Welcome fellow travelers to our latest TR. We'd been to America over 30 times before, but never to Santa Barbara. This voyage was both our first visit back to the States in quite a while as well as our first time ever anywhere as snowbirds. My wife and I left a frigid Toronto (-1 below) for the palms of California. We spent February at a nice rental smack dab in the middle of the American Riviera, an area that draws comparisons to the Mediterranean. Un bon climat, oui? What we found was an attractive resort town that served self-caterers like us well. Everywhere was art, color, $affluence$ (median house price $2.6 million) and much maritime Nautica. We were hooked.

Topics below will include in no particular order: history (Chumash, the Mission, the Courthouse, oil), beach culture (inc. Summerland), gardens (Lotusland; Botanic Garden), a live Rick Steves presentation, epicurean aspects (inc. wine), the nearby Funk Zone, water-based tours (Hi Maddy!), adobe architecture, Valentines Day tea splurge @ San Ysidro Ranch, rarities (Casa del Herrero), the Beaux Art Museum (Mrs Z's fave) plus daytrips with friends old & new to Carpinteria and wine country near Sta. Maria.
We'll begin our photo-dense report with an overview. As always, what follows is a lengthy mix of imagery, music, humor, and logistical tips. An effort has been made to avoid repetition. An effort has been made to avoid repetition.


Please feel free to add any posts based on your own experiences in Santa Barbara, be they photographic, raves, rants or opinions. Locals, don't be shy mkay?

We began in LA. by staying overnight in a cheap hotel on the border of Chinatown. Not two minutes after we'd plopped our luggage down, a few shots rang out on the streets below.

Union Station. The Amtrack security guard warned me about wearing my Nikon bandelier-style: "Someone up and pull a gun on ya' for that camera!"

Actually, we flew on United up to Santa Barbara. Above shows our take-off. We see (I think) Playa del Rey and the Marina del Rey peninsula, maybe possibly Venice canal on the far left?

The lay of the land below continued, as the SoCal coast became the central coast. The flight path included: Santa Monica, Malibu, Simi Hills, Pts Mugu, Dume and Pitus, Leo Cabrillo beach, small mountain ranges including San Rafael, Connejo (1920'), Hueneme, St. Buenaventura, St. Johns Coll, McGrath State beach, Ventura, Emma Ward and Los Padres Forest.

Mrs Z (my wife) insisted that I take this shot. We believe that it is the Casitas reservoir, no?

Oxnard, am I right? We landed in Goleta, where the Santa Barbara Airport is located. That descent took us right over the UCSB campus and its waterfowl pond, plus some great local beach-hikes: Haskells, Devereux and More Mesa. Goleta's famed Butterfly Reserve saw one of its all-time low numbers of migrating Monarchs this year. That town has an annual lemon fest. A maga convoy from Goleta drove though SB just prior to our arrival. It seems that they carried lewd placards in front of children.

Sunrise at Summerland beach looking over to Loon point.

No report on Cali can skip surfing.

The sport still attracts enthusiasts of all ages and genders.

I rest my case.

The annual SB Film Festival was on during our stay. One downtown theatre on the semi-pedestrian main artery State Street was reserved for its special events. I also enjoyed the new Led Zeppelin doc. There, I met the former singer for Pure Prairie League, a fellow Zephead.

President Reagan's Birthday Celebration was held at his namesake conference center a couple blocks away from us. Some of the teen girls that attended were woefully underdressed on that blustery day, so they sprinted from their limo to the entry lest freezing to death!

Once-and-again local hero Josh Brolin's memoir made a good read during our vacation. We bought it from Chaucers bookstore up in Loreto Plaza at nearly half the price that we would've paid back in Toronto. Josh was once part of a local gang of youths who called themselves the 'Cito Rats'.

There are plentiful activities for young people in SB.

This gardener was one of the few remaining staff at Lotusland who actually once knew the wealthy woman who created the popular garden.

Tony the sand sculptor.

A wine-tasting room in the Funk Zone had the above notice. Their neighboring alley had some excellent street art including an old comic strip showing two young women commiserating. One had just broken up with her boyfriend and wailed, "Oh, what will I do without him?!" Her pal's response: "WINE OBVIOUSLY!!"

