Santa Barbara

We left at 8:45 for Santa Barbara with Bob and Elaine driving.  First stop was the Ty Warner Sea Center where we saw many different varieties of marine life.  My favorites were the decorator crabs.  They actually decorate themselves with "things they find around the house".   Their little habitats had been given several colorful pom poms and they snatched bits and pieces until they, themselves looked like little colored pom poms.  Cam Murray saw another snatch a bit of seaweed and add it to his appendage.  

Once we'd seen everything we wanted to see at the Sea Center, we decided to take a tour of Santa Barbara using public transit.  The shuttle driver took us to the end of State Street for a quarter apiece and let us off.

We headed for the Santa Barbara Civic Center and courthouse.  What a gorgeous old building with many murals adorning its walls and ceilings.  The bell tower gave us a great view of the entire city.  Luckily, the rains decided to leave us alone for awhile.  

By this time we were getting hungry and Bob and Elaine wanted to see the place where their son, Jason, lived while attending Santa Barbara City College.  It was right over a bakery, coincidentally.  Our sandwiches were delicious!  

Continuing down State Street, we stopped at a couple of shops (including Lululemon, Shelby and Roxanne).  

Eventually we got back to the car which was parked along the waterfront and headed for the mission.  We watched the movie and took the self guided tour.  Then it was on to see Santa Barbara City College and after that, UCSB.  Apparently, UCSB used to be located where Santa Barbara City College now is.  UCSB is actually in Goleta and doesn't have quite as beautiful a location, in our opinion.

The drive home was much prettier with all the rain and fog gone.  Tomorrow is a driving day - to Newport Beach, where we'll stay for 3 nights.  

The game players all met in the meeting room for games after our respective dinners.  Don't ask!  Several went off to the casino to try their luck, as the campground gave us each a $50 coupon from the casino.