The mornings are always more relaxed on free days. No set wake up time, breakfast on your own and because it is Sunday worship with either the host church or a church of one's choosing. Five us decided to attend First Congregational Church of Santa Barbara, UCC. We rode our bikes there. It was about 2.5 miles from our host. I had left a voice mail and e-mail message for the pastor the night before.
She warmly greeted us the moment we arrived. There were 36 visitors in worship, including us. There was a baptism, which accounted for some of the other visitors. The congregation was very welcoming and warm. I think we spoke to nearly everyone in worship. I was able to bring greetings from the Central Atlantic Conference and the Conference Minister John D. First Cong. Santa Barbara is John's home church. I was able to speak about the ride and the work of the Fuller Center.
After worship we continued to speak with folks from the congregation. Santa Barbara holds its annual Fiesta this weekend. We learned from the husband of the Christian Ed director at our host church to go to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic church for authentic Mexican food and avoid the Fiesta, which is exactly what we did. It was amazing and loads of fun. Then we headed to the beach, rode on the pier and just enjoyed the waterfront of Santa Barbara before heading down State Street and back to the church.
We parked our bikes and jumped on the bus to go back downtown for dinner. We caught the tail end of the outdoor symphony concert by the West Coast Symphony. It was magical. We spoke with a few members of the symphony and got good local suggestions on where to get some reasonably priced pasta in not so reasonably priced Santa Barbara. We bummed into the same people later in the evening, when we went into a restaurant where some of the other cyclists were getting hamburgers. The people who had recommended the Italian restaurant were sitting next to the cyclist we went in to see.
Taxi ride home, which was more expensive than planned, but it was taxi or walk 4 miles.
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