Santa barbara

When we pick an rv park to visit, we pick an area that we want to tour.  Close to Rancho Oso is the town of Santa Barbara.  Since our new friends have already been there, done that, we took off one day for our own visit.  Our first stop was The Carriage & Western Art Museum which we found tucked into a corner of Pershing Park.  The museum is small but very well done. The collection is comprised of over 70 horse-drawn conveyances manufactured between 1850 and 1911.  Many of the carriages, buggies and wagons are used in the "Old Spanish Days Parade" during Santa Barbara's annual Fiesta Celebration held during the first week of August.  

The collection also includes one of a kind silver saddles and equestrian tack by noted leather craftsmen such as Bihlin and Visalia.  Some of the saddles are displayed below the mural,
which is an original western mural by famed artist Ed Borein.  

Details of the mural.  It was done with  brush and India ink on pine.  It is 85' long and once hung along the wall of a bunkhouse.  It features a herd of buffalo being chased by Indians on horseback.  Behind them is the village being packed up and moving.

Several paintings are included in the collection.

Nine passenger coach featuring a bench in the middle to seat three.  If need be several more people could sit on top.

Wine wagon.  The kegs sit sideways and slanted toward the middle.

After our tour we cruised Mission Street until we found this hole in the wall diner--our favorite kind.

There were a couple of tables to the right across from the kitchen, but this is the biggest part of the cafe.  We ate some good burgers and fries here and the staff was very friendly and welcoming.

The Mission Street district is part of the tourist route so the town here is well kept.  The buildings reflect the Spanish influence combined with the white settler taste.  The building below is one long one with both the red tile roof and the conventional tile roof.  The restaurant is at the far left end of this building.

After lunch our next stop was the Living Old Mission Santa Barbara.  This mission was the tenth of the California missions to be established by the Spanish Franciscans.  The original church building was constructed of adobe and unpretentious.  The present church, the fourth and grandest was completed in 1820, then restored and reinforced in 1953.

It is called the Living Old Mission because the grounds continue to house the Franciscan monks along one side of the courtyard.  The other side hosts people who come for spiritual retreats. There are several sections to this beautifully maintained garden courtyard.  The section below is just a little part of the entire courtyard.

A large part of the complex is used for burials.  Below are some of the original mausoleums.

People continue to rest in peace, their remains cremated and entombed inside the walls.

The church's architecture design was taken from The Ten Books of Architecture, written by the Roman architect Vitruvius around 27 B.C.  The artwork displayed is from Mexican artists of the 18th and 19the century.  The present church has pews, but did not originally.  This is the apse or sanctuary.  

No visit to Santa Barbara would be complete without a visit to the ocean.  The weather was sunny but cool.  This didn't deter people from enjoying the sandy beach at least. In the background left you can see part of the long wharf that extends from the shore into the bay.  The wharf is covered with shops and restaurants and is open to traffic.

On the way to Rancho Oso, we take the Paradise Road, then veer onto the right hand road that leads to the park.  Before we headed that way we decided to explore the road to the left.  This runs right alongside the base of the mountain across the dry riverbed from the rv park.  It leads many miles back into the Los Padres National Forest.  

The afternoon was hot here in the protected valley.  We got as far as the Red Rock hiking trailhead when we stopped at this nice pool.  It is a well-known and popular swimming hole.  There are hand/foot holds in the rock opposite. We found that there are usually isolated pools in this river, even during a drought. This is the deepest.

Looks like fun!

View of the RV park from the road.

We also took time to visit with my brother Tim and his wife Carolyn, who live in Lompoc, and to tour the Lompoc Valley, but that's another story.

Louise and Duane