When I was a little girl, growing up here in Santa Barbara, I spent lots of time as a passenger in my parents’ cars. Every time my Dad would drive us past the Dolphin Fountain, we would call out; "Hi guys!" and wave at the fountain. Now years later, driving myself and quite often, my son, I still call that out or at least think it as I drive by.
As I show clients around Santa Barbara and educate them about real estate, neighborhoods, school districts and prices, I also am rattling off insider information that only a local Santa Barbara can divulge.
Did you know that in addition to the beautiful Dolphin Fountain at State and Cabrillo, in the 80's there used to be an awesome roller skater that danced around the pier area in her colorful lycra outfit and she really had moves on her wheels...and this was well before roller blades!
We used to have stop lights on the 101 Freeway and those of us that had to cross the freeway on say State or Garden Streets, kept books in their glove boxes to pass the time waiting at the red lights. Or those of us who were too young to drive, came up with all sorts of car games to pass the time...'I see something blue'...'No, Dad it's not the sky'...quick think of another blue thing...
One time my Dad and I walked out to the end of the breakwater and then walked all the way across the harbor entrance, on sand to the beach. That was when the "dredge" wasn't here and the sand piled up that much! I remember my Dad telling me that this would be the only time in my life that I would most likely be able to do this...and sure enough, now the dredge is a permanent fixture in our harbor and keeps the passageway deep enough for all the boats to get in and out.
Speaking of our harbor...I used to take sailing lessons and once sailed a boat with two other 6th and 7th graders. Well we were pretty little and we capsized and we were too light to re-right our boat and had to get rescued by the harbor patrol so we didn't get tangled up in the pier pilings...yeah, not the best day...but later we spotted Kevin Costner at the dock and he was quite popular then from his Dances With Wolves movie so we forgot about our near disaster...
I am proud to be a local of Santa Barbara and have many more stories and histories of our generous community. Should you have any questions about becoming a homeowner here or moving to Santa Barbara, please ask and I will give you my professional real estate expertise. If you are lucky, as we drive around looking at properties, I may even shout out "Hi guys!" and now you will know what I am talking about.
