Santa Barbara

We arrived in Santa Barbara in late afternoon of September 24.  It is wonderful.  We are spending another week here, waiting out the big swells from a northern storm before we plan our next move.

Our trip so far:

Cool Change’s track from San Francisco Bay to Santa Barbara

Coming into Santa Barbara after nearly 24 hours at sea

The first night we were treated to a free slip by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. What a club! It is situated right on the beach, provides great views, and offers lunch and dinner 5 nights per week. We could hardly pull ourselves away.

Free dock space the first night

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club

One of the views from the Club

A view from the Club deck

Having drinks with brother Andrew in the Yacht Club

Brother Andrew visited us

The Santa Barbara Yacht Harbor is one of the most impressive harbors we have seen. It is huge. Maybe this is a preview of what we will see in Southern California, where there are just a lot more boats and a lot more people. If you want a slip in Santa Barbara, there is no place to go but here – only one marina here, to serve a huge city, so it is big. The docks are cement and really wide, and workers clean the bird droppings every day. Garbage cans are conveniently located. There is a huge laundromat for boat owners only. The bathrooms and showers are ample and clean. It is staffed 24 hours per day. Palm trees surround the harbor. I feel like I am in some fancy resort! And for under $30 per day!

Inside the Yacht Club

The City of Santa Barbara is just as impressive. State Street, the main shopping and entertainment street of town, has been engineered to encourage walking. The sidewalks are wide and tree-lined with lots of benches and sitting areas. There are side courts with little cafés and all kinds of unique shops, with major department stores like Nordstroms, Saks 5th Avenue and Macy’s there too. But the street itself is just one lane in each direction – the traffic is designed to move slowly and comfortably, diverted to other streets for faster moving traffic. There are ample bike lanes. How lovely.

We went to a farmer’s market downtown on Saturday. So hip.

Only in Santa Barbara

Walkable streets in Santa Barbara

Didn’t you ever wonder what garbage to put in which bin? Santa Barbara makes it clear

Pretty tiled benches all along the streets

Soon we must pull ourselves away from here – Santa Cruz island in the Channel Islands beckons. We will be anchored out there, with no internet, for up to a week. Today we did a major shopping in preparation for being away from stores for a while. But you can always find us by our tracker. We will be back in touch as soon as we have internet again.