What would you do on your last day in a coastal beach city?
Take a boat ride?
Explore underwater flora, fauna?
Ride the waves?
All good choices.
For me, it’s enough to walk paths along the beach.
At Chase Palm Park.
Watch pelicans, plovers, godwits romp.
In tide pools the size of lakes.
Memorize the hedges, natal plums and sour figs.
Palms, agaves, aloe veras.
Mountains ringing the shore.
Sailboats on the water.
Take off shoes to glide through sand.
Close to beating surf.
Listen to shrieking gulls.
Past landmarks like the white tree trunk.
Aground upon the sand.
Glaring at you with iron eyes.
Ready to spew fiery dragon breath.
Then drive to Montecito in the afternoon.
Where lush borders of red bougainvilleas line the street.
Across from Butterfly Beach.
A staircase down.
To a private paradise.
Lined with rocks and boulders.
Named for monarch butterflies.
That swarmed in native grasses.
For me, nothing more ideal
than two beach walks in a day.
To bid farewell to Santa Barbara.
Tears mixed with ocean spray.
Lynn Benjamin
November 24, 2023