The new Dart Coffee branch in the marina (a must) featured this stained-glass collage of local themes: sailing, water birds, land and sea, lighthouses, the Channel islands, oil platforms, dolphins, fish, seaweed kelp, seals and sea lions, a regatta.

Good quality street art can be found throughout. The best have important social messages, as opposed to sloppy gang tags.

An angel come to earth.

Norah is the manager of justly-popular Brophy Bros seafood restaurant. We had a lovely chat after discovering some things in common.

The San Ysidro ranch has its Stonehouse restaurant in addition to lovely grounds.

Maybe a western snowy plover? The end of our overview. Next: beach culture. But first some music.

A stone-cold classic. I dedicate this TR to my late friend Peter Romanelli. Our band's late soundman who was above all, a sound man. The polar opposite of Trump. Santa Barbara was one of Pete's fave places.
Lets try it again below.

Thanks to the several posters who offered us advice before this trip: Nelson, MoBro, AustinTraveler, magsrose, Paqngo (bonne chance in Brittany). macdogmom, clarkgriswold, Iwan2go plus Irice, maitaitom & Tracy. Merci aussi to all the posters over on Reddit and the Rick Steves forum.
Let's dive into the ocean.


Leadbetter beach lays directly off the SW corner of town.

Oil. Offshore East Beach in the distance, we see both the Henry and the Hillhouse oil platforms. A century ago, this sprawling oil field was a major business here. The 1969 oil spill nearby spawned Earth Day as we now know it.

The ocean holds a lot of life. That life plays an important role in the health of our planet. We used Reddit as a source for researching this trip and someone there had rare photos of a shark egg backlit by the sun. Another shutterbug displayed her imagery of nudibranchs, surely one of Mother Nature's most alien-looking life forms.

Butterfly beach is considered by many locals to be the most desirable. It sits at the bottom of the exclusive Montecito (Cito) neighborhood.

Sealife here has many forms. That includes dolphins, sharks, sea stars, sea slugs and sea hares. Two common anemone species include the green 'moonglow' and the red 'sunburst' kinds. Tide-pooling was dependent on checking out Low Tide times in the weekly newspaper chart.

Hendrys beach at Arroyo Burro park is an absolute must, especially at sunset. Its wonderful Boathouse restaurant remains an excellent place for a meal indoors or out. Dog-walkers will tell you that this is THE best place for oceany dog-walking.

Including this ex-pat gal from Toronto. She saw a bag that I was using to beachcomb and immediately recognized it as being from our city's biggest pharmacy. "Toronto, right?" she approached. She turned out to be a family friend of the guitarist for my heroes 'Rush' (the pride of Toronto). Next day at perennial local fave pizza joint Rustys, we saw another unlikely Rush connection: a pinball machine with a vintage Rush theme! Didn't realize that today's kids celebrated birthdays to Rush songs!

'Here by the sea and sand...' (the Who)

Low tide brought out a lot of things, including artistic rocks. These boulders had equally beautiful cousins on land, especially at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Water reflections water reflections.

Butterfly Beach had a relatively sparse number of sundown visitors. Some played stickball on the sand, others relaxed inside a rough-hewn fort made of palm sheafs, found objects and stones. Others like this friendly young couple had brought a picnic. Could've sworn that I smelled a skunk nearby.

A Butterfly beach beauty.

This shot is actually responsible for a Rick Steves story---see later.

This northerly view at Hendrys extended towards the distant UCSB campus in Goleta.

As I was photographing this young couple atop an outcrop, the boy's moccasin fell off. I then pretended to try to run away with it.

Mrs Z liked this shot a lot.

Edible kelp, algae, seagrass and seaweed can be bought in town. A public poster nearby described in detail 'Beach Wrack', the areas of waterline and water table that involve saturated sand, damp sand and dry sand.

The scene at the end of Mission Creek, which was...

...the place where these families combined to enjoy themselves. Girl on left: "Mom, don't you want some ice cream? Can we go to Tondi's now?"

This boy's mom seemed like a pro photographer. Her gear looked muchos expensive.

