Sunny Santa Barbara

For the Labor Day weekend, we decided to go back to Santa Barbara. Since hotels in Santa Barbara were costly, we decided to stay in a modest Best Western Plus Pepper Tree Inn from August 31 to September 3, 2012.

On the way to Santa Barbara from San Jose, we stopped by for lunch at Pismo Beach. An eatery there called the Splash claimed to have the best Clam Chowder. The Clam Chowder was outstanding, but the whole place looked like a low-end fast-food restaurant.

September 1, 2012

In the morning, we had breakfast at the Fresco Cafe and Bakery near our Best Western hotel in Santa Barbara. Fresco Cafe has very nice, healthy salads. All the food was very fresh and expertly prepared. 

We came back again to Fresco Cafe later in the trip. We really enjoyed our delicious breakfast!

After breakfast, we decided to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo. We saw many animals, including Asian Small-Clawed Otters, snakes, parrots, penguins, pink flamingos, gibbons, monkeys, anteaters, elephants, and giraffes.

We explored downtown Santa Barbara and stopped by the old Santa Barbara Courthouse the next day.

There are stunning views of Santa Barbara from the top of the Courthouse.

After spending some time in downtown Santa Barbara, we drove to see the old Santa Barbara Mission. According to Wikipedia:

Mission Santa Barbara, also known as Santa Barbara Mission, is a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order near present-daySanta Barbara, California. It was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén on December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, as the tenth mission for the religious conversion of the indigenous local Chumash—Barbareño tribe of Native American people. The mission is the namesake of the city of Santa Barbara as well as Santa Barbara County.

Many lovely chalk murals were drawn in the parking lot in front of the Mission. These chalk murals are from the annual Madonnari Festival.

After exploring the Mission, we drove to the Alice Keck Memorial Gardens. These gardens are beautiful and peaceful and provide shade from the hot sun.

Afterward, we drove to the Santa Barbara Pier (Stearns Wharf). We saw a nice, friendly Pelican eager for snacks (especially fish caught by nearby fishermen).

Nearby, teenage skateboarders skated in the skateboarding park. Here is a short video of the action:

One day, we ate lunch at Jeannine's American Bakery Restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara. We liked the food and desserts so much that we returned there the next day.

We stopped by for lunch at The Tea Cozy in Cambria on the drive back to San Jose. The Tea Cozy is modeled after an English tea house and has numerous teas and little bites to eat. While the tea was good, the little bites were of average quality (not as good as in London) and expensive.

A little bit further down the road on Highway 1, we saw wild Zebras.

We also saw a lot of elephant seals lounging on the sandy beach.

Overall, we had a great trip to Santa Barbara. The drive was a bit long - about 5 hours from San Jose.