Santa Barbara ~ The American Riviera

January 5 ~ 11

Arrived at Ocean Mesa Rv Resort (oceanmesa.com) late morning since it's just a short hop from Ventura.  The  park is nice, in a rugged sort of way.  Up high on a Mesa with an overview of the ocean, nice facilities and lovely staff.  It's not a beach resort though as we had hoped and it's 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, so we'll be doing a lot of driving.

First stop, the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market (sbfarmersmarket.org) held on Tuesday afternoons from 3:00-6:30 on State Street in Old Town. (We find out later the market is actually held in different locations thoughout the area six days a week (not on Mondays). I'm in food heaven!  The biggest, most photogenic artichokes I've ever seen! Glorious orchids for a fraction of any price I've ever seen.

The find of the excursion, though, comes from Gorgita Seafood (no website that I can find).  At this small, quite unassuming stand are ridgeback shrimp, caught this morning and local to the Santa Barbara waters we're told. We head back, very anxious to try our bounty.

The shrimp vendor tells us not to do anything fancy with the shrimp,  just boil a couple of minutes and peel and eat....perhaps a little garlic butter for dipping.  It's exactly what we do and if I close my eyes, I do believe we are eating the best fresh sweet lobster, I've ever had.  BTW, she was selling these for $5 a pound!  I know already I'm going to put the leftovers in a risotto.

Spend the next couple of days taking in Santa Barbara.  It is a very beautiful, clean manicured town.  The Old Town portion, which in fact doesn't look old at at, has wide enough sidewalks to allow for beautiful streetscapes.

State Street is about six blocks of shopping....mostly mall stores plus Saks and Nordstrom's, galleries, boutiques and restaurants.  Lovely setting and no problems finding free street parking!

The Red Tile Walking Tour is about a 12 block walk through Old Town which highlights some of the city's notaable structures.  We start at the County Courthouse, a grand Spanish-Moorish structure completed in 1929.  It is quite ornate, features open loggia corridors, elaborate murals and a lovely courtyard.

Try to follow the tour for awhile longer, but frankly we had seen a lot of it by just wandering around and we wanted to go to the waterfront for lunch.

The guide books and the woman at the visitor's center tell us to eat at Brophy Brothers Restaurant and Clam Bar.....after doing so, we will tell you differently.  Granted, it's great sitting outside overlooking the marina and the staff is very friendly and accomodating....however, the food is terrible.  Rick even had to send back his fried clams. 

Run next door to the Santa Barbara Fish Market (sbfish.com) to pick up something for dinner.  They are slicing up today's catch and piling up shellfish just hauled off the boat. Decide on mussels which we'll do straight on the grill.(fabulous preparation method...just toss on very hot grill until shells open ...about 10 minutes....a garlic butter dips tastes terrific with their smoky flavor).

Think we'll spend tomorrow what I call "on campus"....been running around so much, need to regroup, get some things done and sit in the sun a bit.