Highways and byways of the Pacific coast . ure of the winter. SANTA BARBARA AND ITS HISTORIC MISSION THERE had been rain early in the day, but asmy train went northward from Los Angelesthe clouds rolled away, and when we came tothe seashore the sun was shining from the west in abroad dazzling path of light across the restless in the distance were some islands nearly hidden insilvery haze. A series of fine big hills hugged the ocean,and we skirted their bases close to the beach till wereached Santa Barbara where the hills gave place to awide valley and disclosed a noble range of mount
Highways and byways of the Pacific coast . ure of the winter. SANTA BARBARA AND ITS HISTORIC MISSION THERE had been rain early in the day, but asmy train went northward from Los Angelesthe clouds rolled away, and when we came tothe seashore the sun was shining from the west in abroad dazzling path of light across the restless in the distance were some islands nearly hidden insilvery haze. A series of fine big hills hugged the ocean,and we skirted their bases close to the beach till wereached Santa Barbara where the hills gave place to awide valley and disclosed a noble range of mountainsrising along the east. The lower portion of the town is a straggling andpromiscuous set of buildings, and misses little of beingsqualid; but as you go farther back, homes of thesuburban type become more and more numerous tillyou find nothing else but handsome cottages and villashiding amid the semi-tropical luxuriance of blossomsand shrubbery. On a gentle hill at the end of the valestands the Mission charming the beholder with its 106. Garden work Santa Barbara and its Historic Mission 107 simplicity, its size, its imposing situation and its storiedage. It is a structure that seems to belong to anotherrealm and another civilization, and the only localbuildings at all akin to it are a few lowly adobe housesin the town center, just oflF the main business street—survivals of the old Spanish village. These are usuallywhitewashed, and they have broad, tile-floored veran-dahs with roses, morning-glories or other vines growingalong the front. Neither the chill of winter, nor theheat of summer can very well penetrate their massiveearthen walls. As one of the dwellers said to me, Itmight be August, and the sun no matter how hot, yougo in this house, it be cold, nice, good. He showed me a patch of grapevines trimmed backto the bare stubs, but the green new sprouts werealready well started, and he said, They will have onthem fine grapes—good to eat, good to make wine,and the wine
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