The Sacred Space

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In mid-May we got the chance to reconnect with Chris a fellow that we met a couple of years earlier when we stayed at the San Francisco Zen Center for a week while Volker was attending a conference in SF. Though he lives in San Diego he made a weekend trip up to visit with us and, as he put it, "a long neglected friend," who is in a Phd program at UCSB. Deciding to show him some of the interesting places we had found in the Santa Barbara area we took him to "The Sacred Space," and the SB Botanic Gardens. (see my earlier post) 

Starting the day off with a good breakfast is always a wise thing. The Summerland Beach Cafe is a place that I had recently discovered on one of my biking excursions and since it was within walking distance of The Sacred Space, it became our first destination. All fueled up and ready to go.

The Sacred Space is located on a corner lot. The above picture and the following twelve are all pictures of the front outside area. The website has a slideshow where pictures of what the property looked like prior to its transformation, among other things, can be seen. To view it click on the about us icon.

These elephants aren't tuskless, the tusks lay on the ground just out of the picture. I guess it makes for safer shipping.

Now these two have their tusks.

We're about ready to enter.
The interior of the building housed a great deal of jewelry and other smaller artifacts that I just didn't want to get caught up in taking pictures of, the website offers a better view of these items for anyone that is interested.

Outside the store was a garden area tucked away in the back that contained these amazing pavilions, outdoor statutes and, a the lovely little waterway seen in some of the photos below.

This pavilion was my favorite.

Isn't this a fantastic coffee table?

It's a coffee table, rock garden, succulent garden, and zen garden piece of art all rolled into one.

 Isn't that sweet?

A quite interlude.

A big thanks to Chris for this lovely photo of us and for making the drive up for the visit. We're hoping to visit with him again next January when we take a trip to San Diego for a week or two for another conference.