Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Floating City

Certain sights may be common for residents of places like Puerto Vallarta, San Diego, Santorini, or Lahaina. However, the image below is surreal to me because it's so unusual for the Santa Barbara Channel.

I think the city (or is it the Calif. Coastal Commission?) gives permission for cruise ships to call here maybe four or five times per year, maximum. I've witnessed aircraft carriers out there (our version of "Fleet Week"... but not that exciting, lemme tell ya), but never one of these behemoth luxury vessels (and I've still never seen one live; this pic is from one of our newspapers). Anyway, apparently this fine specimen was visiting on Monday and I didn't even notice, even though I probably could have seen a view similar to the one in this picture just by walking up the block from my apartment.

I know (believe me, I know) this is a small town, but I'm still kind of weirded out over this, and over the idea of spending a week or several days "vacationing" on something like that. That thing seems to be practically the length of our entire "Main Street" shopping district.

OK, I've become a smalltown, awestruck rube.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Believe me, I know what you mean about S.B. being a small, very American town. However, I think the outside world thinks of it as something more like Antibes. I don't remember any cruise ships moored off Stearns Wharf while I lived there either, but from a "luxury destinations" point of view, it actually makes sense. You should've been down at the beach selling handmade coin purses or something..."Labadie-on-the-101."

BigAssBelle said...

i'll join you in rubishness. i've not yet been on a cruise ship, but is it time? perhaps . . . it does look a little absurd, kind of like bob dylan's leopard skin pillbox hat: "like a mattress on a bottle of wine." i'm sure it's just perspective, but it looks half as long as the town :-)

The Angry Young Man said...

A.) I've never understood the appeal of cruise ships. They're hopelessly tacky disease traps full of blue rinse with Vicky Stubing up on the Lido Deck interfering with one's love life and Julie McCoy down in the bilge snorting up mountains of cocaine before heading up to the Pirate's Cove to cause a disco inferno. The only thing worse, would be one of those gay cruises - nothing but yammering clones working on their tans. I take that back, a lesbeing cruise would prolly be even more vile. I imagine that being on a cruise ship is somewhat similar to being imprisoned in an especially uncomfortable Holiday Inn.

B.) Santa Barbara is the cultural heart of Old California! It is *not* a small, American town! *sniff*

Anonymous said...

Spoken like an envious native of Ventura County.