Santa Barbara and Its TV Series

When I was growing up in Ukraine in mid 90s, a whole lot of  Central American soap operas were being played on TV all the time. Most people got tired of them after a few years, but one American TV drama series that remained popular forever was Santa Barbara. I don't really remember much about it now, just the fact that it was taking place in Santa Barbara - the playground of rich and famous as well as the fact that they seemingly had endless number of episodes. It ran for so long that some characters were played by multiple different actors!

Funny thou, I have yet to meet a single person in the US that have heard of it. Even people from Santa Barbara have no clue that millions in Mother Russia (and Ukraine) were regularly going to bed in tears after yet another breakup in C.C. Capwell's family. Every day for ten years!

But enough of the drama [pun intended].

Because of these childhood memories, my sister and I decided to make a quick pit stop in Santa Barbara as we drove along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco last year.

We figured, if nothing else, we'll take a quick picture with one of the "Welcome to Santa Barbara" signs to send folks back home. So we went straight to the tourist info center and, not surprisingly, they have never heard of the show. But what did surprise me was that they did not think there were any signs with the town name on them, except for "maybe when you get off the freeway there is the sign for the Santa Barbara pier..."

Weird...

Oh well, we did not have time to roam around the city in search of the sign so we went straight to the pier to check it out.

The pier itself was pretty cool - fully wooden, yet drivable with lots of shops, restaurants and even parking lots! That's certainly not the piers I was used to in Florida.

As we walked back to the beach, I thought it was cool how some guys set up various polls and challenges for people to literally throw their money at. Very entertaining and clever!

I love beaches. I could never get tired of them. But this was not just a trip to a beach, it was a bit symbolic as just a few days prior to that I was on the opposite side of the country - swimming in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Delaware. And here I was, getting my feet wet in the Pacific (it was a bit too cold for a swim). Maybe it is just me, but I thought that was kinda cool!

So we don't have the hard proof of visiting Santa Barbara. Nor did we meet the Capwells. But it was a cool pit stop on the way north to San Francisco!

Have you heard of Santa Barbara (the TV show)?