Day 7 - Santa Barbara, CA
I was so looking forward to our day in Santa Barbara as it was the first time either of us have been there. They are also known for having great weather, well this was not to be the case for us today.
We had our usual breakfast at International Cafe and then headed to the Wheelhouse to meet for our excursion we had booked through the ship. We quickly checked in, got our tour group number 3 and then I snuck out of the lounge as I had finally found what I thought was a good spot to re-hide this little duck that I had found earlier in the week.
Back to the lounge and our group was called quite quickly, we headed down to the tender and headed ashore. It wasn't currently raining so that was nice, for now. We had booked an excursion to Los Olivos for wine tasting, a Mexican lunch and a stop at the Santa Barbara courthouse and mission.
We boarded our bus and headed to our first stop which was the courthouse, I really wish we had longer to visit as I think I would really like to explore the area more. I really like the architecture in the area.
We arrived at the courthouse and our guide just hopped off the bus with no indication that we should follow him, this was the first of a number of issues we had with this guide.
We got off the bus and he expected us to follow immediately behind him while we were in the area. And while I appreciate learning things about the places we visit, as an amateur photographer I love to go off and explore and find some hidden gems. B did note he did tell the same story 3 times, so...
The courthouse was designed by William Mooser III and completed in 1020, in the usual Santa Barbara style of Spanish Colonial. It was designated a National Historic Monument in 2005. It was gorgeous and I wish I had even more time to explore the grounds.
After our time at the Courthouse we made our way to the Mission. The Mission was built in 1820 and then repaired in 1825. We were not able to go inside, but they do have some public washrooms you can use and a small gift shop you can browse through.
This is a lavanderia or wash basin and was completed in 1818. They soaped the clothes on the sloping sides and rinsed them in the centre pool. This guy fed the water into the basin.
From the top of the steps to the mission you can see down to the ship in the distance.
I couldn't resist taking this photo of a cactus with rain drops on them, and well I also love photographing flowers and plants.
After our time at the mission we started making our way to Los Olivos, the drive was about an hour, but felt more like 10 hours. We made our way through the mountains and really enjoyed looking at the scenery, except the rain did get worse as we made our way there, and it was raining quite heavy the further we drove.
While on our way our tour guide was talking the entire time, however he wasn't telling us anything about the area we were in, he talked a lot about wine, which is great since we were on our way to a wine tasting, but he wasn't talking about local wines, it was about French wines. We learned a lot about Burgundy. And then when he was done talking about wine (sort of), he talked about the movie Sideways, which had been filmed in the area. Again, be proud of it, but we pretty much got an entire synopsis of the movie. I wanted to learn about the area, but none of that happened.
We made it to the area early so we too a quick drive through Santa Ynez, it is a very interesting looking town, very cowboy like, and I would love to give it more of a visit at some point. No pictures as we didn't get off of the bus and it was raining.
Then things got interesting, we headed onto Los Olivos, and drove around for a couple minutes. The place we were going had a very large area around it, including a dirt parking lot, that would be great to use when it hadn't been pouring rain all day. But our tour guide advised our bus driver that he should just go ahead and pull in there, it would be fine. I don't know which was dumber in this case. This is what it looked like outside.
Well, shocker of shockers our bus was now stuck, the driver tried for about 15 minutes to get out, but really was just getting us more and more stuck. Finally we ere able to get out when the owner of the winery pulled us out with his truck, we all owed him one for that.
Once we were out we went around the block and parked on the street. Again a super cute looking town that I would definitely like to explore more, but again raining and we didn't really have time.
We were having our tasting with Sarloos & Sons. They initially started out as a fruit (Apple) farm and then switched over to grapes, they never intended to turn it into the business it has become, but they are unique in that they are still family run, and their whole family is involved, his daughter made one of the wines. You also cannot find their wines in any stores, you can only purchase it there or order it, they do also have a monthly wine family you can join.
Their tasting room grounds are gorgeous, I just wish our weather was better.
We tested 4-6 wines with them and I quite enjoyed them, the whites more then the reds for me. One of the most interesting thing is that they pair their wines with cupcakes, so we each got this little 6 pack.
The inside of the tasting room was so interesting, I could have taken so many more pictures.
These are the actual labels on their bottles.
I really enjoyed this stop, they had a number of things available for purchase aside from wine. B did pick up a bottle of wine. I am not that much of a wine drinker so I ended up picking up a hat. Another couple on the bus signed up for the wine club, they were looking forward to that.
All too soon we were back on the bus heading back to Santa Barbara and hearing about Sideways.
We quickly drove through Solvang, again another area I would like to visit.
Our guide was finally talked out, so we did get a bit of peace on the drive back. Our included lunch was supposed to be taco's with a famous chef of some sort, however due to a power outage we couldn't. They did find us somewhere else to go and it was ok.
I was going to walk back to the ship, but the rain had started again, so back on the bus. I really enjoyed the tour overall, but the worst tour guide I have ever had!
Our tender ride back over was quite an experience too, the weather had taken a turn and it was a bit of bumpy one. I spoke to someone later who said that it had taken them an hour to get back on the tender and the captain had suspended anymore tenders going ashore around noon.
Back on board and it was time to start packing. I went out on the balcony and that was when I realized that at some point the ship had turned and we no longer had a shore view.
I am not a big fan of having a port day on our last day on board, it makes it quite hectic.
It had quite raining so I went to get some photos of Santa Barbara.
The rest of the evening was pretty standard, dinner took us about 2 hours, so we did miss the finale of Voice of the Ocean. We did get to see the comedian that had been in the lounge the other day and he really was funny! Brought me to tears a couple times.
Then it was a quick visit back to the casino and I managed to double my money before heading to bed, since they were going to kick us off in the morning.