Strawberry Fields, Pine Trees, and Mint as We Approach Montecito

We went through Santa Monica …

Turning back down towards the beach …

I tried to get more reading in on the Timothy Geithner memoir of the financial crisis but it wasn’t easy with my role as co-captain of the ship. I had to give up and throw it in the back of the car later …

We made it to Malibu country …

… which consists of mountains on one side, ocean on the other, and a prayer on tap in the event of landslides or a tsunami ’cause there isn’t anywhere to go.

I realize it isn’t a normal thing to get excited by businesses like this, but I have dozens of pictures of gas stations, corporate headquarters, etc. The Chevron station in Malibu made me happy because they aren’t terribly abundant in my neighborhood back at home. Chevron is the old Standard Oil of California, emerging in the great John D. Rockefeller trust breakup of 1911 and later changing its name.  I think the last time I talked about it was when I did the 25 year investment case study.

We made it to Oxnard, which is a farm town (city, really, given the population of almost 200,000 people) of huge fields growing flowers, strawberries, and other crops, surrounded by mountains. It was gorgeous. When we were driving through one part of it, you’d had thought we were in a J.M. Smucker’s commercial.  We’re a long way from the cities and congestion of the Southern California we’ve visited thus far.

More strawberries being grown in Oxnard …

A field of flowers in Oxnard …

The mountains that surround the fields in Oxnard and Ventura … Despite its tranquil, rural looks, this metropolitan area boasts one of the richest aggregate collections of households in the United States.  There’s a lot of purchasing power hiding around those fruits and flowers.

Oxnard eventually merged into Ventura as we got closer to Santa Barbara …

Even though the flowers look somewhat similar up here, the scent is different; it has more spice and variety. Every once in awhile, you’ll get a strong whiff of pine.  The weather also seems decidedly cooler.

As we pull into the Santa Barbara and Montecito area, there are oil rigs out on the ocean …

… and mountains straight ahead. This place is breathtaking. Driving into this was … there aren’t words. There just aren’t words.  This picture a poor representation of how vast it was, with the ocean as far as the eye can see to your left and these soaring mountains to your right.  It’s hard to believe something like this exists on Earth.

As we got closer, the clouds began to cover the mountains. It was cold and started to rain.  There was the most sudden, and amazing, scent of mint.  We have no idea where it came from but the constant interplay of fragrances was like opening multiple bottles of Creed.  (Speaking of which, in the hotel lobby, there were two people wearing two different Creed scents, which made me very happy.  We have some with us on the trip, but I hate being separated from the collection back home since I normally coordinate the fragrance of the day to my mood.)

Once we made it to Montecito, we checked into the inn and made our way to the room. We were too loaded down with bags to photograph the building or lobby, but you can see the hotel on its website. This is one of their official images and gives you an idea of what the ambiance was like.

Again, since we had our hands full I didn’t get a picture of the lobby, but here is one from the official hotel website. It looked exactly the same.

We made our way to the room – this time we dropped our bags and took a photograph of our own. The inn was built by Charlie Chaplin and has a great history. If you want to learn more about it, check out the official website.

We’re going to go grab dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the street and walk the area … this was the view from the second story exterior walkway over the streets.

We walked the streets of Montecito together, window shopping and checking out the town …

… even further down in Montecito, near the Chinese restaurant.

We passed the local bank and trust and I realized I didn’t know anything about the regulatory capital levels, market share, etc., so I’m putting this here to remind myself to research it.

We arrived at the Chinese restaurant, which was highly rated. It was delicious and not very expensive at all – I think both of us ate for $31 + tip. It was fantastic. We’d eat here all the time if we lived in the area. Once again, crowdsourced reviews turn out to be right. I didn’t take any pictures inside because it was small, intimate, and fairly full. It felt disrespectful and inappropriate to take out a camera so I never did.

We window shopped at the closed stores on the way back to the inn. I loved this pedal car. If we had kids right now, I would have come back the moment the owner opened, bought it, and had it shipped to Missouri.

… Passing a coffee shop …