We rolled into town
on a sunny blue sky Friday afternoon, got access to our apartment and unloaded
the truck (crystal mostly). The flat is quite nice, old but well maintained.
Two story, two bedroom, three balconies, one bathroom, and one kitchen. Sounds
pretty exciting, three balconies!!?!? But two of them are barely large enough
for a chair! We unpacked the crystal (thankfully for Davon, unbroken), got a
Costco membership and then proceeded to browse craigslist for items other than
crystal. Costco is a wholesale store where you buy large quantities of items
for (usually) low prices. Everything from meat and cheese, to toothpaste and
BBQs. We even got our cell phones at Costco. It was several days before we had
anything to sit on and we slept on a couple of camping mattresses for about a
week. There are frequent farmers markets close to our place which is excellent.
The summer fruit is starting to come in. Each time we go to the market, there
are new varieties of oranges or apricots or berries.
The day after we arrived,
we went to explore the downtown Santa Barbara area with Mom and Tim. Downtown
Santa Barbara is next to the beach and the wharf. It’s pretty lovely. A popular
tourist spot with a lot of restaurants at the very tip the wharf. There are
also numerous bike rental places around. Adam and I decided to rent a tandem
bike to trip around on the beach front. At first, Adam was the driver. We went
along a bicycle path that followed the beach. It was pretty stunning with the
waves coming in and the palm trees lining the waterside park. Out on the wharf,
we were amazed at all the people, cars and restaurants. After a quick stop off
to admire the view of the Channel Islands, I decided that I wanted to have a
turn in the front seat. Well, it was certainly easier than it looked. When I
was in the back seat, it seemed like Adam just pedaled and we were off.
However, when I started trying to get going it was a different story! Did I
mention that there were many parked cars and buildings and people everywhere? I
started to bike with Adam in tow behind and ended up careening down the wharf,
somewhat out of control. Weaving around the roadway, trying desperately to
avoid any collisions. After we got off the wharf, we needed to cross a busy
road then continue on the bike path back to the shop. I barely managed to get
us across the road, but when we needed to turn the corner it just got too much
and I hopped off the bike, rather quickly I might add, much to the enjoyment of
people in passing cars. It was rather difficult and I had a new respect for the
innate tandem bike skill that Adam seemed to possess.
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