Santa Barbara was not a major stop, but it turned out to be the one that made August the month of oysters for us!
August 26, we arrived at the Santa Barbara Elks. It was a little confusing as we pulled in. Pulling in from the street, and being about 56 feet long with the Jeep in tow, we had to determine quickly if we needed to turn left or go straight. To the right was not an option since it was the exit from the RV area. The pavement had a faded RV ONLY for going straight. I saw two green RV signs that said to go straight ahead. So that’s what we did.
As we proceeded straight and we got closer to these signs, I saw the paper note taped onto the Red sign that was in between the green ones. “RV CHECK IN PARKING” with arrows to the left. What!?! No way could we turn left at this point. Love the rest of that paper note: “DO NOT PULLED FORWARD – DO NOT BLOCK”. They really need to invest in a REAL sign with a font that can be read as soon as you make the turn in from the neighborhood street.
RVers can’t check in till 2 PM! Evidently, for those arriving earlier, the Elks want the Rvs parked in the much larger parking lot and wait till 2 to checkin. Luckily, it was just after 2, so we were fine heading straight. While Barry unhooked the Jeep, I went in the main lodge to checkin at the office. Having a reservation made it go quickly. We continued into the RV section and parked without any problems.
The dump station is located in the large parking lot on the opposite side of the Elks Lodge. (RV sites were to the right of the lodge.) Vinny is at the dump station.
Lodge 
RV area exit
The beautiful palm trees caught my eye. Are those lights hanging off them??
No…it is some sort of growth that is on each tree. I’ve never noticed this on other palm trees. I tried to Google it, but could not find anything.
We drove into Santa Barbara to the Stearns Wharf Sea Center.
You are given 2 hours of free parking daily. Nice area. We could actually eat somewhere and leave in time. Guess what we had?
Yep–more oysters! These were topped with a little hollandaise sauce. Each order we’ve had along the coast has be a little different, but each delicious! We also got an order of scallop ceviche.
While enjoying our food and the view, we started talking about the possibility of buying fresh oysters and making our own baked/roasted oysters! I went back to the order window and asked where he suggested we buy oysters in the shells. He recommend the Santa Barbara Fish Market down at the harbor a couple miles from Stearns Wharf. Perfect! We stopped by to check it out before heading back to the motorhome. We decided to wait till tomorrow to purchase them.
The next morning I checked out the Santa Barbara Municipal Tennis (& Pickleball) Courts @ 1414 Park PL, Santa Barbara, CA 93103. This facility was amazing! There were 12 dedicated pickleball courts! There is a $5 day-use fee, which was well worth it! (If you are in the area for an extended time, you may want to check out the permit passes that are available.) Level of play increases as you progress down the line of courts. I got in some awesome games. It was so much fun!
That afternoon Barry and I went back to Santa Barbara Fish Market to get our oysters. We bought 2 dozen oysters, and about 2 pounds of nice, fresh cod to make our own ceviche. 🙂 We will enjoy these on the beach at Rincon Parkway the next two nights!