Red Tile Walking Tour Part One

Well I woke up really early today. Would have been i'd say 12.30 or so in the morning. I set the computer up and connected to the Valerio network. Had a voice chat to Gaz and Dangas before Gaz played teh 'When i saw Whoa! i mean Whoa!' sound bite way too loud so i had to hang up. hahah - Check out the question mark i made with my colon. hahaha. Was good to talk to those boys. Did the standard texting then and also had a chat to jeremy later on. Its now 6am and i've also got everything up to date. Ah sorry. All this typing makes me feel like a squirt.

Sherry woke up around 6.35 or so. It was starting to get light. Sherry then wanted to put the coffee on but realised we were way down on milk. So I said i'd go for a walk and get some. There's a deli on the corner of bath and whatever else, but its only 2 blocks away. I got there but the place was not open yet. It said 7 on the window and it was 7. A really well tanned guy shouted me a free paper. He said 'Morning' and he sounded Indian. 'You want one white feet?'

It was a pretty muggy morning. Nicde ot be out and walking with most of the town still in sleep mode. Pity the store owner was too so I waited until 10 past and then walked off towards State St just hopingthere would be another shop on the way., There was one - but their fridge had no milk, so on I pressed to State Street and Cantwell's Market. Success! But geez a bit of a hike. Got back around 7.30 and Sherry had the Californian equivalnt of Sunrise on.

The top stories of the day

- Serena Williams losing a match because she threatened to ram a ball down a linesperson's throat - costing her 2 points and the match

- Kanya West interrupting the acceptance speech of a girl and saying 'Beyonce's video was the best' Beyonce then allowed the winner of that award to come up when Beyonce won another award to give here a cahnce to give an acceptance speech.

I spent a good chunk of the morning looking through the local guides to get an idea of what was on around SB. Turns out that The Killers played last night at the bowl. Bugger! I would have done a big day out effort i reckon. Not much else coming up apart from the Coastal Music Festival which we will go to on Saturday. Ben Harper, G Love and Special Sauce haha - and then on Sunday and Monday i think we are off to Disneyland. So it's going to get busy quickly.

Also sussed out the local college football, ice hockey and baswketball. Movies too, and monday night football at The Sandbar looks good. But i got tired of sitting around home quickly. Luckily I stumbled onto a podcast which was a self guided tour of downtown Santa Barbara. I left home around 11.30 - ran into Janet so said high and also met the lady from Alabama.

Unfortunately the head phones were not working so to listen to the podcast or music in between i would have to play it through the external speaker. So i played a few tunes before i got to the second stop on the tour. The first stop was the Courthouse which Sherry and I did last time. So first stop was the Public Library. Once there i fired up the podcast and low and behold the voice over was J. Peterman from Seinfeld! At least he made sense on this podcast.

The gallery off to the side was pretty cool. Some interesting artwork. There was a fair bit of artwork with numbers next to them. it turns out a jury of critics was baout to judge which paintings shoudl be admitted to the collection. I got kicked out for this.

I then walked into the main public library and it was quite impressive, Massive windows, a couple of murals and lots of people. It was opened to the public in 1917. Fun Fact 5

There are a lot of fountains in Santa Barbara.

I then tried to pop into the gallery, but it is shut on Monday's, Two older Enlgish folk were the guinea pigs for that and let me know as they were also following the red tile walking tour. I then walked down La Arcada. Sherry and I had already been down there on our last trip, but it was good to go down as part of a tour. De0igned by Myran Hunt who is responsible for over 500 architectural plans across California including the Rose Bowl.

I can only guess that they wanted to get some sun on the their shells.

That guy is Benjamin Franklin. Doh!

I then walked down State Street a bit more and was asked directions by a latino guy wearing a Tomlinson jersey, He even called me 'brother'. Didn't bother me but i thought the miss use of that word over here was a feux par. Anyhow.... Walked to Gamestop and Bought Tecmo Bowl Kickoff for the DS. Quite possibly the last ever DS game i will ever buy. Got it for $16 U.S which is around 21 Australian so why the hell not?

Next stop on the tour was the El Paseo. Its a photographer's dream. I did my best. It's claimed to be the first Shopping arcade and was opened in 1927. If anyone knows of any rooms for rent - either for commercial or personal use let me know please.

Right near this equisite paseo is the Casa de la Guerra, This was originally the home of Commander Jose de la Guerra and was completed in 1827. Just to the right of this photo below is like an outside courtyard and this was a popular gathering palce in the 1920's. really cool architecture. In fact - all of Santa barbara is just an amazing place - even the ones that arent mentioned on the tour. Every building has some Spanish Influence.

There's a plarque in between those green bushes and just here the first ever Santa barbara council meeting was held in 1850. This area here is known as the 'Plaza de la Guerra'. I expereienced a council meeting of different sorts just off to the right of here as some middle aged - fairly well dressed man tried to sell me drugs. He even showed some medicinal marijuana certificate. He first came up and said 'have you seen Mike anywhere?'

I don't think this place was part of the tour but just looked cool. Had the standard fountain in the middle and was U-shaped - a theme that im beginning to understand is not just an annomily around here.

This fountain is located just off the oldest street in Santa Barbara called 'Presidio Avenue'. A guard's house was built here in 1840 to keep the Americans at bay. 6 years later the Mexicans were overrun. This fountain area was designed in the 1920's to 'help you take a load off'

Across the street from Presidio Avenue is the Lugo Adobe. As J. Peterman says 'it's like being inside a painting'. It was built by an early descendant of Luis Lugo, an enlisted soldier of the Presidio compound across the road.

The musuem just next to this was closed. So both the musuem and gallery are closed on Monday's. Ah well - I took this as a sign that i should call it stumps for the day. It would be a bit of a walk back and I wanted to make sure I was home in time for Monday night football.

I stopped in at Radioshack on the way back. Found some headphones for 10 bucks. At first i tried to have a look at them but couldnt get them off the rack. After buying them i pulled them out of their packet, whacked them on and bopped all the way home with 'Check My Brain, some Prodigy, Doors, and The Game.

I made it back by about 3.10pm so had plenty of time. I then stared uploading all these photos and then snacked on pistachios, jerky and grain chips in preparation for the football.