One Saturday turned to two

Moments happen, when you just wish you could freeze frame the moment. A trip with my folks to Santa Barbara, to celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary, or at least that was the excuse we used. Ahhhh...Santa Barbara, if only I was monetarily rich...where the 'haves' live on a sliver of land between the rugged oak covered mountains and the blue ocean! Ahhh...Santa Barbara....
We enjoyed lunch on the pier; shrimp cocktail and bowls of clam chowder, though our window view table only allowed somewhat of an ocean view through the not completely burned off morning fog.

What was there to do after lunch. My step dad isn't up to walking very far, between the wobbly legs and the oxygen tank, and add a fall the week before, needless to say walking anywhere was not an option. Somewhere in the middle of lots of conversation, reminiscing about all the trips they had made to the Santa Barbara, and Mac's years as a child living in Paradise, off the old stagecoach route, it was decided to see if we could find the old house. Though it had been 70-ish years since he lived in Paradise, he had made a trip out that way about 25 years ago, and his memory took us right to the not so bad looking house. Nestled in the old oak trees, a table and chairs on the front porch, the house has had some 'add ons' which made it seem all pretty inviting.

He talked about him and his sister and mom, how they would make the weekly trip into Santa Barbara, he and his sister to the Granada theater for a movie, while his mom would do the laundry. The return trip home was rewarded with a stop at the Cold Water Springs Tavern, where they would buy a coca cola, for a dime!
We drove the old stagecoach road, paved these days, but Cold Water Springs is still a stopping spot, the mode of getting there is changed, and you have to purpose to turn off the highway, but from the fragrance of wood smoke in the air, and the smells from the 'restaurant' would tempt me. The drive back into town, coffee and a 'sit a spell' time, a slow drive down State Street and homeward bound we were. But it just whetted Duane and my appetite for more of Santa Barbara.