The Many Colors of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is beautiful. A quick Google search or peek outside my window reveals cloudless skies over the Pacific Ocean and prominent Santa Ynez Mountains, streets lined with palms and purple flowers, Spanish Colonial buildings with whitewashed walls and orange clay tile shingles, and happy, healthy, eccentric Southern Californians with fire in their hearts and feathers in their hair. This is the world I’ve come to know and love. This is paradise. These are the many colors of Santa Barbara.

I moved from the cold greys of New England through the oppressive browns of Texas to the glowing greens, vibrant blues and extravagant neon sunsets in Southern California. In the winter of 2009, I welcomed myself to the rainy season of Santa Barbara with a skinny dip beyond the crashing waves of Goleta Beach. I wandered State Street and Paseo Nuevo. I drove through Hope Ranch and was humbled by gargantuan palms. I collected sea shells on Arroyo Burro Beach until it was time fill my belly at the Boathouse.

I felt the salty sentiment of a seasoned sailor among the many sounds at the marina. I was a child again chasing old grey pelicans from the painted point of Stearns Wharf. Young skateboarders surfed on ramps of solid grey at the waterfront skate park. Wild splays of art bedecked the perfect green grasses under a tidy row of palm trees at East Beach on Sundays. A circle of drums beat wildly down on Butterfly Beach and I watched in wonder as the sun swiftly set to brilliance of purple and pink.

I settled into a one bedroom apartment in a stylish little complex near La Cumbra Plaza. I woke each morning to 70 degrees, cloudless skies and the majestic purples of Via Lucero. I joined Spectrum Fitness to supplement my barefoot runs in the mountain hills. The forest vegetation glowed in neon greens and the canopy broke to pure blue skies. Even the greys of my favorite river route to Seven Falls felt vibrant and alive. And while Franceschi Park has stunning views, none has ever won my heart quite like sunset from Inspiration Point at the peak of a barefoot mountain trail run.