Santa Barbara, California January 7, 2024 Day 19

 

A beautiful start to our day. There is a weather warning for the area, and this is a tender port, which means we are anchored in the bay, and we leave the ship on small enclosed boats which hold 80 or more passengers. It is about a 10 min ride to the pier, and if the winds arrive, we will not be able to get off the ship.  We were supposed to be ready to leave by 7:45 am. We were in the Star Theater waiting when an announcement was made that due to weather, and a delay in getting anchored there would be a 45 min delay on all excursions. As you can see below, we were able to leave the ship.

Our tender, the pier we are headed to in the tender, and some seals showing us the way. We did see dolphins playing in the water on the way toward this buoy.

Our excursion today was "Highlights of Santa Barbara".

There are multiple tiled murals in the sidewalks around the city. This is one example.

This is the Court House. We were not able to get inside, as we were early. It was constructed in 1929 following the old court house being destroyed by an earthquake in 1926. They have a sunken garden through this entrance, which is the old Court house foundation.

The town is beautiful, clean, and lovely Spanish architecture. We walked through the downtown area.

This telephone booth is in the downtown area. Our guide let us know that it is a working phone, he was not sure how much it costs to make a call.

El Presidio Real de Santa Barbara also known as the Royal Presidio of Santa Barbara, is a former military installation in Santa Barbara, California. It was built by Spain in 1782, with the mission of defending the Second Military District in California.

The second picture is the chapel of the Presidio.

Next stop was The Old Mission Santa Barbara founded in 1786. The Catholic Church is active and has Mass regularly scheduled. It is one of the 21 missions in California.

The church is still decorated for Christmas. The church was built for the Franciscan's by natives. The previous church was made of Adobe and was destroyed by an earthquake, so this time it was made of stone.

The church sits on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This site provided them a creek behind them for fresh water, and a view to see supply ships entering the harbor. There was no wharf, so supplies were dropped into the ocean and the tide and waves would bring it in. This gave them plenty of time to get a wagon the 2.5 miles down to the beach to load it up. Below is a picture of the view from in front of the church.

Above is a long trough that was used by the natives for washing their clothes. Water came out of the mouth of an animal you can see a above. The clothes were laid out to dry on the stone area surround.

Our ship in the harbor from Santa Barbara heights. We are the only cruise ship in the area today.

Sunset tonight. It doesn't get old seeing this site from our cabin.

This is a banner night. We went to trivia tonight, and blended our noon and evening trivia teams. There were 19 total points possible, and we won with 15 points. This is our best score yet. Mike put us over the top with his answer of the bonus question. It was "Dorothy was from Kansas, but where was Professor Marvel from"? Mike knew the answer, Omaha, Nebraska. This was good for 4 points. We are basking in a job well done.

Good night