Day 21 - Santa Barbara

Happy New Year! 🥳

Today we woke up at our lovely campsite 435 at Lake Cachuma and headed out to explore Santa Barbara.

First stop was Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park. We traveled off the highway through 2.5 miles of twisting road and oak woodland 🌳 that reminded us of home in the Santa Ana mountains looking for this “state park”. At some point, Google Maps says “You have arrived” 📌 and... it was just a bit of single-land road! Diana thought she saw a sign, so I found a turnaround and went back. There was a little wider spot on the road that can fit two cars and a sign for the painted cave. The cave is up the hillside slightly and caged off. Whole “park” looked like about 1000 square feet of hillside next to the road. 😆 Cave looked like the pictures 📸, but we didn't get a good shot of the actual cave art.

Next stop was Old Mission Santa Barbara. It’s the traditional California mission, unique in that it has been in continuous church use since originally being built. That contrasts with La Purisima yesterday that is operated by the state and is a reconstruction. Again, I just have a variety of pictures here - see Diana sometime for the full collection! Like La Purisima, they tell a lot of story of the Chumash people along with the mission.

Next stop was Andree Clark Bird Refuge 🦆, which was a man-made lake with a trail and native plants. Nice, but nothing unique. Someplace called Butterfly Beach was on our list, but a little digging turned up that it is named after the street it is on and not the presence of any pretty insects - so we skipped it.

Off to Stearns Wharf! Built to transport lumber and built of said lumber, is is now some small shops, restaurants, a small sea museum, fishing on the end, and the other half of it is parking lot 🅿️🚘! Yup, you drive onto the wharf and park there! A plaque on the candy shop tells the story of it being the origin of salt-water taffy. We can thank this creation to a lazy child who dropped a bucket in the ocean for water when she was told to go up the beach to the nearest well. Unfortunately the candy shop 🍬 was closed for the holiday.

We got some ice cream from the “famous” shop here on the wharf, but the only thing special about it is the location and inflated prices. 🤷 Then had dinner at Moby Dick Restaurant after asking for a sunset table for two. The food was delicious and the view was great. 📷