Three page pen written letter, 7 x 4 ½, June 19, 1906 from Santa Barbara, from female author.  Relates travel and California. Light but legible, good condition. 

June 19, 1900

Dear Friends, 

I presume you have looked for a letter long ere this but I have not seemed to get to it until today. Our journey out was not at all as tedious as I expected it to be. As we rode along we would see mountains of every variety, some snow covered, some solid rocks of marvelous design & some covered with trees. Then a common sight was adobe houses or huts made of mud, many of them about the size of a bedroom. Lots of their villages were simply a huddle of these houses. So much of the country that we passed through had a barren look and the horses and cattle looked poor and scrawny. Yet they exist somehow. Some of the deep gullies were beautiful as the cars would wind around them, but dangerous too in their sublimity. The flowers here I could not begin to describe to you, so many of them I never saw before. I can only say beautiful, beautiful. We have had but few warm days as yet. The nights and mornings are always cool. We sleep under three flannel blankets and seldom find them burdensome. We can walk or take a street car to the beach, which is very pleasant indeed. We have been down several evenings to see the great Ocean come in and go out. Their many lights reflecting on the ocean is a grand sight. Some of Minnie's friends went to San Francisco on one, so we went down to see them off and went on board the ship. The stores here are fine. Some things are high, others compare will with the east. Kerosene is 25 cts a gallon. We get vegetables very cheap from the Chinamen who have ranches. A very common sight are beautiful palms as tall and large as cherry trees. I was making a call across the street on an old lady. She took me out to her lemon and orange orchard and had me pick an orange and the blossom on the same stem. Then she showed me a fig tree and the figs getting ripe. Minnie ate a ripe green fig the other day. It was fine. 

Harry's health is pretty good this summer. He rides all over on Minnie's wheel. I have not been sight seeing off in the country yet. There are lovely places to see. California has every variety of climate. Sometime you only have to go a few miles to get an entire change. Now write soon.

Your sister Em.

126 Carrillo St., Santa Barbara, California