Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is located at the Santa Barbara Waterfront Center and is a beautiful, high tech facility. The mission of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is to preserve and celebrate the maritime heritage of the California Coast and present it to the public in an interesting and exciting way.

Exhibits include boat models, surfing artifacts, historic Goleta cannons, interactive environmental displays, rescue and emergency equipment, fishing and diving technology, shipwreck displays, a children's gallery and more. The Museum is also a unique event venue that can accomodate from 200 to 400 guests.

My young boys particularly enjoyed 3 things at the museum - the interactive fishing game (combines a video game with an actual fishing pole as you attempt to catch a variety of virtual fish), the kids computer area (I had to pull them away from the Spongebob game) and the U.S. Navy periscope exhibit on hand. The periscope is particularly interesting for all ages because it is an actual, working periscope from a submarine that they've set up so that you can check out 360 degree scenes around Santa Barbara.

The museum is bright, packed with numerous items and has a large video viewing room upstairs. Go check it out!

The museum is located at 113 Harbor Way Suite 190, Santa Barbara. Open every day except Wednesday. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for seniors 62+, kids 6 to 17 and students (with ID), and $2 for kids 1 to 5. Active military is $4 but in uniform it is FREE. The 3rd Thursday of each month is free admission!

Hours 10am to 5pm from Labor Day to Memorial Day and 10am to 6pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day. More information at www.sbmm.org or call 805.962.8404.