Santa Barbara – Sunday, May 3, 2015

We slept great in our inside cabin, and were both surprised that we actually slept until about 6:00 AM local time. Today, we are in the port of Santa Barbara. This is our only tender port, so after we ate breakfast in the buffet, and headed back to the cabin to gather up our gear for the ride ashore. On the way back to the room, we headed outside to look at the shoreline, and happened to see a large pod of dolphins swimming around the ship. We went and got the camera from the cabin, and were pleasantly surprised that the dolphins were still near the ship when we returned. We tried to get some pictures, but it was hard to predict when and where they would surface, so we only got one picture with dolphins in it. Trying to zoom in to be able to get good close up, it was just too difficult to try and aim and take a picture quick enough while the dolphins were at the surface for a breath. It looked like the ship was anchored about a mile off the coast, making for a fairly long tender ride ashore. It was a cloudy, cool morning, but the forecast was calling for warmer sunny conditions later in the day.

After going back to the cabin once again for our backpacks, we headed to the priority tender waiting area in one of the bars, and timed it just right to get onto the next tender with a group going ashore for a Princess excursion. We really had no definitive plan for the day other than attending Mass at 9:30 AM at the Catholic Church in downtown Santa Barbara, Our Lady of Sorrows.

We knew we were probably going to have to walk the 1.4 miles to the church, but had hoped the local shuttle bus might be running earlier with a cruise ship in port. We asked the Santa Barbara tourist advisers that greeted us at the tender docking area, and they verified that the shuttle would not start until 9:00 AM. Not wanting to risk getting to the church late, we just started walking toward the church. It was a pleasant walk, not much was going on in town yet on an early Sunday morning. There were quite a few joggers out and about, and several folks out getting coffee for several local coffee shops.  There were not a lot of folks out walking to church!

We arrived at the Church about 9:15 AM, and headed inside. It was quite a large church, and had been established sometime in the late 1700’s, although the current building was obviously newer than that.

After Mass, we decided to walk to the Franciscan Mission Church, one of the most recommended tourist destinations in Santa Barbara. It was about another mile from the Catholic Church to the Mission. We had obtained a map from the tourist advisers at the tender pier, but also used our cell phone and Google Maps to help us find our way to the Mission.

There were already quite a few folks there from tour buses and shuttles. There was a beautiful very large rose garden in a park near the Mission. We headed into the mission and purchased our tickets to see the grounds, and read about the mission itself. The church was closed until 12:30 PM until their Mass was over, but the rest of the grounds were open, so we visited them first. By the time we finished looking at the museum and grounds, the mass was over and we were able to visit the church.

We took some photos outside around the Mission Church, and then headed back into town to the Santa Barbara Public Market. We were not sure what it was before we got there, thinking it was an outside market.  The Market was inside a large building, and consisted of several restaurants and stores inside the main building.  The restaurants were small independently owned ventures, and since it was lunchtime, we picked one that served pizza, sandwiches and pasta. We ordered two different sandwiches and shared them. They were very good.

After lunch, we visited a few of the stores on State Street, the main street for shopping in Santa Barbara. By this time in the day, there were a lot of people out visiting the stores. What had been a peaceful area at 8:30 AM when we were walking to the church, was now a crowded shopping area.

We walked about half way back to the harbor, and then rode the remainder of the way back on the locally run shuttle. We got off at the “Stearns Wharf” at the end of State Street, which was a long pier with various shops and restaurants located out on the water. The weather was sunny and warm in town, but on the shore near the Pacific Ocean, it was much colder and more windy, even with the sunshine. Out on the pier, it was even windier, so we has to put on our jackets while we walked out onto the pier for some photos.

After that, we walked a few blocks back to the harbor area where the tender stop was located and rode the tender back to the ship. It as about 3:40 PM, and the ship was scheduled to leave at about 5:00 PM.  We wanted to return early so that we did not get caught up in the last minute tender rush of passengers trying to get back onto the ship.

We rode back up on the top of the tender, and it was a fairly cool and rough ride back. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and that caused it to be rough. We did get to photo some of the sea lions that were laying out on a special platform dock placed in the harbor for them to use to sun themselves.

Once we were back on the ship, we headed to our favorite bar, The Calypso,  for some refreshments while we waited for the ship to leave Santa Barbara. The ship was  a little late leaving, we think they were having some difficulty offloading passengers from the tenders due to the rough sea conditions, and it was also taking them longer to make the run from the ship to the tender dock, again due to the rough seas.

As was the case yesterday, when the ship started moving, the warm sunny conditions turned too cool to be out on the open decks.

We decided to go to the hot tubs since we were a little sore from all of the walking, probably close to 6 miles total for our day in Santa Barbara. It was all uphill from the harbor to the mission church, but of course, downhill all the way back.

After a warm soak, we got ready and headed to the dining room for dinner. It was about 9:00 PM by the time we got seated. Our wait staff was just OK, we think they were ready to be done by this time in the evening.

After dinner, we headed to a wine bar named Vines and had a coupe of glasses of wine, and then called it an evening.