On Sunday, 2.2.20, my partner and I went to Carpinteria, a town about 11 miles or so "south" (really east, as California's coast goes east/west in that part of the state) of Santa Barbara. It's a cute little town. We've never really explored Carpinteria before... it was always a place we drove through on the 101. I think many years ago on one of our California road trips, we stayed overnight in a hotel in Carpinteria and then promptly left the following morning. It's a neat little town, and it was not crowded at all. I don't know if it was because it was Super Bowl Sunday and everyone was home watching the game, but even the traffic to Carpinteria from LA was pretty light. I feel like it only took about an hour and 15 minutes to get from South Pasadena to Carpinteria. Granted, I was driving pretty fast, but still, traffic was a breeze...
All photos by me.
Time for lunch.
Empty place. More people started coming in after I took this picture.
Very old school, with the double swinging doors and food pass-through.
Oaxacan chicken mole tamales, which are steamed in banana leaves instead of corn husks.
The mole was inside the tamales. It was pretty good. The beans and rice were... OK. I wish I could've ordered just the tamales a la carte.
Next door is an ice cream place, so we had dessert there. This business has a few locations in the Los Angeles area. I assume they are from the Santa Barbara area.
This car parked on the street caught my attention. I thought, 'that model VW isn't sold in the US; it must be from Mexico.' And sure enough, it had Mexican license plates. I'm always curious when I see cars with Mexican plates, as Mexico isn't included in the "North American spec" market, which really means the US and Canada in terms of cars. The rest of North America (Mexico south to Panama, and the Caribbean) gets "world market" cars. The giveaway for me too is the lack of side-marker lights and side reflectors, which are required on US and Canadian-spec cars. Lighting requirements are very different for the US and Canada vs. the rest of the world.
I wonder what other countries the Volkswagen Up! is sold in.
Sorry, I love cars. OK, moving on...
Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park. My partner and I love nature and hiking, in addition to walking around cities and towns.
There's a mobile home park right next to the salt marsh. I thought it was actually a nice mobile home park; if I had to live in one, I could live in this one.
The Amtrak rail line goes right by the salt marsh.
A micro-brewery.
I love these Chumash legends. I believe the Chumash were the largest native tribe in California, but I could be wrong.
The Carpinteria Amtrak station only consists of an open platform with a shade canopy.
Time to go to a meadery. I feel I've become post-beer and wine; don't get me wrong, I'll enjoy a good glass of beer or wine, but lately we've been into meads and ciders... but particularly meads. I wish more meaderies would open up. We've actually been enjoying ciders for a number of years, but some years ago we really got into meads.
Mmm, mead...
My 2nd mead...
I love maps, and I love California, my home state. I don't know how old this map is...
Buckets of raw honey.
Fermenting stuff.
Dinnertime.
The place isn't really right by the sea, though...
I had a kale and quinoa salad for dinner.
And flan for dessert. Mmm, mmm. What a wonderful day trip to Carpinteria.