bruce

I went to Ashland in highschool on a field trip to the Shakespeare Festival … it was simply amazing. I also found out I was accepted to college in Ashland on the phone with my mom — I can still remember Ashland’s cool, crisp air and that feeling my life was on a new, exciting path. I want to return soon!

Santa Barbara is in my mind the “center of the spokes” … not quite Northern California and not quite Southern California, but the perfect center … I lived there since I was three years old and frequently stay there still as an escape from my life in LA.

Once you take the elevator to the top of the historic courthouse and take in the 360 degree panoramic view of the city, you’ll appreciate the fact there’s nothing quite like Santa Barbara anywhere in the world. You don’t just visit Santa Barbara, it visits you — and ultimately inhabits a place in your spirit and soul. Santa Barbara is the “queen” of cities (as her Spanish Mission is dubbed, the “queen” of missions) — impossibly rich, impossibly beautiful, but ultimately gracious and welcoming.

Santa Barbara’s inhabitants are unique as well. Despite the onslaught of outsider’s (mostly the newly rich from LA’s entertainment class) Santa Barbara has a spirit that is best experienced during it’s Old Spanish Days in August. Everyone comes together to drink, to dance, to parade watch, to celebrate Santa Barbara’s distinct heritage and place as the crown jewel in a state of many riches.