Santa Barbara County Camping

The three of us went camping in Santa Barbara County over the weekend and had a great time. This was a new campground to us, but not far from Paradise, where we've been before. It was a small campground but the spaces were large and the neighbors were quiet. Very peaceful.

We also had some nature shows! This great blue heron was hunting lizards, and then we noticed he had a gopher! Oh my!

We also had hawks in the trees overhead, being loud and eating prey, as well.

For the first time, we went to Lake Cachuma, which had a lot to offer - a nature center and garden, marina and restaurant/bar with live music, camp store, amphitheater, campsites and restrooms. 

Violet was excited to try fishing again, or, casting, as the case may be. Not much catching going on. 

We then went into Solvang, where we found a bakery to get desserts and a coffee.

After Solvang, we drove around Santa Ynez before returning to our campground to make dinner.

And a lovely dinner it was! Salad, hamburger, grilled onions and mushrooms.

Breakfast the next morning was just as nice.

On our way home, we stopped at Cold Spring Tavern, which was a restaurant on the stagecoach route in the late 1800s. It was very popular on a Sunday afternoon with motorcyclists and families. 

We then stopped at Chumash Painted Cave, which we learned about at the Lake Cachuma visitor center. 

It was out of the way and very interesting.

Near the painted cave was this lovely stream.

Then, it was time to head south. We made one more stop, in Carpinteria to put our feet in the sand, before heading home. 

Santa Barbara Day Out

 Stace, Vi and I took a Saturday day trip up to Santa Barbara. 

We stopped first at the Nick Rail Music where our local store had sent our mandolin, because the strings expert works out of the Santa Barbara location. Unfortunately, he said the mandolin needed so many repairs, it would be more cost-effective to get a new one. But, we enjoyed looking around the store. 

Across the street, we found a cool coffee place we'd never have known about, since this part of the city isn't where we normally head. Now that we know, we'll have to return next time we're in town.

We then went to the SB Mission, where we looked around the gift store and saw the Christmas decorations. 

We stopped at the marina, where Violet framed this cool photograph of the great blue heron.

After sharing some Japanese food - no spilling of coffees into my purse this time - we walked down the path and Violet took this photo of the cormorant.

Santa Barbara, you're kind of perfect.

We went into the downtown State Street area, and saw falling "snow" soap flakes at the Paseo Nuevo shopping center.

Then we saw that we were in time to watch the "Winter Solstice Parade," an interesting collection of people with lighted costumes and music. Very festive.

Cora, meanwhile, helped a friend filming a music video.

Summery Santa Barbara

Stace took Friday off, as it's the last couple of days before Violet returns to school, so we could have a family day together.

We started with a trip to Baked Bar L.A., a French-style bakery that has taken over the venerable Jill's Cake Creations. 

Jill was in business forever, created our wedding cake, and has happily moved into retirement. I'd seen that the new owners were offering nice coffees and these gorgeous strawberry croissants, so Stace taking a morning off was a perfect time to go as a family.

We then took Cora home, and the three of us went up to Santa Barbara, one of Violet's happy places. We made a trip to the Santa Barbara Courthouse, a beautiful building with a five-story clocktower with amazing views.

 

Here we are at the top, with the ocean in the distance. 

The site was hosting a summer family movie night, so you can see people staking their spots with blankets.

If you can blow this photo up, you might make out the Santa Barbara Mission in the background. Look for two white towers surrounded by green.

Santa Barbara is pretty much perfect from nearly every vantage point.

I peeked in the law library and had to get a photo - this is a courthouse, but look at those ceilings!

Artwork on the walls tells the story of the region, including a pirate pillaging a nearby rancho.

The courthouse is beautiful inside, with tile stairways and wooden beamed ceilings. Many weddings happen here, and we watched the ending of one (they must be open rooms, because it's a public building).

Just across the street, a plaza featured this 1741 Spanish galleon cannon and 1761 Mission bell, below. 

We walked around a bit, got lunch, and did a little shopping. The weather was perfect.

We then went to the marina, so Violet could get her favorite Japanese food. While she and Stace ordered, I got a coffee nearby. I ordered a vanilla macchiato, not fully understanding how different a real macchiato is from one at Starbucks. A real one is two shots of espresso and a dollop of foam (and in my case, syrup). No poured milk, so a very small drink in a tiny cup. I was surprised when I picked it up, and Stace had a good laugh when I joined them. 

Then, after I took a photo of the scene for this blog, Violet accidentally elbowed my drink directly into the front opening of my handbag. (Not her fault, I should have moved my drink quickly after getting the pic.) My phone, and many things in my purse, soaked in syrupy espresso. I was able to pour some of the drink BACK into the empty cup. I guess that's what I get for greedily trying to order a SECOND purchased coffee drink in one day!

We then made our move to return home, and the traffic was awful. We dropped Stace off at soccer, I took Violet home, and then picked Stace back up, and we went to Pocock together. No drink mishaps occurred.

Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day, and Sue and Gord came with us to church.
 

Love being her mom! And Cora's mom! Cora was home asleep, after her closing night of Percy and the cast party. (This was the first cast party I didn't pick her up from at BJs - so weird! This time, she was the one giving rides home.)

We took Sue and Gord to Santa Barbara for the afternoon. 

First, we stopped in Ventura and did some shopping on Main Street.

After getting bento boxes at Violet's favorite Japanese place at the marina, we found an artisan ice cream place near downtown that was giving away ice cream to moms. Perfect! 

It was a lovely Mother's Day!

Violet's Beachy Birthday

Our beautiful, funny, creative and talented Violet is 15! Solidly in her teens, and enjoying life.

Her birthday wish was to go to Santa Barbara with us and Liana, and we were able to make it happen.  

Cora would rather not go far from home but since it was Vi's birthday, she agreed to come. It was lovely to spent time with her too. 

We started the day in Santa Barbara at Lilly's Tacos - cheap, delicious and filling.

We then went to the seafront, where Cora found some dead creature to inspect.

We asked the girls to pose for a photo, and this was the result. 

They were laughing because the distance between them and Cora was on purpose. 

I asked them to get closer together, not getting the joke, but they went further away. 

Poor Cora! 

We then suggested they pick up Violet, but she wasn't up for that, so they tried picking up Cora. This wasn't really what we meant.

We then went to the marina, and Violet's favorite bento boxes there from Sushi Go. It's become a thing for her, she loves eating it out by the waves further down the marina.

A cool car leaving the marina...

We then went to get boba and coffee at a place in the outdoor mall on State Street, closing out a lovely Santa Barbara birthday.