TOM UHLENBROCK
Province
Nestled on the beach with the Santa Ynez Mountains as a backdrop, Santa Barbara has perfect weather and gorgeous buildings reflecting its Spanish heritage. — SANTA BARBARA CVB
The Douglas Preserve is a recreation area high on the bluffs above Santa Barbara, Calif. — SANTA BARBARA CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
Boating enthusiasts get last-minute instructions before heading out into the bay at Santa Barbara. — SANTA BARBARA CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU
The Santa Barbara Mission is an eye-catching symbol of the Spanish colonial period.
Courtyard shows the Spanish colonial influence on the architecture
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
For my money, Santa Barbara is the quintessential town for California dreaming. Nestled on the beach with the Santa Ynez Mountains forming a protective barrier around it, Santa Barbara has perfect weather, gorgeous adobe-andtile buildings reflecting its Spanish heritage and a legacy of zoning laws so strict that strip malls, multistorey condos and view-hogging trophy mansions need not apply.
The result is a town that has not gone sprawl happy during the past three decades, has reasonable traffic even down the trendy shopping area along State Street and has property values so high that the least desirable dwellings still start at seven figures.
I had four days for a visit and was glad to be travelling solo. This is one place where you’ll surely leave with surly relatives asking, “Why can’t we live here?”
I had spent many summers visiting Santa Barbara when friends lived in the college community of Isla Vista as on-again, off-again students. The area has two schools, City College and the University of California-Santa Barbara, which provide a steady supply of young people to keep Santa Barbara from having a retirement-community feel.
Returning to a favourite spot after too many years of absence often is a sorrowful experience because inevitable growth has stolen much of the charm. Not so with Santa Barbara. The small airport still looked like a hacienda. Walkers, joggers, in-line skaters and cyclists still flowed happily on the recreational path that lined the wide expanse of beach. The wharf had added some new attractions, but who can complain about a wine bar with a deck looking out over the harbour?
The five-storey Hotel Andalucia in the historic downtown was new, but built to look like it was old as the hills. Spanish tile, wrought-iron accents, blooming flowers and a rooftop pool and hot tub that offered views of the ocean, islands and mountains made it fit right in on the self-proclaimed American Riviera.
On a clear day, you can see misty mountains 30 km out in the Santa Barbara Channel. Those are the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park. The largest is Santa Cruz Island, now uninhabited but once the home of thousands of Chumash Indians. Legend says the Chumash hiked over a rainbow to the mainland, where Spanish Franciscans showed up in 1786 to convert them.
That story is told in art, artifacts and architecture at Mission Santa Barbara, where 4,000 Chumash are buried in the cemetery, and the adjacent Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, which has the largest collection of the beautiful baskets for which the tribe was known.
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is just up Mission Canyon Road and has a nice walk along a creek, through a grove of giant redwoods. Take the scenic loop drive around Santa Barbara, through the posh residential area of Montecito and the landscaping of the gated mansions is a botanic garden of its own.
The Ty Warner Sea Center is a new attraction on Stearns Wharf and has tanks full of sea creatures such as a two-spot octopus, eccentric sand dollars, sunflower stars and sea cucumbers, which you can pick up to examine.
I went to Santa Barbara Harbor and found the Maritime Museum, which told the history of seafaring in the area. My favourite display was a hands-on virtual-fishing demonstration, in which I hooked a marlin and tried to land it.
“Better luck next time,” said the video.
Upstairs from the museum was the Endless Summer bar and restaurant, which had surfboards hanging from the ceiling, surfing movies on the television and a view of the action in the harbour from the deck.
State Street was blocked off for a farmers market, where vendors peddled fruits, flowers and vegetables. The street is sort of a mix between Rodeo Drive and Haight Ashbury, with women in designer clothes searching the boutiques and college students searching through the Hawaiian shirts in the vintage clothing shops. Skateboarding through were sun-kissed kids with the perfectly unkept look of an Abercrombie poster.
Joe’s Café, with its wonderful neon sign, is still the place to go. And there’s a multiple choice of other bars and restaurants. Café Nirvana, which serves fusion Indian food, was next to Galanga, a Thai restaurant, which was next to Taiko, a sushi bar, which was next to the James Joyce, an Irish pub. The seared tuna at Restaurant Nu was fabulous.