Atop this stretch of sun-baked sands close to Mesa Lane beach, we see the newly-established clifftop Douglas Family Preserve. Actor Michael and his father Kirk donated the grove to the public, with a mind to providing yet-another peaceful place for dog-walkers.

Walking the shorelines in both directions rewards the visitor to Hendrys. One may see the aforementioned Douglas Preserve in the distance.

The sun sinks low.

And lower.

Can't you just feel your BP go down whenever at the shore while visiting a beach?

We highly recommend Hendrys, Summerland and Butterfly beaches. The latter extends onto the Four Seasons/Biltmore beach area.

Le soleil sont disparu avec les Channel Islands devant (Sta Cruz, Anacapra et comme ca).

Mrs Z and I were happy as a pair of jolly dolphins. Next: more music then Rick Steves.

Sarah Sleane recorded an album titled Land & Sea. Here is one of those songs.

Needs no intro.
Tom Petty

We had ordered tickets ahead of time to see the Rick Steves live presentation at the historic Arlington Theatre. He'd survived a recent battle with prostate cancer. Wisely, he began with an update that he was now recovered and doing fine. Btw, we once met his ex-wife's Swedish nursing colleague gal whilst on the same Greek ferry.

There was a lively, pre-show meet n' greet for those willing to dish out the extra fee. A live flamenco player played throughout. It was the 50th Anniversary of the local Public TV station. I'd come 'this close' to contacting Rick's office a month ahead to see whether he might sit for a brief pre-show interview with me there at the Arlington. The plan had been to post the resultant interview on travel forums such as Fodors and also Lonely Planet's resurrected Thorn Tree. I eventually passed.

That venue is worth a looksee, with its historic architecture and unique interior: the side walls are a remarkable 3D facsimile of old adobe buildings from yesteryear. Incidentally, we once spent Xmas 2008 in Costa Rica staying at the neighboring eco-lodge to the one where Rick and family were based.

Colorful lamps spread throughout the property. It was a hectic atmosphere in the hour prior to showtime. We were surprised at the sheer volume of latecomers just strolling into the already-in-progress presentation. I was reminded of the Zappa song 'Flakes'.

Can you relate to Rick's above categories? Wish that he'd expanded his show to include more interactivity, some mention of his long-standing online forum, a memento or two from his travels, maybe some Top Ten lists on both walls. At times, the seasoned traveler attending that show felt a bit like having gone back to high school.

These four women represented three generations of the same family. We have included their shot here coz they were on vacation from Edmonds. They were neighbors of Rick Steves and one used to babysit his daughter (or was it vice-versa?). These women had seen me taking close-up shots of those shells above and had begun a friendly chat. We'd told them about our tickets to see our hero Rick that night.

Whole Lotta Arlington Theatre that week. *Three nights later I went to see the new Led Zep doc at the same theatre and after the other attendee left halfway, had the entire theatre to myself (see 'air-drumming to Bonzo').
Next: some lesser-known attractions

First, our suggested bakeries:
-D'Angelos, a very good choice for outdoor breakfast as well. Great views of the distinctive adobe buildings.
-Oat bakery: truffle cashew cream cheese anyone?
-Andersen's (Danish) Bakery on the main drag: a nice place to chill, eat, drink and watch the passerby. Excellent service.
-Helena's Bakery in the Funk Zone. Doubles as uber-cozy wine-tasting spot.

This Heermann's Gull has nothing to do with lesser-known attractions, but he did steal my zoom lens. Says he won't give it back til I've posted his portrait labelled 'Sir Bird'. SIR BIRD

The former Meridian graphics studio complex has a compelling Italianate style of paint upon its exterior walls.

Further along that same Haley Street Corridor, one finds the JW Adkins Ecology found-object Art Gallery. It is apparently run by artist Bill and his wife Martha. If we got our facts straight, they are a senior couple who welcome visitors by leaving their entry gate open. If that gate is shut then 'me no sen' you no come.' We were in a rush that afternoon and captured this single shot.

The former editor of Travel & Leisure magazine tipped us off about the above rare residential enclave. Called 'La Caseria', it is composed of a small collection of attractive homes with a private communal garden.

