Trekin' with the Cartwrights: Visiting Santa Barbara

We drove down into Santa Barbara today. It is about a 45 minute drive by Jeep (somewhat longer by Miss Doozie...).

A stop along the way to see the overlook to the Channel Islands.

We drove around town for a little while looking for a post office that had a parking lot. We took a sample of our motor oil yesterday and wanted to get it shipped off to the analysis place today.
Note to self: don't go to a downtown post office location; ones that are further out of town will have more parking!

We visited the Santa Barbara County Courthouse that was the #1 rated "Thing to do" in TripAdvisor for Santa Barbara.

Information from the plaque outside: The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is one of America's finest representation of Spanish-Andalusian architecture in a public structure. It stands as the prized jewl of the county whose people it serves and whose visitors it delights. After the devastating earthquake of 1925, the county of Santa Barbara hired the William Mooser Company to design a new home for county government. The building was completed in August 1929 at a cost of $1.3 million and is the culmination of community spirit, county leadership and the will of a people to express their historic roots. Architects, designers, artisans and craftsmen employed their talents in this building and the surrounding landscape with consummate levels of skill.

When we got inside, the lady at the gift shop was very informative. She tried to talk us into staying an additional hour and getting a free docent tour, but we decided to walk around on our own and maybe come back another day for a free tour. On Wednesdays, they have an additional tour to the clock works on the tower.

From the top of the tower, we had quite a view - this is looking northwest.

This is looking south to southwest. The two trees that are close in just right of center are a Bunya-Bunya tree and a Norfolk Pine.

The lady at the gift store told us to be sure to see the wall murals on the 2nd floor. They were quite amazing!

These pictures commemorate the Canolino trip that lived in this area, and the coming of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who landed at Las Canoas with the Flag of Spain, 50 years after Columbus.

The front of the room commemorates 1822 California under Mexico with another change in Sovereignty and 1846 Fremont descends Santa Marcos Pass into the Valley of Santa Barbara.

This is said to be the last that the painter completed, expressing his thanks to God that the job was finished!

This is the back wall - commemorating Fr. Presidente Fermin de Lasuen building the Xth Mission at Santa Barbara after the death of Fr. Junipero Serra at Carmel - 1786.

A newspaper article that I found indicated that the artist of the walls was Dan Sayre Groesbeck for the sum of $1000 plus living expenses of about $800.

The ceiling was done by John B Smeraldi. According to the same newspaper article, he made ceilings the focus of his painting in the United States. "Using the 'Mudejar' style, a mixture of Spanish and Moorish, Smeraldi’s Mural Room work utilizes shiny gilt that reflects light into the darkest corners."

The ceiling was beautiful.

Outside the mural room, there were colorful tiles on the walls and floors.

A link to more information about the murals and the room:
http://www.noozhawk.com/article/santa_barbara_county_courthouse_legacy_foundation_mural_room_20140809

From there, we drove to the harbor and found places for lunch (Patti got Ahi Poke and Dwayne got a fish taco). This area has many commercial fishermen and the harbor was built in the mid 1970s.