We’re renovating. This time it’s to add another bathroom, since we can’t seem to cope with just one. Once you’ve had two, you just can’t go back. So we’re shopping for subway stone and hex tile and threshold, etc. etc. Does Santa Barbara have stone? Yes it does. We renovated our first bathroom with that. Very nice marble, too. But the savings you can get by shopping outside our small town is substantial. But is it worth it? Hmmmm. Having just returned from the drive, I’m not so sure. Honestly, I don’t know how people cope with driving in LA. It felt kinda like this for 4 hours:
Ugh. So we went, we looked, we bought, we loaded down our car until the springs were crying out for mercy, and we headed to Santa Monica where we were supposed to have lunch with my daughter only now it was 2:15 instead of 1:00, and we still had to get there from Fullerton. I called to tell her we were on our way, and when she heard where we were, she said “WHAT? You’re in Disneyland! You won’t be here for hours!” Miraculously, the 405 wasn’t bad, even though it’s ALWAYS bad. We thought we might make it in time to have something resembling lunch, and we were starting to feel good as the signs for Santa Monica appeared, but then we got on the 10. Ha ha. You guessed it:
And so, we arrived, exhausted, at 3:30, having eaten only Cheetos and water all day, and visited for an hour until she and her boyfriend had to go somewhere else, and then we headed for food. We always love to get sushi in LA, but our favorite place, Wabi Sabi in Venice, wasn’t open until 5:30 and we just couldn’t wait. My daughter said we’d like the Blue Plate Oysterette on Ocean Ave. which she described as a ‘hole in the wall, diner-type place’, and her boyfriend said ‘no it’s not’ (but she was right).
If you live in Santa Barbara and you are suddenly thrust into downtown Santa Monica, the quantity of people can be absolutely overwhelming. I lived in a big city before I moved to Santa Barbara, but I must have acclimated already, because we were like country bumpkins with wide eyes, saying “Wow, look at all the people! I wonder what’s going on?” But it was only Saturday that was going on. Everything was mobbed. It was 4:30 in the afternoon on a chilly day and the restaurants were mobbed, the streets were mobbed, the pier was mobbed, even the beach was mobbed. In Santa Barbara, you’d be staying home or inside.
Anyway, we tried to stop being the totally uncool gawking tourists that we were, and went to the Oysterette (no reservations, so be prepared to wait), had some oysters and ceviche, walked Ocean Ave. to watch the sunset, and headed to the little ‘bubble’ we affectionately call our town.
Cirque du Soleil has a giant tent on the beach that you can see from the pic below. Their show, Ovo, is playing only until March 18th. Catch it if you can.
Cirque du Soleil Tent on the Santa Monica Beach
Our last act of the day was to unload the boxes of marble tile from our badly overweighted car. It now sits, waiting to be installed, and I know we’ll love it and my husband is very proud of the savings, but I don’t know if we’ll ever do that again.
If you live in LA and you want to get outta there and join us in ‘the bubble’, I’m happy to help you find your piece of paradise here in Santa Barbara.
Karen Blackburn, Realtor
KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY
1435 Anacapa St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-470-1002
Living in Santa Barbara 