Growing up, “the beach” mean Newport, in Orange County. In 4th grade, my class took a field trip to Mission San Miguel and visited Pismo Beach. It was flat and muddy and there were no waves. It didn’t look like a beach to me. Later, I visited some beaches in Northern California and began understanding that “the beach” means something different all up and down the left coast. I spent 4 years in Sandy Eggo and learned that even one city can have a variety of beaches.

But, I’d never gotten a feel for Santa Barbara. This city isn’t quite “The Central Coast”, nor do I consider it Southern California. It isn’t as easy to get to as Morro Bay, and I’d never had a reason to go.

Last week, Trail Guy and I spent 4 nights there for multiple reasons irrelevant to this blog. But, as a California artist, I want to share with you some of the photos I got so you can get a little taste of this piece of our huge state with a very very long coastline.

I love the California missions. I haven’t seen all 21, but I’m always thrilled when I get to see one for the first time. I built a model of this Queen of Missions in 4th grade – 3 milk cartons do the trick! (My mom was really really mean and she wouldn’t let me build it out of sugar cubes.)

We walked around the backside and it reminded me of some of the views I took photos of in China.

What’s in there, Trail Guy??

Okay, that’s long enough for today’s post. I’ll show you the beach pictures tomorrow. (Was that a bait and switch??)