Trip to Santa Barbara - Part 2

I left off the last post with only a couple of the dozens of photos I took of Hebe's wonderful creations. Kenna and I took the dogs to the beach in the afternoon. There is an off-leash beach to the delight of dozens of dogs.

This was Rusty's first time at the beach.  It didn't take him too long to figure out that he shouldn't drink the water.

There were a lot of pelicans and it seemed that the fishing was good. I put on my amateur wildlife photographer hat. After I cropped these photos to enlarge the birds I was surprised to see how direct the approach is when they are going after fish.

A group photo of Kenna and her dog, Molly, and Rusty and me.

Next stop for the day was Canzelle Alpacas in Carpinteria, not far from Santa Barbara. Kenna has taught Carol Ann, the owner, to spin  and we're discussing fiber classes for some of Carol Ann's customers.

Kenna lives in an area surrounded by the Los Padres National Forest. When you hear about raging southern CA wildfires, some of them are right here. Two years ago thousands of acres burned in the Gap Fire, the edge of which is just up the road from Kenna's house.

We took a hike through some of the burned area and it is incredible to see the regrowth of vegetation. The CA chaparral can become impenetrable after years with no fire. It is a tragedy when homes are destroyed by fire, but it's probably not a bad thing for wild areas to burn periodically. It is hard to manage an area for both wild ecosystems and human habitation.

There was fog  on the coast this morning but we were above it.

I drove home in the afternoon and visited another friend (since 6th grade!) along the way.

This is a view out my car window. I'm glad to live somewhere that has such a diversity of landscapes. I never tire of the views.

It would seem that Rusty was worn out from the weekend. However, this is how he always travels. In fact if my ice chest weren't on the floor that is where he'd be. He doesn't pant, doesn't look out the window. He just sleeps.  Not a bad way to travel if the scenery doesn't fascinate you.