Santa Barbara

The wind howled. We got out our parkas to wear...in California! Who would have thought it?

As we drove down the coast recently we decided to stop in at Santa Barbara. We were actually looking for the old Santa Barbara mission. Ahead I saw a large yellow stucco building that I thought might be the right one, but we were a block too soon, so instead of the old mission church, we got this:



A block later we came upon our intended destination:



Some of the plants that grow in southern California are so different than what we are accustomed to, so I just had to take pictures of them. Most of these were either in the courtyard area of the mission or in the cemetery just outside the doors of the church.


This is an interesting old fig tree that originally came from Australia.














The interior of the church was beautiful, though rather drafty!



There was an interesting video about the founding of the mission and some of its history. There was also a museum area with some artifacts. The ones I found most interesting were these two.

This is a wool carder made out of teasel plants.


If you remember the story 'Island of the Blue Dolphins', it is the story of a girl who is left alone on an island off the California coast for 18 years before she is rescued. In real life, her name was Juana Maria. She was buried in the cemetery at the Santa Barbara mission.





It is interesting...after living so long in Alaska, the two places I remember feeling the most cold were standing on the dock in the summer in San Francisco, and walking around outside the mission of Santa Barbara in southern California.