Casa del Herrero (house of blacksmith) is a time capsule that one must reserve for a guided tour ahead of time. The mansion of former WWI military contractor George Fox Steedman, this sprawling property is magnificent inside and out. It is one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial revival architecture in the USA. A womens group had decorated the interior with floral arrangements. Steedman was a 1%er with a marked taste for European imports of every sort. Above: his personal centaur icon.

Lovely Ainsley was the program manager. I'd teased her via the intercom upon our early arrival, "WE ARE THE DOGE COMMITTEE! MR. MUSK IS HERE WITH US AND WE REQUIRE IMMEDIATE ENTRY!!" She got the joke. Our actual tour guide was Rosie, accompanied by her assistant Kasha. Both had previously worked at Lotusland.

The grounds were stunning and green thumbs might want to visit for the gardens alone. Much like the evolution of Lotusland from private-to-public attraction, the Casa faced local opposition from Montecito residents who were not keen on tourists having easy access to visits. The tour could be fairly described as tightly controlled. *shutterbugs take note

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Casa had recently lifted its long ban on indoors photography. There was historic furniture, religious iconography, tiles, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, lamps and much more. Steedman was also a clever inventor-tinkerer. He created an early phonograph speaker box. His huge personal workshop would be the envy of any male who just loves industrial-level works. His were the largest scissors that we'd ever seen!

Casa del Herrero is like a museum and might just be the biggest surprise of any visit to Sta Barbara. It is a top-shelf visual feast in a town known for compelling visuals. Steedman led a moneys-no-object life as a collector. And we visitors are all the luckier for that. Thank his daughter Medora, who lived here til '93. She then transferred the property to become a non-profit.

One of the Persian 'Star' fountains as seen from below the massive African baobab tree. The exquisite aesthetics throughout were very impressive. Clearly, Steedman had once brought in the best of the best designers and architects. He actually moved in on the same day as the historic earthquake that struck Sta Barbara exactly a century ago! A day that he surely never forgot.

Who was on the list of famed folks that Steedman and his wife once entertained here? Presidents? Kings? Movie stars?

Where are we now, Taos?

No, this is Lady of Mount Carmel Church, found just a 6 minute walk down the road from Casa del Herero. A slightly Karen-ish woman approached us, then assertively informed us that she did not want us to take her photo, 'not even in the background!' I was a bit taken aback coz the thought had not even entered our heads--we wanted that sleek stone and adobe imagery without people. We also avoided the interior after hearing weeping from within. Someone was mourning.

Afterwards, Mrs Z bought some lovely shirts at the Lovebird store downtown. Friendly owner Nancy Burgner was also a Rick Steves follower. I later bought my own nice short-sleeves at the original Beach House Surf Shop. There, we chatted with staff about competitors including Tilleys. The latter business began in Toronto and became known for their peerless hats plus outstanding travel wear. Pretty sure that Mr Tilley is rolling in his grave at the current sad state of his old stores.

Time for our TRADITIONAL QUIZ (sound of trumpets).

Circle the correct answer below.

Which Santa Barbara resident once stonewalled Johnny Carson during a Tonight Show interview by refusing to answer a personal question?
1) Kevin Costner
2) Carol Burnett
3) Oprah
4) Tommy Lee

The Fodors guidebook company is located in:
1) Santa Barbara
2) San Bernardino
3) Santa Rita hills
4) El Segundo

The deepest off-shore trench near Santa Barbara is:
1) Port Hueneme
2) Santa Barbarian
3) Fodoriadeep
4) Carpinteria

The Best Cordon Bleu chef in Paso Robles who used to be an Emmy-winning producer of the live 'La Fiesta' music shows in LA is (choose one):
1) Alma Ayon
2) Alma Ayon
3) Alma Ayon
4) Alma Ayon

The Bidens vacationed in which wine country town right after the recent election?
1) Solvang
2) Buellton
3) St. Ynez
4) Sta Rita hills

Which Santa Barbara channel seafood species are NOT caught by Purse Seine net?
1) northern anchovy
2) market squid
3) Pacific sardine
4) black-tipped zeebekia

Now, use your swordfish beak to cross out the word or phrase that does not belong below:
1) rockfish
2) rock crab
3) rock lobster
4) Hootie and the Blowfish

Now, cast your knowledge net wider to try to answer the following (don't peek at supplied answer).
How does one tell the difference between Ridgeback shrimp and Spot Prawns?
Answer-with difficulty.

