Tag Archives: Santa Barbara

The Road to 65, Mile 236: Back to California, Day 6- Part 1,The South-facing Coast

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Posted by on in Travel

July 22, 2015, Santa Barbara- The south-facing coast of California has fascinated me since I first came upon Santa Barbara, in 1980. My family only caught fleeting glimpses of the area in 1992, during a business trip to Santa Monica, and again in 1997, on our return from a visit to Santa Cruz.  It was enough, though, to make Refugio Beach a favourite and to make a personal vow to visit the interior of the “Old Mission”, as the residents here refer to Mission Santa Barbara, two miles from downtown.

The day in this salubrious area will be posted in three parts: First, Lake Casitas, Carpinteria and the beach around Stearns Wharf are the foci of this post.  Next, I will present the grand Santa Barbara County Courthouse.  Lastly, the stage will be occupied by the Mission.

As I stated earlier, this is the only part of the California coast that faces southward.  A compass on Stearns Wharf illustrates this.

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I began the day, though, with a brief stop along the northern edge of Lake Casitas, a reservoir and fresh-water fishing mecca for local residents.  The lake had been down, severely, over the past three years.  It looked a tad healthier today, from what I had seen in earlier photos.  Still, it has a good ways to go, and so a good, wet monsoon, followed by an El Nino soaking, would seem to be in order.

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Carpinteria is the first beach town that greets the traveler, coming northward into Santa Barbara County.  My main focus here was brunch, so I stopped at Jack’s Bistro and Famous Bagels.  Being from the East Coast, I am fussy about my bagels, but the pancakes here are delicious and Daisy was a very nice server.

I took about a half-hour to look around downtown.  Beach-wise, my main focus would be Stearns Wharf, so I did not pay to stop at Carpinteria State Beach.  What caught my eye near Jack’s was the largest known Torrey Pine.

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The town is named for the industrious nature that the Spanish noted in the Chumash people.

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The historical museum did not open until 1, which would have set me still for two hours, and I was itchy to get to the Santa Barbara Courthouse, a marvel of architecture and interior art.  So, here is the south patio of the museum.

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The branch library, across the street, also has a Spanish flair.

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Santa Barbara’s main beach is a volleyball mecca, and there were at least five matches going on, as I walked from my parking spot to Stearns Wharf.  The tide was low, so there are no dramatic scenes in this post.  Nevertheless, the harbor is a beehive of activity and Stearns is one of the few wharves onto which one may drive, if that is your wish.

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The downside of the harbor is evident here.  There are three oil platforms on its outer edge.

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Earlier energy quests inspired this “Moby Dick” depiction, by Beth Amine.  Her original work was lost, when Stearns Wharf burned in 1998.

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Santa Barbara decorates its roundabouts well, especially downtown.

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Here is a bicycle roundabout, near the Volleyball Courts.

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If I get back here sometime on a mini-jaunt, the focus would be on Refugio Beach and Goleta.  For this trip, though, spending more time downtown was in order.

It Wasn’t the Women’s Fault

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Posted by on in Social

“There’s a killer on the road.  His brain is squirming like a toad.”- Ray Manzarek, “Riders On The Storm”

I love women; always have.  Even when they were girls, I thought they were beautiful.  My Mother was my first best friend, and I tried to be hers.  My relationships with girls and women ever since have been friendships first, and, in about five or six cases, they were more than that.  The friendship, then and now, is the, most important element.  It is what held my marriage together, even when I was making a mess of my life, in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, and it was what gave Penny some semblance of quality of life, in her declining years, later in that merciless decade and in the first fourteen months of this one.

I’ve had friends of both genders, and of all ages, before and since.  Beautiful women are among my best friends now.  There is no romance, to cloud the vision, and when a few of my women friends have started seriously dating, I am among the first to cheer them on. It’s a happiness thing, a means of some fulfillment.  More important to me are their dreams, their goals.  Don’t get me wrong.  If someone special comes into my life again, it’ll be just fine.  This is not a priority right now; that’s all.

It was therefore with profound shock that I read and viewed news reports of the carnage in the Isla Vista area of Santa Barbara, on Saturday.  The deranged assailant/killer blamed rejection by women- in a pseudonarcissistic rant, which fooled no one. Santa Barbara was, and is, one of my favourite places in California.  I was last there in 1997, but keep abreast of  more seemly events there, through an online friend who has ties to the area.  It is, like many places in our modern society, a fast-paced and sometimes anonymous community.  When making connections, one must be patient with those around you.

I am somewhat of an outlier, myself.  I do not blame anyone else for that.  I live comfortably, I make friends more easily than I used to.  In my youth, I did not have women throwing themselves at me.  I was considered “an individual” by those of the elite who were thoughtful.  I was seen as a bit weird, by the rest.  That was never something for which I cast blame on others.  We all rail at our plights, now and then, and I did, just before meeting Penny.  Figuring that it was the way I was going about meeting people that was the problem, helped me right my social sailboat.

So, buying expensive clothing and driving a BMW didn’t work for Elliot Rodger.  Is anyone surprised by this?  If anything, it confirms what one of my beautiful friends from the early 1970’s had to say- “No personality, no date.”- Lisa was gorgeous, but never shallow.  Apparently, neither were the three young victims in Isla Vista.  My condolences to the families of the dead.  My entreaties to the Elliots who are still out there:  It is not the woman’s fault if she doesn’t find you attractive.  Each of us has a personality, and the tools for determining whether chemistry exists between us and others.  No personality match, no relationship.