Out Of My Range

I live on the coast of Southern California in a smallish city called Ventura. Today I’m driving the 30 some miles up the coast to Santa Barbara. It’s a beautiful city and has much to be desired. Santa Barbara is lovely, has great restaurants and good shopping but it’s a bit more elegant than I prefer, I like things pretty casual and Ventura is nothing if not casual. In addition to that, the median home price in Santa Barbara is.....wait for it......$1,165,000. while Ventura is $594,000. Additionally, SB butts up against the stunning city of Montecito (think Oprah, Ellen, Jeff Bridges, etc.) with a median home price of $3,205,000.  So, OBVIOUSLY, another reason why I live in Ventura rather than SB.


A meeting in Santa Barbara allows me to take a beautiful drive up a small portion of the Historic El Camino Real or better known as The 101.  The hillsides are dry and brown right now. I would blame that on the fire that ravaged this area at Christmas time which, up until yesterday, was the biggest fire in the history of the state of California. But the truth of the matter is the hillsides are a stunning green for about three months out of the year, then we have a few weeks of beautiful mustard and sage, followed by dry and brown again. After all, we live in a Mediterranean climate with very little rainfall.

Santa Barbara pier and coastline



If you ever have a chance to visit, it is well worth the travel as long as you are not expecting "big city". It has art and culture but the population is just a little over 90,000. Small city packed with good stuff. My drive is quite lovely and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Comments

  1. LollyAugust 8, 2018 at 11:32 AM

    I'd love to come visit you. Then we could drive way up the coast and head inland to pick up Annette in the Sierra Mountains, then head Northwest to Vancouver and go visit Birdie. What a dream vacation THAT would be!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BillAugust 8, 2018 at 12:38 PM

    A very nice area, my sister lives in San Diego.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Notes From ABroadAugust 8, 2018 at 7:53 PM

    I lived in San Diego as a child then San Francisco when a young,very young woman.
    Then I moved to Hollywood and everything changed.
    I miss so many things about California ..one of my favorite memories is the sight of hummingbirds outside the windows.
    Every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda dAugust 8, 2018 at 8:01 PM

      Grew up and worked the Hollywood Area. It’s home.

      Delete
  4. Margaret (Peggy or Peg too)August 9, 2018 at 8:56 AM

    The pictures are gorgeous! Let's do a road trip!
    I would love to see SB. Never been. I've been to LA and orange county and san fran and well, I'm still living here. :-) I would love your weather but not your fires. SanFran was such a huge disappointment for me. I find the places I like the most are the ones that I didn't know I wanted to see. That made no sense now did it? But I was excited to go to SFO and well it reminded me of a dirty Seattle. I was not thrilled to go to Maine and fell in love with every single inch of it. So the moral is I know nothing! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownAugust 10, 2018 at 9:40 AM

    What beautiful photos! I lived for a couple of years near Vancouver British Columbia, and remember how incredible it was to see both the sea and the mountains, practically at the same time. Ontario has neither. Thank you for stopping by my blog, it is nice to know someone out there is popping by. :) Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JeanieAugust 13, 2018 at 7:06 AM

    I drove through there once and you're right -- it's gorgeous. No time to explore so I especially love your photos!

    ReplyDelete

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