Now back to Multiple Choice.

Which two famous films were once shot in Santa Barbara?
1) The Graduate
2) Sandy Does Sta Barbara
3) The Island of the Blue Dolphins
4) Free Willy

Legendary local architect Jeff Shelton always hires who to create the stylish iron railings for his house projects?
(use your harpoon to spear the correct answer).
1) his sister
2) the mayor's nephew
3) his brother
4) he never adds railings

Bonus: SAILORS INK

What wazzam (was and still is) the significance of the 'Rooster and Pig' symbols tattooed atop the feet of sailors?

PS Please feel free to post some of your own quiz questions about Santa Barbara here on this thread.
Next:
Food & wine

I absolutely love your photography as usual zebec. Your talent never ceases to amaze me.

Merci beaucoup Mel (get it? The American Riviera). Folks, do check out Mel's latest Italo-Swiss TR here.
So food. We'll begin with Mrs Z's supermarket assessment.

1. 'Smart & Final' was her fave. The walk there took us through some areas of homelessness in this town of income disparity. And fentanyl remains an issue, from Thousand Oaks all the way through Ventura to Santa Barbara.
2. Ralphs. It is directly across from the main transit hub/bus depot. We went late at night and regretted that decision. Numerous homeless folks were inside and outside the store. Drug deals were happening in plain view. The manager seemed to struggle to answer the simplest of our questions.
3. Gelsons (Loreto Plaza). Part of the successful Cali chain. Huge, slick and varied. Great almond croissants at their Renauds pastry. Killer Waldorf salad (Mrs Z's fave dish here). Cost of one quiche (kid you not)= $60. Sixty. What, was it made from gold?
4. My faves: the Locals Top Pick 'Santa Cruz Market' and its near-twin, kitty-corner competitor 'Mercado del Rey'. Both are Mexican (Michoacana) delis offering a wide variety of tasty essentials. Location: a 2-minute walk from us in the West Beach neighborhood. Their corn tamales and their El Pastor burritos were worth flying across the continent for. In addition, they served our Vitamin G needs (gelato). Ice cream actually. They sold some exotic Amazonian specialty flavors such as Lucuma (orange and gritty) plus Maracuya passion fruit. Bliss.

Oat Bakery was run by a group of women. They had a sense of humor.

Although the area is known for other types of produce, we also saw this banana tree on a neighbor's front lawn. Our landlady's own elaborate private garden featured different kinds of citrus trees.

Each Saturday morn, a modest Fishermans Market occurs down in the marina. About seven stalls are set up offering freshness. We bantered with the youngest pair of fisherman there as they held the above spider crab. I advised them on a new advertising slogan for their oysters: 'MORE ZINC FOR YER DINK!'

The locals came out early for white seabass, cod, spiny lobster, swordfish, abalone and mussels. We self-caterers bought some just-caught halibut. Back as our rental, we put some SPIKE spice that I'd brought from home. The result: Food o' the Gods.

A view of that dockside market from higher up. Do they ever sell weird fish such as cabezon and those loooooooong oarfish?

A permanent shop featuring the exact same name (Santa Barbara Fish Market) is located a few steps inland down the same alley. The small but popular shop is the only Californian seafood store actually located within its namesake harbor. I went back twice for their calamari salad but our fave was their fish roe. Pictured here is their black variety.

Diver-caught red sea urchins are regarded as the best on the planet. Japanese visitors certainly hold that opinion. According to my taste buds, this local variety is more earthy and less sweet than most.

Santa Barbara has a range of chi chi boutiques, including those selling dinnerware.

The Valentines Day afternoon tea at San Ysidro Ranch included these sweet treats. More about that later in a dedicated section.

Joe's Cafe is a veritable old diner known for its stiff drinks and testosterone. It proved to be too loud for my hearing issues, so Mrs Z and I vamoosed outa' there as soon as we finished our meals. See 'misguided diners in search of local culture'.

