Day 22 - Santa Barbara

Today we started off at El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park. It’s the fourth and final Spanish fort of Alta California, and was a bit similar to visiting missions... I’m feeling a bit Spanish-era-California histories out. 😂 Always interesting though. The original Presidio (fort) was all destroyed. When modern Santa Barbara laid out streets in a grid, they just tore down any parts of the remaining structure that got in the way. A historic society bought the land they could, dug down to find the original foundations, and has rebuilt sections on those foundations using the old techniques. Their ultimate goal is to rebuild 🧱 the entire thing, which would involve closing two streets. You can see in the photos were they have build bits that then just end at the sidewalks. It’s a pretty interesting mix of archeology and restoration and would be pretty cool if they some day pull it off.

A couple blocks down is the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. It’s a grand old building and beautiful 😍 grounds. Several wedding parties 👰🏼 were having their photos taken on the grounds. We tried going inside, but Diana brought her walking stick and she couldn’t go in with that “weapon”. 😔

Back for our last night at our lake campground, we finally walked down to the lake shore at sunset. Watched flocks of quail 🐦 run here and there, sparrows, bushtits, and acorn woodpeckers catching insects out of the air. The campground is mostly empty now. We’ll be heading out in the morning.