Wayne Clark

Anyone visiting Santa Barbara should make the time to visit this historic and well-preserved Mission and museum. It is the last California mission that still provides church services to the community.

This is primarily an open space for the surrounding neighborhood. It is not a public park. There is very limited parking.

There are two collections of cars housed in separate buildings: one with free admission and another costing $10. The latter includes a two-hour guided tour and requires reservations. The reviews and pictures presented here are for the free collection.

Each car is accompanied by a placard containing a detailed description of the vehicle (e.g., year, original purchase price, manufacturer, mechanical specifications, and notable historical ownership). The visit to the admission-free collection, along with reading all the placards, should take no more than two hours. My only suggestion to the operator is to replace all those obnoxiously LOUD mercury lights with quiet LED lighting so visitors can truly appreciate the lovely period-era music playing in the background.

Note: the museum has very limited hours and was open just 3 days per week as of this review (Thu, Fri, Sat).

This is an ordinary cemetery with the exception of about a hundred Hollywood luminaries who decided to take their final curtain call at this very place by exiting stage left and then jumping into a six foot deep hole in the ground. Don’t expect these stiffs to be neatly buried in one section; they are not. Instead, they are scattered about the lot. So you will need to track them down, and I mean six feet down. Parking is simple, just pull along side the curb of the cemetery roads and get out. Walking in the cemetery’s uneven grass, which easily compresses under your weight, may be a challenge to individuals with mobility issues who, if not careful, might just find themselves bunkmates with local ghost resident Mickey Rooney. I did not do so, but a walking tour would have made this a more enjoyable and fruitful experience.

Splendid paved trail, mostly flat that passes by a few nice parks with opportunities for food and drink along the way. Don't be fooled by outdated pictures showing dirt surfaces; the trail is now entirely paved with asphalt.