Well, we did fly and it was vastly more magnificent than I’d imagined. What a beautiful place to live! I confess to having actually wondered if it would seem pedestrian after flying through places like Jasper. Luckily I was wrong, because this is certainly an easier climate – especially for flying!
But to finish a thought, we did see some traffic of the vehicular kind and it did bring an evil smile. 🙂
0854 Traffic
Now for those less familiar with Santa Barbara, let me hasten to add some context. First, this is at the height of “rush hour” on a Friday afternoon in summer when our local traffic is burdened further by people trying to drive through on Hwy. 101 between LA and SF, and this is a major construction choke point where lanes being added are temporarily making things worse before they get better. Before the road work, this would have lasted perhaps 40 minutes, but now it sometimes goes well over an hour and on Sunday afternoons several hours. Even so, you can get a sense of how beautiful a place it is to sit in traffic. The bird refuge at the top, and the Andree Clark “cottage” at the top-right corner are perhaps the most obvious from this distance. If you’re ever passing through and encounter traffic, do yourself a favor and exit to stroll the beach or State Street.
0851 San Roque
Everything is within a few minutes’ drive here, and this scene is perhaps a mile from the freeway. The municipal golf course gives way to a small plaza with one of our largest independent bookstores. The line above that in the distance is what I call the Stevens Bridge over a park, where before going to the airport today we drove home from Trader Joe’s (locals can find it in this photo) doing our vote. That’s where we drive across looking left and right, and vote on our favorite view (which changes by the minute on most days). Usually the mountains win, though sometimes the harbor or less often the islands emerge victorious. In case you’re wondering, today was an islands day.
Speaking of Andree Clark, here’s another view (to complement those in the news lately, including some of mine) of her immaculate and unused estate, with the bird refuge on the right and the beach on the left. The lovely SB Zoo is just out of frame at the top.
0861 Andree Clark Estate
I hope these few words and pix give some idea of why we so love living here, and found it so very refreshing to fly over Our Town again today. Maybe it’s just infatuation, but it seemed to me Tripp enjoyed it as much as we. 🙂
John & Anne Wiley 
That’s a great view of the Clark estate. I think it’s the Andree Clark Bird Refuge (in the top right of the photo). But the house and property belong to Huguette Clark, her sister. Andree died at age 16, but Huguette is now 104. Huguette named the refuge for her sister. This info is from the report by Bill Dedman on msnbc online.
Comment by Anne — 2010/08/14 @ 06:14