Carpinteria
sculpture, including metal benches in the shape and proportionate size of the islands. Santa Barbara Island is barely enough for a toddler to sit on.
There is also a statue of Juana Maria, the “Lone Woman” of San Nicholas Island and inspiration for “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” plus the Octopus' Garden, which features a huge granite cephalopod, and donated whale bones and fossilized stones found on the islands.
The center is located at the top of Linden Avenue, the main street that leads all the way down to the ocean. On Linden you'll find tourist-friendly stores and coffee shops, but also frozen bananas at Robitaille's, our favorite lunch place, Corktree Cellars, and old-school seafood joint, Little Dom's.
Also on Linden is the new Lantern Tree Books, which is located where Carpinteria's first library opened in 1910. Lest you forget, it has a “world's safest beach” mural on the side wall.
Right by the tiny Amtrak Station is The Spot, a burgers and milkshake shack, and you can go on towards the beach, or instead turn left into the 62-acre state park and take the 20 to 30 minute walk past the RV park along the bluffs of the Nature Preserve towards the Seal Sanctuary.
From high above, you look down on dozens of harbor seals lazing on the sand, and in the winter, it's a rookery for newborns. There are further hikes around, but instead turn back toward town and take a detour off the trail at Palm Avenue to visit Santa Barbara Hives and buy some avocado honey or a charcoal sourdough sandwich — before they sell out.
We have visited Carpinteria many times and find that it's not too tiring to combine a walk along the bluffs, which are dotted with twisted, wind-blown trees, with a lazy walk along the white sands. The beach is great for finding sea glass and shells,
This mural, touting Carpinteria's claim to have the “world's safest beach” is on Wulbrandt Way near Linden Avenue.
A walk along the bluffs in Carpinteria offers breathtaking views that can later be combined with a stroll on the sand.
and you'll often see dolphins swimming and pelicans flying overhead.
These places — and popping in to see Wayne at Angel Antiques, which is always bursting with retro pieces and surfing artifacts — are always on our list, but more recently we have made discoveries off the main drag.
After asking the locals, I found that many of them tend to gravitate towards a relatively anonymous, industrial-looking area known as The Lot, which is near the
101 exit from Santa Barbara at the western end of Carpinteria Avenue.
Within a few steps of each other behind gray/ black storefronts are several businesses, including the friendly and innovative BrewLAB, a taproom which is celebrating 10 years of making unique but often delicious beers.
On the walls are portraits by local artist Ruairi Bateson, who was at the bar enjoying a drink during our visit, and advised us on a flight of eclectic IPAs. “You can't go wrong with anything here,” he promised.
Next to BrewLAB is the Rincon Mountain Winery, the only winery tasting room located in Carpinteria.
Inside, one wall is stacked floor-to-ceiling with old vinyl, and the soundtrack, played on turntables behind the bar, has a heavy accent on jazz, blues and big band, but also plenty of 1960s, '70s and '80s staples.
Christian Baker, brother of co-owner Jill Siple, poured a sample of Salvadorean red and explained that they recently branched out into small, 90-gallon batches of beer named Smoke Mountain in tribute to what the original Chumash people called Rincon Mountain. He stepped outside, and pointed into the distance, saying, “That's Rincon Mountain. We make our beer there too, and we're moving into cider.”
A real secret — one that I was told by several people — was that Luis Gutman makes family-recipe Argentinian empanadas, available baked or frozen at Che Empanadas, which is behind BrewLAB.
He is only there on Friday and Saturday, but knock on the door and he will tell you how to cook, hold and eat them. Otherwise, you can order them at BrewLAB, Rincon and from nearby Apiary, a brewery that makes gluten-free mead, kombucha and other honey-based beverages.
Round the corner — literally — from Rincon is Sade, a Turkish coffee shop owned by Istanbul-born Ali Uzuntepe, who excitedly explains the way to make the best coffee and how he started out selling baklava.
Bonbons, truffles and chocolates, an ideal complement to the coffee, are a few yards away at the French Chocolats du CaliBressan.
If you're planning a visit, have a look at the Facebook group for “Carpinteria — the World's Safest Beach”, and you'll see pictures from beachcombers, sunset chasers and dog lovers.
One last tip: petroleum jelly gets the tar off your feet!