Santa Barbara, California

It was a very short distance from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. There is no marina or port big enough for our ship so we anchored out and had to tender to shore. The weather was clear skies and crisp temperatures – – but boy was the wind blowing today.  I finally have a good hair day, and it blows like stink. Speaking of hair, the water on the ship is very harsh and at the end of this cruise, my hair will probably look like straw even though I put conditioner on it. I sure miss my Vancouver water. 

We took the panoramic tour of the city, and the Spanish colonial architecture was absolutely beautiful. The last time we had been to Santa Barbara must’ve been about 40 years ago when we went to a company weekend. I even remember the dress I wore that weekend – – a long, black, cotton peasant dress, which I think was pretty fancy in those days. 

So obviously, I don’t have much memory of the city. The tour was not very inclusive, but we did go to the Santa Barbara mission, often called the queen of the missions, which was built in 1786 by father Junipero Serra. I learned about the missions in grade school that were built along the California coast.  There were 21 of them; I have visited four: San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Fernando, and now Santa Barbara.

Here is a short history of the area: the Chumash tribe was conquered by the Spanish, who were then conquered by the Mexicans. It was an agricultural area during the gold rush.  So people found it a beautiful place with wonderful weather and wealthy people started to move there. And there you have it.

After our tour of the mission we were taken to Santa Barbara City Hall.  And then we had to return to get the last tinder back to the ship so our tour was cut short because we started late.

At 5 PM we had an enrichment meeting and then later after dinner we had to go on stage one last time to say who we are and what we did. I do not like doing this. But people were blessedly short in their descriptions as demanded by the cruise Director. It was real fun standing on the stage as the seas were rocking and rolling. No one fell over but people like us who are not used to standing on stage had to work at staying upright. 

Tonight we gain another hour. We have five straight sea days ahead of us before we reach Honolulu. As I am writing this around 10 PM, we are rocking and rolling, but it’s  not too bad. This is our first real bumpy water since we’ve been on the ship.