Another lovely Californian morning.

 

 

We took the Wilshire Boulevard route this morning for a change, collected Mary from her apartment and headed northwards up the valley towards Camarillo.  We were meeting Diana and Brad for lunch in Santa Barbara but had the idea that we might sneak in a little shopping first.

 

 

With reduced prices and special offers there was plenty to tempt us and being of similar mind today, Mary and I chose the same top and trousers.  We could now play a pair of those spooky sisters who dress alike and really embarrass you know who!  Perhaps it’s as well we live so far apart.

 

 

There was time to mooch around this pleasant outdoor shopping centre before meeting our friends and one shop in particular caught our eye.  Not only did it appear to have a disproportionate number of pet accessories like

 

 

and

 

 

there was also a very cosy and practical Christmas present idea which might prove useful for the man who has everything (because he most certainly doesn’t have one of these)

 

 

We all agreed that the camouflage print could prove beneficial – one might want to hide when wearing such a thing don’t you think?

 

 

Setting the satnav for the restaurant proved challenging too, because The Voice suddenly took to wishing us “Goodbye”, which wasn’t so helpful when we were expecting her to instruct us to turn right or left. Hmm.

 

 

We kept her interest as far as the Art and Letters Cafe, a great place for lunch set in a beautiful courtyard in central Santa Barbara.  Diana and Brad arrived shortly after us and we spent a couple of happy hours in their company – how lucky we are to have such delightful friends.

 

 

 

After lunch, we pottered along State Street, window shopping and people watching on this lovely sunny Sunday afternoon.  the Anthropologie windows were a slight variation on the Santa Monica branch displays – the wrapped yarn was the same theme, but the “mopheads?”

 

 

There were quite a few charming shops along the street and we all agreed, if we decide on a Californian roadtrip, then Santa Barbara would make a great stopping place for a couple of days.

 

 

The greenery on both sides of the street, the cute shops and the ocean at the end of the road all combine to make this a pretty place to be.

 

 

Driving back the freeway, we spotted the first pumpkin patch of the season – a huge one, too.

 

 

Then, having dropped Mary off in time for her to prepare her classes for tomorrow, we continued on our way back to Santa Monica until our progress was stopped by the fire department attending an emergency there in front of us.  A bit of a mystery however, because although the firemen were climbing that long elevated ladder, there were people standing on the balconies in that very same building taking photos of them.  What was going on, we had no idea.  Maybe we will find out tomorrow.

 

 

We chose to eat Chinese food tonight, in PF Changs, but the food was so very disappointing we called over the waiter and said so.  Enter one restaurant manager, full of apologies who immediately offered dinner on the house – which was generous but actually the right action, we thought.  Only then did it occur to us that the manager had been speaking to another couple nearby who then left without paying as well.  Not one of that particular restaurant’s better nights, I’d say.

As we left and walked across the top of 3rd St Promenade, we heard music and looked across to see a large group of people dancing salsa in the street.  We’d have gone over and joined them but we were so very tired...

Just time to upload the photos, write a blog and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz