A few days in Santa Barbara

We began this trip with a short visit to Santa Barbara, which we added to our itinerary at the last minute. As I mentioned in my previous post, we left Palm Springs a few days early to escape the heat. We camped at an RV park just north of Santa Barbara, directly across from El Capitan State Beach in Goleta, CA.

I have visited and posted about Santa Barbara before, and no doubt I will again. There’s a lot to love about the place. The weather is usually perfect, the beaches are beautiful and the food and wine are tough to beat.

On our first full day in the the area, we headed downtown to the harbor and Stearn’s Wharf, where the tourists and the seagulls were out in force, enjoying the beautiful day.

Later the same day, I decided to check out some wineries in the Lompoc area north of Santa Barbara. From that outing, I have only one winery to recommend. I was unable to make a same day reservation for the first winery I hoped to visit, and they would not accommodate me when I stopped by late in the afternoon, in spite of the fact that there were only a handful of cars in their guest lot. I stopped by a second winery that had been recommended by several sources and I was unable to finish the glass of wine I had purchased because it was really not good.

Finally, I returned to a favorite from a previous visit to the area, Babcock Winery and Vineyard, just outside the city of Lompoc. Their tasting room is unlike any other you will visit. It’s an industrial style building on the site of their vineyard and winery, filled with posters, album covers, artwork, photos, even vintage leather jackets. The entire room, which is quite large, is a kind of tribute to rock and roll from about 1950 to 1990, and the styles which the music and its creators inspired in clothes, furnishings and other design. Their wine selection is diverse and quite good, and it is creatively displayed in lockers, suitcases, boxes, etc. Below are some photos from their tasting room. Unfortunately, the lighting was rather dim, so the photos are not great, but I wanted to give you a sense of the place. It’s pretty cool.

On our third and last day in Santa Barbara, we spent the morning lounging around the RV, then enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a local bar and grill. I then headed out to explore some wineries in the Los Olivos area, northwest of Santa Barbara. I first visited the tasting room at Beckmen Vineyard and Winery. They produce several varieties in addition to the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah which are typical for the area, and their wines are quite good.

I next headed to “downtown” Los Olivos, which is basically a small, walk-able village, 3 or 4 blocks wide and long, just off the highway, in which the streets are lined with restaurants, shops and wine tasting rooms. The wine producers in the area are able to co-locate tasting rooms in a centralized location, and their customers can check out multiple wineries on the same day without having to drive long distances. I visited the tasting room for Stolpman Vineyards, where I enjoyed a glass of Syrah on their lovely patio. Service was attentive and the wines were quite good.

Next up: Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Carmel Valley.