Santa Barbara ...... but could I live there?

Well the answer is YES, but I'd have acquire some additional funds! After walking down to the haystack rock at Morro Bay, this morning and seeing the surfers already in action, we drove south on 101 towards Santa Barbara, by-passing Pismo Beach and San Louis Obispa, and catching sight of the vast tracts of rich agricultural land that line this route. The early mist soon burned off and the sun shone. Not unusual, as Santa Barbara has three hundred days of sunshine each year, on average! Arriving after eleven, we reoriented ourselves by taking the guided trolley bus tour, which is always good, not least because it takes you to the Old Spanish Mission and past the Court House (second only to  the Golden Gate Bridge in the tourist photograph stakes!).

After the Mission, we jumped trolley half-way down State Street, to grab a coffee & bagel, chat to some local guys, and buy ice cream at McConells (regarded as the fourth best ice cream in America; but Ben & Bills, in Newport is better, in my view!!). During the tour we learned that many stars of the entertainment world live here, including Oprah Winfrey, who has a house in just about every city in America, it seems! From this, you may guess, correctly, that housing isn't cheap in Santa Barbara and with tourism and their being two local (excellent) colleges, rental accommodation is non-existent. In fact, the median house price in Santa Barbara is $800K and many houses command multi-million-dollar price tags. Ty Walker, the inventor of Beanie Babies, lives here and owns half of Santa Barbara or so it seems. He bought an estate comprising four houses overlooking the ocean, raised them to the ground and built his current house. Fess Parker (who played Davy Crockett, in the 50's TV series) built a hotel conference centre here and claimed that Davy Crockett made him famous, but Santa Barbara made him rich! All too soon, it was time to head back to Morro Bay for our anniversary dinner, at the Dutchman's, followed by a glass of wine in the local wine bar.

Being in Morro Bay and visiting Santa Barbara, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to include a surfing track, today. So I've selected The Drums "Let's go surfing"