Many special memories were created on our recent trip to Santa Barbara. We went to meet our newest granddaughter, born in March. She is beautiful and so very precious. Being with her, and our other two grandchildren, ages 7 & 4, and with our son and daughter-in-love was the best. And we were able to attend grandparents’ day at the two older kid’s school which was a highlight.
We celebrated three generations of birthdays. All three birthdays fell within a week of each other, and within the time we were in California. Grandpa turned 72 on his birthday, and our son had a birthday, as did his daughter, our granddaughter. She turned 7.
We also enjoyed seeing our youngest son who joined us for a few days. We missed his two children and daughter-in-love who stayed back in North Carolina.
We stayed at a European-style villa, about a 9-minute walk to our son’s house. It was a lovely jaunt to begin each morning, and a nice stroll back at the end of the day.
Many flowers were in bloom! I didn’t identify them all with my app, but I did take a lot of pictures. So many interesting kinds and colors…
Succulents were a popular garden plant. I was delighted to see how beautiful they are, with such a variety of shapes and colors.
Of course, an ocean view never gets old. We ate lunch on the harbor a couple of times. It is enchanting…and so picturesque to see all the “boats” docked.
It was fun to see the pelicans fly by, and watch them dive bomb for their dinner. They circle high above the water, then dive straight down, head and beak first, when they spot a tasty morsel.
One afternoon Gary and I descended 200+ steps down Mesa Lane Steps to the beach and walked a mile or so to the next set of steps called One Thousand Steps. On our way up we counted about 150. Apparently the name dates back to a time when there were actually 1,000 small wooden steps.
One can only walk along this section of beach, bordered by sandstone cliffs that jut into the water, during low tide, otherwise water at high tide covers the beach.
Santa Barbara is on a 42-mile stretch of land that faces south on the Pacific Ocean. It is the longest stretch of south-facing coast between Alaska and South America. During a few months, you can see both the sunrise and the sunset in some places.
During our stay, April’s full moon waxed and waned to and from its fullness, shining in all its glory.
Wow, what a lovely time away, loved ones, birthdays, blue ocean waters, a plethora of colorful flowers and those crazy pelicans. Pelican sightings are common here in Florida and I never tire of watching their intense dive bombings. I don’t think they ever miss their mark.
We did have a lovely time!
And I enjoyed watching those pelicans dive-bomb.
It was new for me to see them in action.
What a wonderfully descriptive blog you wrote. Nothing’s better than spending time with family especially one that includes a new granddaughter! The pictures you took were amazing and reminded me of times I was in San Diego years ago and fell in love with many of the flowers that you don’t see growing in the Midwest.
Thanks Shirly.
Our family time was precious. We are grateful.
The flowers were amazing…so many colors and varieties.
I know you love and enjoy flowers.
Beautiful beautiful pictures and lovely thoughts of family together!
Thanks Frances.
It felt good to be there for two weeks. So grateful.
Your writing is so well done, Valerie. Even if you would have had no lovely pictures here…. I could have envisioned it all.
Thanks Vic!
What a fun and meaningful post about your Santa Barbara family time! The photo of the California poppies made my day! They were always a favorite of mine. A close friend and I would go pray by a field of poppies before school all the time!
Thanks.
The poppies are wonderful!
And you have a great memory of them.
Oh, Valerie, I love everything about this post from the family celebrations to the florals to the ocean views. This seems an absolutely wonderful trip for you. And best of all was meeting your dear new baby granddaughter!
Meeting Mila was the best! And being with the family for a couple of weeks was special.
We got to help out some, and we enjoyed seeing everyone every day.
I am sure you had a great time in this beautiful place seeing your sweet family!
We did have a wonderful two weeks in California.