Santa Barbara: a paradise for millionaires or a typical Californian city

<...>We were heading from Los Angeles to San -Francisco, and Santa Barbara was on our route. Some 150 km on an excellent road from LA - and we are there.

If you look at the city from a bird's eye view, then this is an ordinary coastal American city with even , wide streets. Nothing special:

But it's worth a little stroll around the city, as soon as the eye throws expensive mansions and well-groomed streets:

Immediate proximity to Los Angeles, the lack of fuss and incredibly mild climate made Santa Barbara the most attractive city for buying real estate. Here all year round comfortable weather with minimal amount of precipitation. The average annual temperature in Santa Barbara is about + 15 ° C. It's warmer than in cool San Francisco and much nicer than sultry Los Angeles in the summer months. Often this place is called the American Riviera by analogy with the Cote d'Azur.

The population of Santa Barbara is only about 100 thousand people. Provincial town at first glance.

Almost in the center of the city there is a railway station. A small building built in 1905:

We were lucky. While we were walking in the area, a Los Angeles-San Francisco passenger train arrived at the station.

The composition is two-story and it's clear that it's not quite new. However, there were a lot of passengers at the station. Apparently, this railway is popular:

In general, in the US, trains are not particularly popular. An excellent network of highways, cheap gasoline and affordable air tickets make trains less attractive for travel around the country.

From the station go to the edge of the coast.

High palm trees - the first sign that we are at the ocean:

Dolphins at the entrance of the city pier:

Beach Lin I'm Santa Barbara:

City pier. On it are various shops and cafes, as well as in Santa Monica or San Francesco. My attention was attracted by flags. Do you see the Russian tricolor?

This is the flag of the Russian-American company:

The Russian-American company is a semi-state colonial trading company founded by Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolay Rezanov and approved by Emperor Paul I on July 8, 1799.

Trading company was created to colonize the coast of America (!). After the sale of Alaska formally existed until 1881 and paid dividends until 1888.

The Pacific Coast:

Well, we'll go with you to one more important place in Santa Barbara. On the way we'll see the city:

Typical American streets:

School bus:

I barely manage to catch mansions by the camera:

Where are the fences? At us it would be closed all with a 3-meter fence from eyes out. Maybe it's the house of C-C or Mason?)

So we came to one of the main attractions of the city. Mission of St. Barbara:

In the late 18th - early 19th century, the Spaniards led active missionary activity in California (of course, in order to strengthen their influence in this territory). For several decades they built 21 missions at a distance of about 48 kilometers from each other. The mission of Santa Barbara was founded in the tenth in 1786. Now it is the most visited among all California missions. The city of Santa Barbara arose just around this mission.

The mission is at the top of the city:

It was here that the screensaver was shot for the eponymous series. Remember these arches?

Photos and text ->Source