If you are itching for a bit of (virtual) exploration, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s exhibit The Kingdom of California: Mapping the Pacific Coast in the Age of Exploration is just the salve you need.
The 12-image exhibit features maps depicting the Pacific coast from as far back as 1602, as well as naturalist illustrations of animals native to our area made during French naval officer Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars’s circumnavigation of the globe from 1836 to 1839.
For the full exhibit, see tinyurl.com/kingdomofcalifornia.