Kennon-Green & Co. Fiduciary Financial Advisor, Wealth Management, Global Value Investing

We’re Going to Explore Santa Barbara Then Head Out to the Countryside

It’s a beautiful morning in Montecito!  We’re going to head to Santa Barbara, then explore some of the rest of the surrounding area including Solvang and Ojai, which I’ll put in a later post.

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Joshua Kennon Montecito California

Good morning! It’s a beautiful day in Montecito and Aaron and I are down having breakfast at the inn dining room. Though, I’m not going to eat anything as I want to go down the street to that Jeannine’s bakery one of you recommended so I’m writing some notes for the day, and reading The Wall Street Journal.  We’re going to check out Montecito, Santa Barbara, the surrounding towns, and then, later, go to Ojai farm country.

Morning in Montecito California

I love the weather here. It’s cooler than further south, but that suits my personality. I’d rather be outside in a sweater, reading, than sitting on the beach most days.

Breakfast at the Montecito Inn California

… a view of the dining room. I really like this place.

Montecito Inn Morning Before Checkout

The rooms are nice, too. For being such an old inn, they did a good job updating them to modern standards. I didn’t like the lack of desk …

Montecito Inn Chair

… but I made due with a chair in the corner.

Jeannine's Bakery Montecito California

We ran down to Jeannine’s and got something for the road, along with a coffee.

Four Seasons Entrance Santa Barbara

The entrance to the Four Seasons Santa Barbara was beautiful! And right across from the water!

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Beautiful Streets in Montecito

We both loved this street. It was near the Four Seasons resort. It felt so well maintained.

Train in Santa Barbara

We have seen more trains in Santa Barbara … this is like Kansas City or Omaha, it’s crazy. I wasn’t aware of this.

Beautiful Streets Santa Barbara

This street along the main shopping avenue was beautiful. I like that everything is forced into the proper architectural style so no company can ruin the feel.

Santa Barbara Is Walkable

I love that you can walk or bike nearly everywhere here. There are walking paths even alongside the highway.

Santa Barbara Shops and Sysco

I didn’t even notice I took a picture of a Sysco truck in the shopping area! It’s one of my absolute favorite long-term common stocks; one of those businesses that, if the price is good, I’m always open to buying more for a very, very long time. The economics are fantastic and the competitive moat enormous. Look at the dividend history.

Xmen Santa Barbara

I forgot the new X-Men movie is released! We need to go see that …

Isla Vista California

We visited Isla Vista, which was overrun with college students biking, walking around, and hanging out together. It was so vibrant, but way too close to the airport and loud for our tastes. You can tell we’re getting older because it was, “Look at all these young people having fun … good for them, but we want somewhere more secluded and quiet.”  Aaron was like, “You done here?”  Me: “Yep.”  So we left early – it was around 3 p.m., PST, when we drove out of town and headed for Solvang.

This part of the country feels very different from the regions further south.  I’m not sure which I prefer, yet.

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