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January 10, 2024
Santa Barbara, California


The Viking Neptune in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a seaside town, nicknamed “The American Riviera.” It is famous for its historic architecture: a combination of Spanish colonial, Victorian, and modern Californian.

Santa Barbara is also notoriously difficult to visit from a cruise ship. Instead of docking, ships anchor offshore, bringing guests to land aboard small tender boats. On last year’s world cruise, we had to skip Santa Barbara due to unusual storm activity. This year, the weather was sunny and beautiful, albeit a bit windy.


A rare view of Santa Barbara from the sea (tender in the foreground)

As guest lecturers, we are half-crew and half-guests. One consequence is that we don’t sign up for excursions ahead of time as normal guests would. We have the option of escorting excursions, but those assignments are not made until the last minute.

As a result, we had no set plans for Santa Barbara. Instead, we took the complimentary shuttle downtown to State Street and viewed some of the sights.

Our first stop was the historic Arlington Theater. The site was previously a hotel until it was destroyed by fire in 1909. It was replaced by a theater that can only be described as magnificent. Now showing old and new movies, the theater would not open until late afternoon. We were content to take photos of the exterior when we had a stroke of luck. Just as we were leaving, an employee came over to let himself in. We asked if we could look at the inside of the theater. He said it was no problem, and we could let ourselves out afterwards.

The interior is jaw-droppingly stunning. The walls are covered with faux-façades that make you believe you are outside of an historic Mexican town at night. (We are told that the historic silent-music organ actually rises on a platform out of the floor, but we were not able to see that.)

    
The exterior of the Arlington Theater

         
The interior of the Arlington Theater

Our second stop was the historic Santa Barbara Courthouse, next to city hall. The second floor features historic murals that cover the walls. The fourth floor is a tower that provides a 360-degree panorama of the city.

    
Santa Barbara Courthouse


If you look closely, you can see the Viking Neptune at the center on the horizon

At La Arcada Plaza, Gail was thrilled to find wool and felting supplies at The Crafter’s Library, including some gray wool and some rare German needles.


La Arcada Plaza features several very lifelike statues


Gail at The Crafter’s Library

For lunch, our first choice was a Cat Café that we saw advertised. Unfortunately, we discovered that you can’t actually eat there. You just pet cats, which we did.

Gail was ready to walk back to the ship for lunch, but Russell spotted a Himalayan Kitchen. We ended up with a delicious meal that included buttered naan bread.

    
The Cat Café

    
The Himalayan Kitchen, a small hole-in-the-wall with great food

Back aboard ship, the evening event was the “World Cruise Welcome” (aka the “Captain’s Welcome). For our portion, eight lecturers, four workshop hosts and the bridge instructor all took the stage to introduce themselves.

We will spend the next five days at sea before reaching Hawaii. During these sea days, Russell will deliver his first three lectures, beginning tomorrow morning. Time to start practicing!

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