Andersens Bakery as aforementioned, did a very good Nordic salad. Great pastry selection too. This was the best people-watching perch of this trip. The elderly couple next to us forgot their sunglasses, so we alerted staff. In the chaos, I forgot to tip and so returned later that night to do so. We were not as willing to tip staff @ popular McConnells Ice Cream. Their machine's prompt to do so was disappointing.

We bought some cookies from these Girl Guide scouts and their little sisters. The following week, I sought them out at that same marina spot to give them each a Canada flag pin. They were happy to receive the tiny gift.

Reddit research was not the only new thing that we tried on this trip. We also pre-ordered some jars of an old favorite honey from previous Cali visits: Star Thistle. It is apparently poisonous to horses. But its taste is excellent, right up there with New Zealand types. My honey and I ordered some from Sonoma-based 'Kiss the Flower' family apiary ahead of time to arrive at our rental. Shown here next to our trip journal. Thx to TTer 'Nutraxfornerves' for having repeatedly assisted our quest.

Right out my Laguna Beach experience from a million years ago. 'Here by the sea and sand...'

You Tube

Going to Californicate ia
'Their powers and follies have become fantastic.' uh-huh...

This section will be about Art. Normally I run a mile upon hearing the words 'Arts Museum', but I'm glad that Mrs Z talked me into going with her to the SB Beaux Arts. Above is a unique piece, the refracted phosphorous light sculpture by Puerto Rico's Gisela Colon. Title: 'Skewed Square.' Loved it. By design, it appeared to slightly move from all angles! One young and insecure security guard confronted me about camera flashes even though my Nikon's flash was turned off. Shakes head...

An additional 'something completely different' created by Randy Greif (real name?) in 2005. Title: 'No-one has a Monopoly over Sorrow'. He utilized soldier's wedding rings from a number of wars, plus finger bones coated in melted bullet lead. There were also snippets from bridal bouquets, mourning dresses plus actual hair from the Civil War. I like how he remembered the wives. Give him/her 10 points for originality amidst a social critique.

The unique ness continued. This was 'Ja K'iche' (Mayan 'home'), a fabric and acrylic creation on basswood panel that Guatemalan Estefania Ajcip made in 2023. She portrayed herself as a lonely child missing her daddy who worked for LA tailors for decades. Female Hispanic artists were featured in the 'Accretion' room.

Shout-out to friendly museum staffer Joshua. He greeted visitors in a bespoke suit unlike most others, doing so at a desk right below a spinning gold Egyptian Pharoah bust. Also, see dcd's TR photos of some paintings including the Monet 'Villa B'. See also: historic Indian/Nepali sculpture and also modern photography. Above: the clothing created from pages of art books.

Even some of the flooring stonework was nice.

Glassware.

This message in the Funk Zone is self-explanatory.

Street mural in the Funk Zone.

As above, from a panel of four.

This dragon mural in the Haley corridor was impossible to miss. But it held a hidden corner easy to overlook. People had left a modest tribute of candles for some unfortunate fentanyl victim in the bottom left.

In the same area we saw this large mural 'Visitors' by the Tapcot studios parking lot.

A flower from the same mural.

More street art. This was brand-new.

From a motel's facade.

From a private home.

Some pretentious Canadian photographer took this image in the waters of the marina.

Iconic California poppy mosaic.

In the La Arcada plaza of boutiques and such, this metal piece by J. Seward Johnson Jr. was called 'Who's in Charge?'

Just down the lane from the above...grandpa and granddaughter.

Local teen in middle says: "Who's that guy like, with a cane and sprawled on that plaza bench? Didn't we read about him in History last term?"

BF in SB



John Decker's 1933 painting of the LA Oil Boom, depicting a derrick at night. The bobbing heads of oil pump jacks could be found mostly in black and Latino neighborhoods, places which suffered higher rates of related illness. Those derricks were phased out by 2020.
We took a lot of taxis. Most like the man below, were from Mexico. But some hailed from South America. We hired the above driver twice and the second time he brought his wife. We four had a long chat. Their adult daughter had just called home in tears from Chicago--her transfer there was not working out. To change the heavy topic, I pointed out the window: "See that Earl Warren Showground over the fence? Jimi Hendrix once performed a pair of concerts there back in the '60s." Next: Gardens

Taxis in Santa Barbara

Riviera (yellow) 805-453-1810
Beachside (Demesio) 805-896-2501
Yellow cab-1-800-549-TAXI

Always fun to read your TRs thanks zebec

Fabulous TR zebec. Gives me an urge to head back there and spend more time. You definitely hit a lot more places than we did.

