Trip to Santa Barbara

28-30 December 2000

During the week after Christmas, Elizabeth and Jacques decided to take a short trip to Santa Barbara. The trip was delayed for a day since Jacques wasn't feeling too well on the planned day of departure, but on Thursday morning he declared himself ready to go. We drove up the beautiful California coastline and reached the quaint Upham hotel in the early evening. After admiring our beautiful little room we adjourned to the hotel lobby for wine, cheese and crackers, and then favoured Louie’s, the hotel restaurant, with our patronage, enjoying a fine dinner with lamb chops and seafood gumbo. We ended the evening with milk and cookies in the hotel lobby for dessert.

The following day we walked to the Santa Barbara courthouse bright and early to get there in time for the 10:30 Friday morning guided tour. The courthouse is a beautiful building that was built in 1926-1929 after the 1925 earthquake damaged the old courthouse. The San Francisco architect designed a large, spacious building that is well worth visiting.

Following that, we started on a short walking tour of the downtown area of Santa Barbara, where we got to see several old adobe houses and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. The Historical Museum is small but has an impressive collection of artefacts from the early history of the city.

Lounging in the courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum

At the courthouse, one of the volunteer guides had informed us that it should not take that long to walk to the famous Santa Barbara Mission, so that’s what we decided to do. We arrived there at 16:30, just in time to be able to visit it before the closing time of 17:00. Mission Santa Barbara was founded in 1786 and several adobe churches were built, with the present church dating from 1820 after the previous had been destroyed by earthquake. The fountain in front of the mission was built in 1808, and the friary residence was finished in 1870. After the 1925 earthquake the mission was restored.

In the courtyard of the Queen of the Missions

During our self guided tour of the mission garden, Jacques took a little time to stop and smell the succulents. Originally the garden was used as a working area where many of the Indians learned the trade. Jacques is constantly encouraging me to plant more succulents in our own garden. There can be some very beautiful succulents to compliment any garden setting and much to Jacques’ liking they are very low on maintenance.

After our lovely tour of the Queen of Missions, we took a lovely walk back for some wine and cheese in the lobby by the fireplace. Once we had our fill we enjoyed a picnic dinner in our cottage style room and back to the lobby for milk and cookies. As we relaxed by the fire we enjoyed a fun loving game of “Pass the Pigs.” This game consists of two dice in the shape of rubber pigs. You receive certain point values depending on how the pigs land. For example, on all fours - “trotter”, on its back - “razorback”, on its snout - “snouter”. It certainly got the attention of the other hotel guests as Jacques and I would be calling out the different positions of the pigs.

Elizabeth and Jacques in the gazebo at the Upham hotel

We stayed at the Upham hotel in downtown Santa Barbara. They describe themselves as a combination Hotel/Bed and Breakfast. The Upham hotel was built in 1871 by Amasa Lincoln, a Boston banker who set sail for California to build himself a New England style inn. It is said that Richard Nixon and Agatha Christie have enjoyed a pleasant vacation at this Victorian paradise. It had a beautiful garden courtyard complete with their own white gazebo. This reminded Elizabeth of our wedding day and Jacques reluctantly agreed to pose for one last picture at our Santa Barbara getaway. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay over another night.

The Moreton Bay Fig Tree

On the way out of town Jacques wanted to visit what was considered to be the nation’s largest fig tree. According to the guide book “…this Australian native is large enough (they say) to shelter 10,000 people from the noonday sun.” If you look closely at the picture, you may be able to spot Jacques to the right of the tree trunk! Of course he happen to be wearing green pants which, I’m sure much to his delight, acted as a camouflage against the trunk of the tree.

Then off towards home to get ready for the New Year and enjoy the last couple of days before Jacques started his new job at Quest software.