Wow, Santa Barbara. I love it.

Yesterday I kicked back for the day and let my SI Joint have a day off of driving, did some laundry etc.

Today I took a beautiful winding road from my campsite, north on Highway 150 through the Ojai Valley, and the town of Ojai. The road through the hills to the Ojai Valley was beautiful and the many cyclists must have thought so too, however, I was glad I was driving. Lots of up and down.

Ojai is just a short drive and is an interesting little tourist town. Its nickname is “Shangra-La” because of both its natural beauty and for the number of spiritual and health-focused small businesses there among the boutique hotels and galleries. Then I headed back up into the Santa Ynez Mountains (think hills) and out to the coast to pick up Highway 101 heading north to Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara was permanently established by the Spanish missionaries and soldiers with the presidio being built in 1782 and the mission being built by 1786. It is now a thriving tourist and resort destination and I really liked its character. Of course the spanish/moorish/californian architecture had a big influence on that.

My first stop in Santa Barbara, as it is with most places, was the wharf, called Stearns Wharf after its builder. It is pretty much the same style as the others I’ve visited and doesn’t really have as much variety of shops and restaurants to offer as some of the others. But it does have some interesting history and has been through severe storms, earthquakes and fires over the years. It was here that I stopped for lunch at the Moby Dick (the first version was destroyed by fire in 1998), and made the mistake of going for a turkey sandwich at a seafood restaurant. Not great, but the service was good and the scenery great.

One of the things you see along the coast here are several offshore drilling platforms which as you can imagine are still contentious, even though drilling has been going on in the area since the turn of the 20th century. The silent film industry started in Santa Barbara in the early 1900’s and Loughead Aircraft Company, which was to become Lockheed, was established there as well. Both moved to other locations when more space was required.

Next it was a wander down the beach and then into the downtown area for a look on my way to the Santa Barbara Mission. This mission was the 10th of the 21 California Missions to be founded by the Franciscans. The Mission I saw today is the one that was rebuilt in 1820 after the 1812 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the early one.

It’s gardens and cemetery are so peaceful, and the colours so warm. Standing on the front portico you can look out over the grounds and the city below and out to the Pacific Ocean. I have only seen a couple of the 21 missions so I’m thinking that’s something to focus another trip itinerary around.

After touring the Mission, I headed back downtown because as I drove down the main shopping street (State Street) I had seen a couple of shops I wanted to check out. I managed to escape without buying anything but it was very tempting. It’s a lovely place to shop with mostly independent shops, and a few chains very carefully camouflaged to look quaint. There are a wide variety of restaurants and I was sorry I had already stopped for lunch.

My last stop was the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, and what a way to end the day. It is the most beautiful building. It was completed in 1929 having replaced the previous building because of an earthquake in the area in 1925. I was told that it is built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style which was adopted by civic leaders to be used in much of the new building at the time. It has a 4 story clock tower which I climbed to get a great view of the city and the ocean beyond. The tile mosaics and murals in the building are fantastic, although hard to photograph since flash is not allowed.