Car-Free and Carefree - Part One

Last weekend, Chris and I hopped on the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train and headed north to the city of Santa Barbara for a short getaway.  Since Santa Barbara is a decently small city (and a very walkable one at that), and the train trip up would run right along the Pacific Coast, we decided we'd go (in the words of the Santa Barbara Tourist Department) car-free and carefree!

Unfortunately, the Surfliner doesn't run out west to Long Beach, so after some consultation with Dad and Risa, we picked the Anaheim station as our starting point.  They kindly let us park our car at their house for the weekend, and we took our very first Uber right to the station (Dad and Risa were over in Catalina for the weekend, or they would have driven us themselves).  The Anaheim station is gigantic and brand, shiny new, as it serves as a transport hub for the buses, trains, and light rails in the area.  Here's the ARTIC:

The ARTIC is also conveniently located
near the Anaheim sporting arenas.
That's the Pond, where the Ducks play.

One of the complaints about the ARTIC is that it's still a little bare inside and indeed, our search for lunch items proved them to be pretty scarce (we ended up with pre-made sandwiches from a convenience store in the depot).  However, they did have a cool canned food sculpture series, of which this one was obviously my favorite:

BB-ATE!

A close up of the cans used - cool, right?

Our train was delayed by about 30 minutes, so we chilled out, ate our lunches, and waited patiently for it to arrive.

Just chilling in the ARTIC.

Eventually, the train showed up and we hopped aboard, excited and ready to really start our trip!

So excited!  On the train!

The trip from Anaheim to Santa Barbara took about four hours, and we ended up making up our delayed time en route.  The path of the train keeps it inland through the greater LA area, but eventually around Ventura, it hits the coast, and the views become pretty awesome.

First glimpse of the Pacific!

And some cars and houses!

We made it into Santa Barbara around mid-afternoon, and we hauled our luggage the half mile to our lodging for the next few nights, the Franciscan Inn.  It was an older place but well kept up, overall, and they had fresh baked cookies everyday from 3-5pm (we're an easy sell when it comes to freshly baked goods - not gonna lie).  We checked in, unpacked a bit, and then headed out to explore the town.  

We wandered along the beachfront for a little bit and then turned north, heading directly up State Street, the main artery of downtown.  Along the way, we passed a Santa Barbara institution, Sambo's, which Mom had mentioned (although we didn't eat here, we had to grab a picture for posterity).

"Sambo's!  Not quite so racist as we used to be!"

As we made it closer into downtown proper, we were greeted with a wide array of different stores (some local, some not - ahem, Marshall's and Macy's), restaurants, and other delights.  Since we were full of cookies, we decided to stop off in the Santa Barbara Brewing Company and try a flight of their wares.

Tasting time!

SBBC's stuff was pretty good, and after finally getting our bill and settling up, we headed back on our way.  I found a walking tour of the many historic sites in downtown, so we made our way to the Courthouse to start at Stop 1.  The Courthouse in Santa Barbara is absolutely stunning; a huge lot in the middle of downtown with a clock tower you can climb for 360 degree views of the city (we'll be doing that in a future blog - spoiler alert!).  While the clock tower was closed by the time we made it there, we still had a chance to wander the grounds for a little bit and take some pictures.

I mean, am I right?  Stunning.

It's on the Camino Royale!

Lots of gorgeous Moorish architecture.

After we left the Courthouse, we followed the walking tour up, down, and all around downtown, looking at old adobe homes, former schoolhouses, a parade ground, and the original fort, El Presidio.  Like the Alamo, it's a bit smaller in person than you think it's going to be:

Cute!

Most of the sites, including the fort, had closed for the day by the time we wandered by, so we strolled around, just watching people go by and making new friends.

What does the fox say?
He says hello!

We originally had a dinner reservation at milk & honey, a tapas restaurant downtown for 7pm, but since we were done with our wanderings early (story of my life), we headed over to see if they could seat us.  Thankfully, they were able to accommodate our change in schedule, and we sat down to a lovely meal.  We ate all sorts of exciting things from chorizo skewers to grilled romaine salad to cheesy dip to spicy potatoes, and everything was outstanding.  Chris tried one of their signature cocktails while I sampled a glass of the red sangria, and those were great, too.  The only picture we have of the meal is this one, which Chris had to snap; he's normally the one winning the messy plate/placement award, but it was my turn this time:

What?  It's like the planets are out of alignment.

After dinner, we headed back through downtown, checking out more shops and making a few much-needed purchases (some art and some fun socks).  Before heading back to our side of town, we stopped into McConnell's, a local institution with a well deserved reputation for delicious ice cream.  We weren't disappointed, as our cones were awesome, but I have to admit that I think our own Long Beach Creamery is a bit better.  After McConnell's, it was back to the Franciscan, where Chris delayed our bedtime by snapping off his key in the door lock.  It was an old brass key (potentially one of the originals), and the folks on duty had to come get it out of the lock with pliers and a paper clip.  After getting set up with newer (hopefully) keys, we were off to the land of nod!

In future blogs, we wander all over downtown again and pet sharks!

Later!

Amy