Journal to a Muse

Tourist-Pilgrim IV

DH decided that his company had had enough of him and vice versa so we took the day to explore locally together.

Somehow, Sambo's has managed to survive decades of being politically incorrect, and still exists. Hubby thought it "turned into" Denny's, but Denny's actually bought out 800 franchise locations and made them into Denny's. Only the Santa Barbara location remained. The original owner owns/owned the Utah Jazz basketball team. I have fond memories of eating breakfast here with my father while Mom stayed in the hotel room-- The plaque on the wall says they only opened in 1957... so I must have come in the VERY early days! They used to have cartoon sketches of a very anglo-cized Indian-with-a-dot boy chasing tigers painted on the walls. Now it is photographs of the chef and his family during that time period.

DH and I enjoyed the eggs benedict and butter milk pancakes very much.

We walked the harbor walk for a bit. I love the line of palm trees that define the curve of the bay. The trees don't seem to have gotten taller from 45 (!!!) years ago. It wouldn't be Santa Barbara without them. Next we backtracked on State Street to inspect another independent bookstore called Chaucers. What a wonderful store! I saw lots of titles I've not seen anywhere else, as well as stationery with art by Wendy Morgan and Tom Schulten.

Next was DH's idea of heaven: a full hour massage. Apparently there's a new franchise on the books called Massage Envy. The proprietor gave him a list of new locations... lots within a few minutes of our home back in Texas. You pay a monthly amount which gets you one massage per month and then gets you others for 1/2 price.

While he had his massage, I tried to draw and paint the patio to the right. Those shadows are tricky! The people watching and eavesdropping was good on Starbuck's patio. Then it was up into the foothills to smell the lavender, mustard and sage and look at the quaint cottages and incredible ranchos.




We revisited Montecito's bookstore...the proprietor was nice enough to pull out the Sunset gardening guide and let me read about Coral Trees. They are gorgeous... and while they may grow in East Texas, I haven't seen any that I can remember. The groundskeeper (isn't that romantic sounding... Like Lady Chatterly... was in the shop while we were... selling their NEW book about Lotusland. For some reason we didn't support that nice independent book store, but waited until we got Borders after dinner.











Dinner was at Rocks. Yummy. Not only did I have smoked salmon with bowtie pasta, I had dessert and coffee with tears because DH was being so supportive-- of who I am as well as who I want to be (you'd think at my age I'd have figured it out), and who we want to be as we head off toward the sunset.
















No one has been as understanding. I'm still not sure I deserve it... which is sad as I write it, but too true to deny.


As we left Borders later there was a group of young men who played as though they'd been in a HS drum line... playing rubbermaid buckets, trashcans and I don't know what all. Pure percussion. They weren't DCI quality, but they definitely rocked the plaza.

Tomorrow it is back home... and time to digest, incorporate and apply what I've learned from being a tourist on a pilgrimmage.