State Street packed for Labor Day Weekend
Pedestrians stroll past parklets set up on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara on Sunday.
Visitors swarmed State Street patios as they escaped their home cities for a laidback Santa Barbara trip. Lines much too long to maintain social-distancing guidelines formed outside of juice shops. Anything to try and beat the heat.
A group of three teens from Thousand Oaks rested on their skateboards in the shade. They went swimming at the beach, but because of a county health order, they couldn’t just sit back on the beach.
They tried to have fun even during the COVID-19 crisis. They’re seniors in high school, afterall. But they wear their masks everywhere and try to stay six feet away from others. It’s just hard, Cooper Clemons says as he motions to the tightly packed juice line.
They usually go to Malibu to enjoy the beach and skate around, but law enforcement is really strict enforcing health orders there lately. Mr. Clemons says he’s seen people get tickets in Malibu, but he hasn’t noticed it here.
“Malibu is just not as chill,” he said. So the three carpooled to Santa Barbara for a short trip. It’s a cool spot for skateboarding and has more public beaches than Malibu.”
Another young group of three drove from Los Angeles to enjoy lunch and shop State Street. It’s about seven degrees cooler here, and it seemed fun for a long weekend.
Alyssa and Rich Maltz drove from Oakland to Solvang, a trip they had been talking about taking for a while. They love traveling and usually head to the East Coast to see family.
Since COVID-19, they stay in California and take day trips. Yesterday morning, they hiked through Inspiration Point. But they headed back early because it was too hot.
They went to State Street to relax and enjoy pizza and beer at Institution Ale Company. They wish they could be inside with air conditioning, but a shady spot under an umbrella did them just fine.
They’re just in town for the weekend and hoped to drive through the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. But the fires up north rerouted them down less beautiful roads.
Katie Abdallah had a shorter drive, just from Oxnard, to show her mom Santa Barbara. The two took their dogs; Zeus, an English Springer Spaniel, and Rose, a Shih Tzu; and Ms. Abdallah held them outside as her mom tried on clothes.
Her mom didn’t seem to be bothered by the heat wave. She’s in town from Illinois and said it just felt like home. Ms. Abdallah, though, thinks the heat is awful, and her dog Zeus didn’t seem to want to walk away from his shady spot alongside the store.
Usually, she’d try to accommodate her mom better and get a hotel room someplace a bit further from Oxnard. But with COVID-19 precautions, she’s staying close to home.
Californians are adjusting to the challenges in the world. Santa Barbara is an escape for those in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, positioned for glamorous views and a copable temperature — even in a heat wave.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
