Santa Barbara, California

We had no idea we’d spend so much time in Santa Barbara, California. But it happened. Because, while touring the USA’s West Coast, the city of Santa Barbara felt special.

Santa Barbara felt more like a community than a small city. It felt a tad safer—like the cities in the USA felt before mental health, addiction, and violence crises became so prevalent in the States.

Of course, Santa Barbara was not immune from needing more care. Everywhere in the USA, we need healthcare of all kinds, including mental health/addiction, plus violence prevention.

Santa Barbara’s old town still struggled with these challenges, but it felt safer to us than many other places in the States (small towns or cities) have felt to us in recent times.

And we loved Santa Barbara’s moderate marine weather.

The beautiful sunshine, which we assumed would become unbearably hot, remained moderate and tolerable. Even the marine layer (fog) and occasional cloudy days seemed moderate.

(Of course, I initially forgot I needed protection from the sunshine, even in winter. The weather felt so pleasant that I didn’t think about sunscreen or protective clothing. Yikes.)

The few winter storms did bring flash flooding. But Santa Barbara alerted us to each plan of action. When our cell phones and rushing water woke us, we moved to higher ground.

I’ve previously shared some of our meaningful Santa Barbara experiences…

I also loved seeing the whitewashed architecture (which soothed my minimalist mind), flowers blossoming year-round, and the mountains and the beach nearly always in sight.

My partner loved going to the Santa Barbara Harbor Marina as often as possible to look at the water and boats, search for wildlife needing rescue, and mingle with sailing friends.

We were profoundly grateful for the kindness and the coin-free hot showers at the Santa Barbara Sunrise RV Park. I can’t express this enough. We feel deep gratitude for this lovely family.

In addition, we enjoyed the natural groceries and deli food at Lazy Acres. We visited Whole Foods as our backup. Both supplied plenty of gluten-free vegan options.

We had the best GF vegan Drunken Noodles we’ve ever tasted from Meun Fan Thai Cafe. And we savored the GF vegan street tacos from Satellite SB.

Last but not least, it was only about 200 steps to get down the 1000 Steps Beach … where I finally found a lone, but fully intact, velella velella.