Too bad the butterfly numbers are low this year, hope they bounce back. We saw them in Pismo some years back, when there were about 30,000, still low by historical numbers.

Love your photography, attention to the details, the portraits, the big picture (bad pun intended), great work.

P.S. I did very poorly ("dunno") on your quiz.

These zebec trip reports are really something!

You certainly flatter Santa Barbara, which I think in reality falls short of your trip report. However if a person (me) is going to a destination wedding and the bride’s family has $300,000 to burn, there’s no better place for that than Santa Barbara.

Good job! We live in a Jeff Shelton house and his brother does all his iron work but also their third brother is the movie director Ron Shelton of Bull Durham fame. Love the Arlington theatre and saw the first Star Wars Movie there and then many years later saw Jackson Browne, Jeff Bridges and David Crosby put on a spectacular show. It’s a great venue and SB Film festival uses it for many events. UCSB is actually in SB not Goleta (SBers are very snotty about Goleta) and going to college there in the 70’s was a trip. Literally. Glad you got around and saw so many great neighborhoods and sights. We got married at San Ysidro ranch many many years ago and it holds a special place in my heart. Joe’s was a popular spot when I was still in college but haven’t been there in years. I think you had pretty good weather this February-right now we are deep into June gloom but usually burning off by mid afternoon. Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

Thank you Macdog, for the uni clarification plus the interesting sharing.
An executive decision has been made to postpone garden coverage in lieu of San Ysidro Ranch so as to continue the topical flow. My hero Neil Peart also got (re)married at the ranch in 2000 after his pair of tragedies. The ranch is located in exclusive Montecito. I wanted to treat my own spouse to something special for Valentines Day. The ranch seemed the obvious choice for this once-in-a-lifetime event. One famed film producer has been taking his wife there for Valentines for decades. We also thought that it was a nice touch by management there to hold a special 'Galentines' affair the day before. For women.

Approaching the ranch in our taxi, Mrs Z and I played a game wherein we traded names aloud of the Hollywood elite who lived nearby and presumably patronized the ranch. In no order, we spoke the following:
Eric Idle, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Parsons, Gwynneth Paltrow (she and another A-list mother both had sons go off to college and just sold their now-empty nests), Katy Perry, Dick Wolfe, Carol Burnett (age 96), Harry & Meagan, Dennis Miller, Patrick Stewart, Rob Lowe, Oprah, Kevin Costner, (Ellen Degeneres and John Cleese both left recently) also possibly Steve Martin and Martin Short. The latter two were shown in a recent doc re-visiting Martin's film location-site triumphs plus cycling to Cleese's former horse ranch.
Someone's child was also having a birthday celebration at the ranch that same evening. A separate room held kids games and such.

Tea for two on a sunny afternoon. The atmosphere was not as stuffy as we'd feared.

There were only three parties celebrating that afternoon. The group of six nearest us had to sit through one of their party holding court non-stop. In that time, that person detailed their recent operation in such excruciating detail that we came 'this close' to asking for a different table.

The food and drink were good. The service was better.

Part of the allure was the ranch's lovely grounds. The gardens were impressive and the decor included fountains, sitting nooks, old trees, metal tortoises and wooden carvings. Without prompt, one staffer informed us that the best photo op views were 'up by the pool area'. Unfortunately, his tip came too late as our return taxi was already en route.

Lily pond.

Most of the decor was tasteful.

This seating area below a pergola seemed like it would be a great place to chill at night with candles and wine.

The ranch was where JFK and Jacky had their honeymoon. You can well imagine the current prices to stay in one of the many lovely cottages. Those had some of the most attractive in-ground Jacuzzis that you'll ever see.

*unrelated macdog: I can't ID this shot---might you know what it is? It was downtown.
Next: more music then more gardens

Fun report. You might want to ask the moderators to tag this a Trip Report ✈︎