SANTA BARBARA

As Andrew has been given a few days off before Christmas so we decided to we should make the most of the free time. We have a whole list of small day trips that we want to do around Christmas that will allow us to see more of beautiful California without all the faff of packing up for bit. 

So on Monday we went off to Santa Barbara for the day. It was really weird playing Christmas music as we drove down and yet looking out the car window at bright blue skies. It felt even more strange being on the beach with the sun beating down on us. The temperatures during the day reached 24 degrees so it was really warm! Not at all what a Brit is used to at Christmas!

We spent the morning on the beach allowing Macintosh to have some time exploring, meeting other dogs and jumping around in the water. It really is so strange how much Mac loves the beach. For a beagle who won't allow his belly to get wet normally he just abandons all reason at the beach and piles into the waves! Granted he doesn't enjoy being wet afterwards as he spends a lot of time shaking out every single droplet of water he can!

The afternoon and evening was spent wandering around the town of Santa Barbara, seeing the old Mission and wandering on the pier. We really enjoyed it and managed to see more of the town this time than last time.

I loved the old Mission. It was really beautiful. They had a nativity outside it with live animals that Macintosh was obsessed with wandering up too. There were some amazing plants growing too and some great architecture to enjoy. I think Andrew loved the pier best, just watching the sun go down and enjoying the time together. It really was wonderful. 
H

ROAD TRIPPING

Here are some photos of the drive to and from from San Fran.

Setting off early on Friday morning we headed through Mojave and through the mountains on a windy road to the Interstate 5. This was an incredibly straight road going direct to San Francisco, we were joined for some of the drive up by our friend Tim via Skype.

We took the Pacific coast highway back from San Fran on Memorial Day. One word to describe it would be "wow!". You would see amazing views of the coast and then you would pass round another coastal headland and have a whole new stunning view. Just the deepness of the colour blue of the Pacific and the whiteness of the crashing waves was mind blowing. Han did most of the driving of winding roads so I could do the Woodruff thing and get the map out, far more fun than sat nav!

We stopped off for lunch at Monterey; a bustling fish market town stuck out on its own peninsula. Once the capital of California! Recently the old fish canning district had been regenerated so was great  place to stop. We saw a couple seals enjoying a post lunch nap, we also stopped by to see some elephant seals just next to the highway near San Simeon. The beach was full of them!

The road trip turned into more of an adventure than what we had planned as we came off the coastal road to head inland for home. With sat nav not working we relied totally on the map. We decided on a 'small road' that became a 20 mile hair raising gravel track through the mountains, this was followed by an even more sweeping road through the hills and oil fields (as our petrol tank was becoming dangerously low). Looking earnestly for a gas station, passing through towns with gas pump in ruins or closed down, we were getting a lil worried. Thankfully with Han's superb navigating we found petrol and food before heading down the last bit of the Interstate 5, grateful for a straight and predictable road! We had been travelling for 12 hours in total that day so were extremely tired and glad to be back but with loads of memories of a great weekend.

A

Outward Bound

The Return Journey 

THE RABBIT AND THE GRANDPA

No this isn't the title of a storybook for children, it's actually the names of our two new cars.

Meet Roger Rabbit. He's Andrew's car. He is a 2.5litre, 2 door silver Volkswagen Rabbit. He's pretty fast for a little car and handles well. So far Andrew's really enjoyed driving him on the desert roads.

                             

Then there's my car; Victor Volvo aka the Grandpa. He's older, a bit slower and shows signs of wear and year but he's reliable. He's a 2.4litre 5 door V50 wagon. We plan to drive him all around the West coast, he is our road trip car so there's lots of space for Macintosh and all our stuff. It's big enough to pick up visitors from the airport and all their copious amounts of luggage.

So there we go the rabbit and the Grandpa! Can't wait to start having adventures in them, once I've mastered driving on the wrong side of the road that is! 

H 

For those of you that are desperate to see the house pictures we are working on that. We don't have internet right now so we are posting via 3G and our phones. It's not ideal for posting photos from our camera. Andrew is working on getting internet sorted so we should be up and running soon... I hope!