Santa Barbara, California

We drove up to Santa Barbara one day to meet Carl at the Train station. He was coming home from Cal Poly for Thanksgiving weekend and we met him halfway. His train was caught in traffic, so we had 30 minutes to walk around the area. So this is what we saw in the 4 block walk from the Amtrac Station.



This is a postcard I bought at this little wharf. Stearn's Wharf is a fairly short wooden wharf with some restaurants, shops, and a museum. We had just enough time to take a walk to see it.


The neighborhood is in transition. Some businesses have closed up and the buildings are vacant. In one vacated restaurant that once had a nice outdoor patio, I saw this big plaster head, sitting behind a padlocked gate. I don't know anything else about it. It was just weird enough for me to snap a photo of it.



The beach bums here are creative. They set up collection spots on the sand below the wharf. Its a great idea. I never put coins in a pan handlers cup if he's standing there holding it. But, if he's nowhere to be seen, and he has a little sign challenging you to hit the target with your coin, I'll fish out my change and toss them off the wharf down to the bullseye below, over and over again, until I hit it.


There were two coin toss set ups in the sand that day.



Halfway through our stroll, we spotted this plaque commemorating an awful fire that destroyed the wharf several years back.


It was too late to check the place out, but this looked like an interesting museum. I was intrigued by the name, Ty Warner. Is he the guy of the Ty Beanie Baby Craze?


Here is Jerome at the famous Dolphin sculpture at the entrance to the Stearns Wharf.



At the entrance to the candy store, they had a cage, and in the cage was a odd feathered thing. Its bowl was filled with taffy. A closer look revealed it was a Tasmanian Taffy Turkey. Never heard of the strange creature. But it didn't look like the kind of turkey you'd cook for Thanksgiving.