We took the afternoon and enjoyed exploring this coastal city. There is an extended drive along the waterfront with a pier and a large marina. Downtown we noticed that true to form for a holiday weekend, the streets were packed with people eating out on sidewalk cafes, strolling the streets window shopping, riding bikes or carrying on conversations. It is nice to see such a vibrant downtown. Wisely, they built "The Mall" right into the center of the city with little alleys between streets to go from storefront to storefront attractively designed with places to sit, fountains and a variety of architectural designs. You don't even realize you are into the center of a mall at first. Macy's looks more like a historical building than a major store-and that is lovely!
The Phoenix shown above decorates Macy's door in the photo beside it. Even the movie theaters are divided into two venues in what appear to be the old time style of theater showing three or four movies rather than the mega theaters of the satellite malls that have sucked the life out of downtowns. Hurray for the foresight of the powers that be in Santa Barbara. They encourage bicycle riding in town and also pedal carts for four. There are cars of every description.
You can see either from downtown all the way under Hwy. 101 to the beach. Dogs and kids round out the experience. Spring has encouraged blooming trees of every description. The city has trees everywhere and in some cases they meet over the streets forming a "tunnel" of boughs.
Old homes are preserved from original settlement buildings to vintage homes of the mid-1900s. Eclectic homes can be found as well with the most unique one we saw
virtually covered in paintings.
All of this and more within a few city blocks. What a nice destination for exploring!
No comments:
Post a Comment