Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006: Sept 19

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Sept 19 – No Walmart in Santa Barbara?

Sept 19, 2006

So our vacation has come to an end and we … HAPPILY return to our previously scheduled programming. It was our first foggy day in a while so that confirmed that it was time to go! The plan for today was to drive to Santa Barbara and hang out there for the day. The only problem was that we could not find any campsites that were of interest in that area so we figured maybe what we should do is continue on further south after our visit. But we still couldn’t find a half-descent campground south of here either. (In retrospect we found out that there were some great state park campgrounds in the area because we drove right past them however we did not know about them at the time we were making our decisions) So we decided, why not stay at a Walmart parking lot for one night? The price is right and we just need a place to sleep as we are planning to simply get up and head to San Diego the next day. So we made our way to Santa Barbara and started to look for a place to park the MoHo so that we could check out the town by car. We proceeded to drive straight to the beach. I had seen from Google Maps the day before that there were lots of big parking lots in that area and from the satellite photos I could actually see other MoHos parked there. We found a parking lot, unhooked the Matrix, and left the MoHo behind. Upon closer inspection I realized that this was the EXACT same parking lot I had seen on Google Maps. Cool! Anyway, my friend Louise, who used to live here (lucky dog!) told me that a “must see” was the SB Courthouse. I have to admit, the courthouse is not usually high on my list of places I “must see” when I get to a new town but Louise was quite adamant that we should go, so we did. Wow! What a fantastic building! I think the inside is even more impressive than the outside. We toured around most of the building and grounds and even made the trip to the top of the tower for a great view of the city. One of the things that really struck me was the fact that some of the halls along the outside walls of the courthouse are actually open air. That is a level of casualness that is not often associated with a courthouse where I come from. But then again, where I come from you would have to wear your parka in the halls in the winter with this type of architecture. Actually, you’d have to shovel the halls in the winter so that is not really an option no matter how casual you are. Anyway, we then decided, given the limited amount of time, to take a tour of the rest of the town via trolley. That ended up being a pretty good idea as we got to see all sorts of things we would have never been able to see on our own. The Spanish architecture that is everywhere really gives this town a wonderful feel. On our tour we past a park that had an awesome wooden playland for kids so we decided to go back there to let the kids check it out and then toss the frisbee and baseball for a while. The tour guide happened to mention that SB was a great place to enjoy some seafood so, as we departed, we asked him where he goes when he wants a nice sushi dinner. He recommended a place that was quite far from the touristy area and we ended up enjoying a lovely sushi dinner there. Then it was off to the Walmart in Oxnard, CA for our first taste of true RV-ing.