Santa Barbara Day

 It's been hot at home, so Vi and I went to Rincon beach, her favorite, on Friday afternoon. We forgot to take photos, but we saw dolphins and a sea lion in the surf. 

Over the weekend, Stace had to work Saturday morning (his turn on the rotation). He then was stuck under a hot car a lot of Sunday, so we rewarded him with a trip to Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon.

We couldn't convince Cora to come, but thankfully Violet still likes doing some things with Mom and Dad. We parked near the marina, and walked down to the end of the breakwater.

We enjoyed Japanese food from the place we've been a few times now.

And for the first time, we noticed a sweet coffeeshop in the same building as the maritime museum.

We drove back down the coast and pulled in at the beach park in Summerland, which we discovered when we stayed nearby in April.

We noticed a sea lion on the shore, and some people told us it was sick from the recent algae bloom. They'd called the marine specialists for help. A quick search online informed us that hundreds of sea lions on the central coast are suffering this month.

Stace and Violet played with the frisbee.

We love living so close to the coast (relatively speaking).

Summerland Getaway, Part 2

The weather on the second day of our trip wasn't brilliant, a bit rainy and cool, so we avoided the beach and instead went into Santa Barbara. We went to the Natural History Museum for the first time, and enjoyed the various exhibits.

On a nature trail around the museum grounds, we learned about animatronic dinosaurs. 

What a nature trail, with a real and gorgeous creek! If we'd lived in Santa Barbara, we would definitely have been members when the kids were young.

There were exhibits on local history, native peoples, sea life, birds and mammals.

We stopped at a well-loved, highly regarded taco place for a late lunch, and ate well. We then walked around the 1782 Santa Barbara Presidio, the first complex of buildings in the city in

 

There's always time for boba - especially when the kids would have rather skipped the family trip. (In the end, she said it was a good few days away, thankfully.)

We walked around the wharf. The views are amazing.

And, we happened to be around town for the weekly "free Thursday evening" entry at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. This was another museum I'd never been to, but with an artist in the family, and free entry, it seemed worth an hour of our time.

We then drove around Santa Barbara looking for a good spot to watch the sunset, but failed.

Summerland Getaway, Part 1

We took advantage of the girls' week off school and went up to Santa Barbara County for a couple of nights. 

We drove up Wednesday, picking Stace up from work on our way. 

In this photo, we're enjoying our dinner at a beach park. We apparently struggle to take selfies, but we have fun.
 

We stayed in a very cool two-bedroom basement apartment in Summerland, a tiny town between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. This was the view from the yard! Yes, that's the ocean beyond the trees. Being ocean-view also meant being freeway-close, and we could hear it, but a large fountain outside our unit helped. We'd definitely stay here again! The lady who lives in the main house even has three cats, so we felt right at home.

Our first day in town had the best weather, and we spent some time at the beach in the evening. We could walk to the beach from our rental! 

Here, Cora and Stace are playing a game they created, that involved trying to hit a larger rock with smaller rocks.

Cora's collection of sea glass - you can tell it's Cora, because of the many hair bands around her wrist. She wears hair bands like bracelets.

Violet's sea glass

The beautiful California coastline

We left the beach to go south to Carp to get dinner, Thai food and Thai tea, and then took it back to the beach park.

Violet ordered a "young coconut juice" and didn't expect to get a coconut with a straw! It was not yummy like coconut milk. Oh well, cool experience.