park and the El Presidio museum and looked into the chapel and we noted there was a coffee roaster and café across the street, for later. We followed the tour map and passed the Hill-Cabrillo adobe house which was the first house in Santa Barbara to have a wooden floor. 

    Further along we found the 1927 Court House set in beautiful grounds. It is open to the public to see one of the court rooms and climb the 145 stairs of the clock tower, which we did.  The second floor is tile covered and the open court room has six meters high walls and tile floors, painted beamed ceiling, gallery seating looked like old wooden church pews plus lots of wood panelling with a Mexican design.  Beside the stairway enclosed on one side in glass was the clock mechanism for the tower clock.  We took picture from the top of the clock tower. Looking south we could see the two towers of the Old Mission two miles away, where we walked in about 30 minutes stopping to admire some of the Victorian homes and shaker style homes on our route.

   The sky had cleared over Santa Barbara by the time we reached the Old Mission.  There were Elementary students eating their lunch on the lawn in front of the mission church, built in 1812 over the old adobe constructed building that had been damaged by the 1812 earthquake.  We took the self-guided tour of the complex.  The first sight was the inner courtyard containing the Sacred Garden first established in 1786, but has had many configurations, including as an orchard and vegetable garden.  There is a system of 21 California missions which are spaced the distance of one day’s ride on horseback apart.  The missions, established by the Spanish Roman Catholic church, stretch from San Diego to Sanoma, California.  The Santa Barbara Mission is the 10th in the system.  The Franciscan priest who founded Santa Barbara Mission later went to Carmel where he is buried.  This mission is based on the only plans available which were a Roman design that was modified.  It was built by the local tribe and the priests along with structures for housing the local Indians who had converted and workshops for blacksmith, weavers and others. There is a garden cemetery, a chapel and rooms showing artifacts from the earlier days of the mission.  There is one meter high book on display called an Antphonel which is hand printed in at least 14 cm letters which shows the note to start a chant or song.  Once we ended the mission tour, we had walked 8.3 km.  We came out to the front of the mission and saw a six meter long brick trough which was called a “Lavanderia”.  It was where clothing was washed.  Beyond it was a large wooden cross and gardens. 

    We took 35 minutes to walk along residential streets for the two miles back to the city center where we stopped at the Handlebar Coffee Roasters café for a cappuccino and Americano coffee before returning to the ship. We had walked 11.2 km so far. Beside the café was a building that was once part of the small Chinatown in Santa Barbara.  The walk back to the pier is less than a mile.  We had just ten minutes to wait for the next tender boat to be ready to board.  We were back in our stateroom by 3 and went up to the Lido Buffet on Deck 10 to grab a quick lunch and write up the blog.  While standing in the ice cream line, we met two ladies from Connecticut, Rosemarie and Pierrette, originally from New Brunswick, and they joined us for a long chat while we all enjoyed our ice cream choices.  We went to the pool area and found a table to set up the laptop to compose today’s blog.  Then it was time to get ready for this evening’s “Evening Chic” dress code which replaces the dressier Formal Night.  Our table of six was full. Today Sheila and Mildred had stayed on board while Hillary and Richard took the Santa Barbara shuttle bus to the middle of downtown and visited the Court House, but on their visit the courtroom that we viewed was closed.  They did enjoy views from the clock tower. They found a wine bar that offered a great tasting fruit, cheese and cracker platter, then caught a shuttle bus back to the pier. At dinner tonight, complimentary rum drinks we distributed to diners.  For appetizers we chose Tomato & Watermelon Salad and Yellow Corn Soup followed by entrees of Shrimp Scampi on Linguine. The desserts chosen were apple crumble and New York Cheesecake with Passion Fruit sauce.  We danced to the music of the four person Ocean Band dance band in the Rendez-vous Lounge before and after dinner.  The live musical show in the Celebrity Theatre tonight is iBroadway, a tribute to the best Broadway tunes.

Total distance walked 15.5 km