One other thing hasn’t changed in SB. The town has more than its share of homeless people, who sun on the benches of State Street or stroll with their shopping carts down the beachside recreational trail. But then, if you had to spend the winter on the streets, where would you rather be — Detroit, Chicago, Fargo, or Santa Barbara?
I heard the butterflies before I saw them. Actually, I heard a field trip of kindergartners screaming, “Butterflies, butterflies!” as the kids beat me to the prime viewing spot at the Coronado Butterfly Preserve.
The preserve is amid suburbia in Goleta, to the west of downtown Santa Barbara. You park on the street and follow the dirt path into a ravine filled with tall eucalyptus trees, with a boardwalk over a boggy area at the bottom. Eucalyptus trees bloom in the winter, and monarch butterflies gather here to feed.
A rope barrier keeps visitors out of the main Ellwood Butterfly Grove, which is marked with small signs that identify it as “one of the largest monarch sites in the U.S. Monarchs arrive in the fall and stay until spring. They need the shelter of these trees to survive the winter.”
I joined the kids, who had calmed down and were eating their snacks. One curly-haired boy had his nose to the crotch of a tree where a single butterfly rested. A tiny white tag on its wing said: “Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles.”
Butterflies flitted through the canopy above, or gathered together on the drooping branches, making them look like orange icicles. Occasionally, the wind or some other disturbance would cause an orange explosion.
Mary Carroll, a botanist, told the children what they were seeing: “When they cluster together, it’s just like us huddling together for warmth. Before Europeans came and changed the landscape, there used to be more eucalyptus groves. There’s some debate whether this is a recent phenomena in California.”
The kids took off, leaving me alone with hundreds of thousands of butterflies.
In the silence, the surreal setting was magical, like a Disney movie.
If you go
Solvang Gardens Lodge: At 293 Alisal Road in Solvang, the boutique-style lodge has 24 rooms, most with stone fireplaces, marble bathrooms and antique furnishings. A beautiful garden and new spa cottage are out back. Visit www.solvanggardens.com
Hotel Andalucia: At 31 West Carrillo St. in the downtown historic district of Santa Barbara. A luxury hotel with a fine restaurant. Visit www.andaluciasb.com
Santa Barbara Adventure Co.: Kayak trips are $85 to $105 US per person. A mountain bike and kayaking combo is $150. Surfing lessons are $105 and guided rock climbing is $115. Wine country tours are available by van and bicycle. www.sbadventureco.com
Condor Express Whale Watching: Trips run year-round and are guaranteed or you get a “whale cheque.” A half-day cruise to Santa Cruz Island is $75 for adults and $40 for children. A 2.5-hour cruise is $35 and $18. www.condorcruises.com
Cloud Climbers Wine and Mountain Jeep Tours: The winetasting tour is $99, the mountain tour is $69. Visit www.ccjeeps. com. Guide Lee Tomkow has a history of Santa Barbara winemaking at www.sbwinemakers.com
Sideways: Visit the Sideways Wine Club at www.sidewayswine club.com; Vintners’Association at www.sbcountywines.com. A map is available showing the Sideways movie route through the county.
Hitching Post II: The “world’s best BBQ steaks” is not false advertising and the grilled artichoke, seasoned with “Magic Dust,” is a wonderful appetizer. The address is 406 East Highway 246 in Buellton, www.hitchingpost2.com
Coronado Butterfly Preserve: Visit www.sblandtrust.org/ coronado.html
Channel Islands National Park: Visitors may swim, snorkel, hike, camp and kayak on and around the islands. The islands are home to more than 2,000 species of animals and plants, 145 of which are found nowhere else. Visit www.nps.gov/chis. There is a visitors centre in Santa Barbara.
For more information: For wine packages, accommodations and visitor information, call the Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-676-1266 or visit www.santabarbaraca.com
Inside the Santa Ynez Valley magazine is available at www. insidesyv.com. A free map is available for a “red-tile tour” of the historic buildings in Santa Barbara.
Reading: Santa Barbara,by Barnaby Conrad and Mark Meunch (Thomas Guides); and
Santa Barbara and the Central Coast: California’s Riviera, by Kathleen Thomson Hill and Gertald Hill (Glove Pequot).
