Santa Barbara, CA

Arriving in San Luis Obispo just after sunset after a day on Highway 1, we were famished. Our hotel had free drinks and snacks, and we quickly gorged ourselves enough to ruin any chance for a normal dinner. San Luis Obispo is a college town, a perfect, modest-sized town of about 50,000, with a vibrant central shopping area.  It also has a well-maintained old Catholic Mission.  With its amenities and location, as you might expect, housing is expensive.  Very little new housing is being built.

Heading south, we took a detour to Lake Cachuma on our way to Santa Barbara. The "lake" was practically empty! When I was a student, our rowing club would practice with an eight-man shell on this lake's broad surface; not anymore. Santa Barbara; what a fantastic place!  The climate is sublime; as students, we never needed to turn on heat or A/C; temperatures were so mild. Its physical beauty is still obvious; flowers, palm trees, wide beaches; an ocean (with offshore islands) on one side and mountains on the other.  Tourism is big business.  But we sensed its congestion; everyone wants to be there. Housing prices are astronomical. 

 

A modest home near our B&B was valued at 2.25 million and would be considered a "tear down"; surrounded by neighboring homes costing 2-3 times as much. In the Hope Ranch neighborhood the home prices are tens of millions. When I was at U.C. Santa Barbara the enrollment was 12,000; now it is over 20,000. We simply could not afford to move back to Santa Barbara and expect a home anywhere near as comfortable as we have in Colorado.

We spent an afternoon walking barefoot on the beach, walked downtown through the large tourist area of shops and restaurants, and discovered an extensive farmers' market set up on State Street. The marina was full of yachts, and a cruise ship arrived on our second day there. Near the university, we rediscovered the apartment house where Dawn & I first met; walked to the library; checked out a food market we used to frequent. When I was a student, the girls were all blondes; now they are all brunettes; Hispanic, Asian, Black. Where did the blondes go? So many more buildings, more students, more bicycle paths and skate boards.  And surfboards; at how many campuses can you surf between classes?

It had been thirty years since I last visited this area.  When you think back to "home" it is more than a place; it is also a time.  So many changes have taken place.  I am glad that we made so many good memories when we lived in Santa Barbara, Monterey, Marin, and Sonoma.  They are still beautiful as places to visit, but the atmosphere has changed.  Instead of optimism, there is a sense of trying to hold on to what you have amid changes in the culture and increasing congestion.