Santa Barbara Day 4
Date: July 4, 2026
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Santa Barbara Day 4Date: July 4, 2026 |
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SB day 4
When do a wine trip we typically spend two days tasting. I think the person that invented weekends got it right, after two days you need to return to life again. We always go over the 4th of July because the grapes are set on the vines. At some vineyards they are beginning to ripe already. When I was working Engineering July 4th meant extra days off without vacation and the trip broke up the summer well.
The only problems with traveling July 4th are a bit of a vacation travel back log and as we found out in Santa Barbara a lot of wineries are not open on July 4th. That just meant we have a day to discover Santa Barbara. Which we did.
After doing research on Santa Barbara, we knew there were three areas we needed to check out. First the beach and harbor both of which were pack on the holiday. The Funk Zone a warehouse district of eclectic shops, restaurants and wine tasting rooms from the beach about six blocks into Santa Barbara. And State St which is downtown Santa Barbara.
Add to that we needed to find a Target or Walmart. We have a list of two things we always need to buy after landing. First a case of water. Now we found out we had a minimart or Bodega across the street from the Marriot that opened at 8AM, which was great. Except Santa Barbara really don’t fill its streets until after ten in the morning. And the 8AM minimart was simply locked though the sign said they were open. So, we jumped in the rental car in search for a Target or Walmart. Turns out there was a Target about a mile away.
Apparently, we had driven past it several times earlier in the week because it was the size of a Walgreen but two stories. We figure Target put the store there so corporate management could fly to Santa Barbara and call it a business trip. But it had stuff we needed. We have no idea where the local’s shop, but we did find out the nearest Walmart was 90 miles away.
So, we drove around town on July 4th and discovered the beauty that is Santa Barbara. We understand why the people from LA vacation there. We spent an hour or two walking the Funk Zone. E is collecting Hoodies of the places we go. I just realized we did not buy a Santa Barbara license plate, which is a great thing for a wall of places you have gone. I bought a belt. Cities would go out of business based on our sovereign buy.
Walking around downtown E fell in love with Chase an Italian street restaurant. And later that night we went to our first ever Free Drone show at the high school. It was a good relaxing day.
Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com