Santa Barbara Bucket List - Part I

By Chris

Found in our tiny cottage here in Santa Barbara, 100 Things To Do In Santa Barbara Before You Die. Seemed like an intriguing theme to structure a blog post, so I checked it out. 

Now, John and I are never going to: Go free diving and spear fishing; Go skydiving in Lompoc; Take to the skies in a glider plane; Tour wine country in a hot air balloon; Carve and grind at skater's point; or Get in a round of golf. However, as it turns out, we've already done several of the items in the book. I'm sharing some of those here, so this post (parts 1 and 2) has a bit of a retrospective element. As well, I'm sharing the ones we've added to the list, also adding in hikes that we tried from Best Easy Day Hikes Santa Barbara. Altogether, they should provide a good picture of fun activities to do in and around Santa Barbara, should you choose to make a visit here. We hope you do!   

Bucket List Items from previous trips:

Catch a Show at the Grenada. We've actually done this twice. First, all 3 of us attended a showing of Amadeus with  an orchestra playing the sound track and a choir for the Requiem. Next, Emily and I recently attended (just before everything shut down) a talk by a favorite author, Bill Bryson. It is a grand theatre, reminiscent of the Fox Theatres in Detroit and Atlanta.

Do a Taco Crawl on Milpas Street and Get a Killer Burrito at a Liquor Store. We've had some very tasty Mexican food here, including these suggestions from the book. La Super-Rica Taqueria became famous when Julia Child raved about them. We agree that the tortillas here are super-delicious, but we feel like tacos from Lili's Taqueria in Goleta are superior in terms of fillings. And, who wouldn't like a burrito from the back of a liquor store?! Good thing I don't live in Carpenteria; I'd be there all the time!

Lunch at Beach Liquor (sorry no burrito picture) and enjoying Lili's tacos a few weeks ago.

Watch a Parade on State Street. We participated in a parade of sorts when we marched in the 2018 March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. I loved all the young protesters!

Bucket List Items from Santa Barbara Vagabonding:

Order Off the Secret Menu at In-N-Out. A stop for a cheeseburger here is a must any time in California, but we never knew there was a secret menu! The item that sounded most appealing to me was a Neapolitan Shake. Very yummy! In researching the chain for my post here, I learned that most of the restaurants have the "X" palm trees, and here I thought it was only in Goleta! X marks the spot!

Buy a Lavender Lemonade. We've been to Clairmont Lavender Farms before to do some shopping (they make the most heavenly lavender scone mix), but we've never been here the right time of year to see the lavender in bloom. While we were out there, we checked off this bucket list item. Best of all, we got to see our friends Kristen and Maddie and enjoy the lavender with them.

Catch a Movie at the West Wind Drive-In. UCSB's summer movie series moved from the courthouse grounds to the drive-in this year. With good compliance on social distancing protocols, we were all able to enjoy a showing of A League of Their Own ... and some Kona Ice! We had so much fun, we plan to go again.

Now, there are also some things in the book that we would like to have done, but won't be able to because of C19. Fortunately, Emily has gotten to do some of those:

Attend the Goleta Lemon Festival. This area is big lemon country. Some of the original lemon groves were planted by area founder W.W. Hollister. He owned large swaths of land in this area and many of the street names reflect his family. Doesn't that pie look yummy?! 

Attend a Concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl. You can see from the view - mountain! ocean! - in this piccie why it is recommended! Emily saw one of her favorite composers, Hans Zimmer, here.

Watch a Movie Outside. Emily has attended the outdoor movies in the Sunken Gardens at the Courthouse several times. Each year the movies have a theme, including one year where she got familiar with James Bond. The Courthouse grounds are beautiful. Doesn't this look fun?!

Many of the bucket list items Emily has done were a result of her general meanderings downtown (i.e. Take a Walking Tour of Santa Barbara), or through connections with UCSB. She's visited the Funk Zone, eaten Gluten-Free at Lilac Patisserie, grabbed grub at the Santa Barbara Public Market, taken a cooking class, tasted the Spirits of Santa Barbara at Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company, done wine tasting in the collection of El Paseo, walked through Trinity Episcopal, and shopped El Paseo's Outdoor Mall. She also painted this cute piece of art with Painted Cabernet:

Party in the Street during Old Spanish Days Fiesta. Emily has been to this August festival a couple of times. Once she accidentally wandered into a family's dinner, thinking it was a vendor. They invited her to stay! Here's a short video clip of some dance on the steps of the Santa Barbara Mission:

A side note, we are staying in the Mission Canyon area and can hear the Mission bells. So pretty! Our cottage is up in those hills on the right-hand side of the photo.

Vagabond Hikers

The Mission Canyon area is very pretty, with lots of parks and trails. From our trail book, we hiked the forested trail at Stevens Neighborhood Park, which is near where we are staying. There were meadows, sycamores, and a cute creek. We weren't able to complete the entire hike, because the crossing of the creek was a little too steep and rocky for our old knees.

Of course, my favorite trails always involve water and ocean! I'm not sure how I found Lake Los Carneros, but it is a real gem just a couple of miles from Emily's place. This park is behind Rancho La Patera and Stow House, historical property of another big family in the lemon business. It is currently the home of Goleta Valley Historical Society. We have returned several times to walk the paved portion of the trail, as the scenery is so pretty and calm. 

Look at the size of the palm tree! It's like the sequoia of palm trees.

On our first visit, we tried to walk around the entire trail. It is paved for a good portion but then turns to a natural trail. We were doing fine for a while, but then the trail disappeared. We ended up leaving the trail into a neighborhood and then picking it back up a little further down. The neighborhood detour turned out to be fortuitous, because we found some cute sidewalk art. 

 

The little painted stone door reminded me of the TinyDoorsATL art project. 

Max, age 7, seems pretty wise and give me hope for the future. 

Another fun hike suggested in the book is Ellwood Bluffs / Coronado Butterfly Preserve. We have been to the portion that is the butterfly preserve before, but we haven't gone out to the bluffs (although Emily has with a hiking group). This winds through eucalyptus trees and ends at a series of bluffs with beach access. If you went down to the beach and walked further, you would end up at the beach cliffs in Emily's neighborhood. This collective area is one of California's Marine Protected Areas, providing conservation (e.g. it is a protected habitat for the western snowy plover), and opportunities for scientific research and recreation.

Western monarch butterflies migrate to various spots on California's coast and to central Mexico forests between October and March. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer butterflies here and in other spots along California's coast, because of habitat destruction. 

My favorite hike so far has been walking along the malecon at the Santa Barbara oceanfront and harbor. The full hike is over 4 miles, so we've broken it up. First part, we walked the east end at East Beach. 

Here's a 30 second relaxation to enjoy. Wouldn't you love to be on one of those sailboats? I would!

Across from the Malecon near East Beach is the fun sculpture by artist Herbert Bayer called Chromatic Gate. It certainly gets one's attention as it provides framing for the variety of scenic points. 

It is located on Calle Puerto Vallarta. 

On June 12, 1973, Puerto Vallarta, an oceanside community on the west coast of Mexico, became a sister city to Santa Barbara. This was all very personally interesting to us, as PV is one of our potential retirement places!

A few days later we conquered the second segment of the malecon walk. We went from the general vicinity of the gate, above, to the Marina, passing by the Wharf. John didn't seem real happy with the 2.2 mile hike, but I did manage to catch him smiling when we took a break in the shady park across the street to watch the koi, ducks and turtles.

I'll have some more adventures in Part II of this post in a few weeks. We're here in Santa Barbara for another two weeks, working on those bucket list items, before heading north to Chico to visit and stay with our friend Ann.