California – Valerie's Voice

The Sea

I get an email each morning, in my inbox, from Henri Nouwen Society. Currently I am in California with my son and his family, along the beautiful Pacific Ocean. This prayer came through while I was here, and spoke to me.

Dear Lord,

Today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: “It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.” You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life, by your love I am sustained, and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love. . . . O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let me know there is ebb and flow but the sea remains the sea.

Amen.

by Henry J. M. Nouwen

Cold Spring Tavern

Outside of Santa Barbara, up the San Marcos Pass, there is a former stagecoach stop. The Cold Spring Tavern, built in 1868, brings one back in time to the Old West.

A scenic drive led to this now popular restaurant where reservations are needed. We had lunch reservations set for 11:30 a.m., as soon as it opened.

The Cold Spring Tavern, a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop.

It sits all by itself on this old stagecoach route, on Stagecoach Road. We found parking in the rocky, rutty unpaved parking lot that held about ten cars. After the lot is full, cars line the streets for a long way…which was the case by the time we left.

I love eating outdoors, and this restaurant offered outdoor seating, but I thought it would be more of a unique experience to eat inside this original tavern. It had multiple, small rooms.

There are several rooms inside this tavern. We were seated in the room with the fireplace.

We were led to a room with a stone fireplace, and the fire was blazing. It was windy and cool outside so the fire felt good, and added much to the ambiance. We had the room to ourselves for a short while. We placed our order and sat back to relax in this unique and quiet setting. The food was tasty.

This outdoor space, in the back of the tavern, is used for receptions etc. The building in this picture is a road gang house, built for the Chinese road gang who built the toll road through the San Marcos Pass.

We know friends from Northfield who were married at the Cold Spring Tavern, back in 1973. We thought of them while we were there.

After lunch we drove another route home, through wine country and then back to Santa Barbara, along the Pacific Ocean.

We drove further north to view the surroundings.

We drove past a few beautiful vineyards.

We stopped to look at Butterfly Beach, CA

It was fun California day trippin’.

Santa Barbara

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.

Colors of California

We had a dazzling time observing all the colors during our few days in California.

Sun rising over the mountains, at the exact minute it was scheduled!

Lemon trees, lime trees, avocado and clementine trees, o my!

Gary an I on this rocky beach on the Pacific Ocean during low tide.

A lone tree on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean.

A fun hint of blue on our toenails to remind us of the ocean water and blue skies

We went to fly a kite and the wind took hold.

Lil’ Toot’s captain took us on a harbor cruise.

California Coast

We walked along the Atlanta Ocean in January, and five weeks later we walked along the Pacific Ocean. We spent some time with our older son and his wife and two children on the California Coast. It was lovely, sunny, and in the 60-70’s. Here are some photos from our time there.

We grabbed a blanket, with coffee in hand, to watch the sunrise every morning.

We walked to the playground with an ocean view to let the grandchildren play.

We would see dolphins swimming off shore, and picturesque sailboats sailing by.

A mosaic tile art piece mounted on a cement fence.

We went on a sunset cruise and saw sea lions, and another beautiful sunset.

Lil’ Toot: our boat, and captain, for our sunset cruse.

Sunset, our third evening, from Lil’ Toot.

My granddaughter and I made fresh lemonade from the lemons off a lemon tree.

Gary and I walked along the beach, in my fancy boot (for my injured foot)!

150 concrete steps down to the beach (and back up!)

The beach and rocky shoreline – low tide rising.

We sat by the firepit and watched the sun set every night.

The colors of the sunset reflecting in the east.

We enjoyed our time together, and making memories.

And once again, it was hard to come back to Minnesota’s cold weather, but spring is coming.

The Doobie Brothers

As dusk turned to dark on a beautiful Minnesota summer evening, we were sitting outside, in the grandstand, of the Minnesota State Fair “listening to the music” of the Doobie Brothers. It was a great concert. Gary is my guest writer for this post.

The Minnesota State Fair water tower and Midway Ferris Wheel.

Back in 1970 a few musicians living near San Jose, California formed a band calling themselves the Doobie Brothers. They ultimately became a very popular band, and I had a few of their early albums. When they announced their plans for a 50th Anniversary Tour I was excited to learn one of the venues was at the Minnesota State Fair. We decided to go (along with several friends) and bought our tickets for the 2020 concert. Then along came the pandemic and the State Fair was cancelled… but fortunately the Doobie Brothers were rescheduled for the 2021 fair.

This past week we went to their two-hour long concert and it was fabulous. The energy they exuded was impressive given their ages…most are in their 70’s. It was obvious they were having a good time.

The band consisted of two founding members on lead guitars and vocals (Johnston and Simmons), and another long-time member, who joined the band in 1979, played guitar/fiddle/harmonica. Complimenting them were five others: a bass guitarist, keyboardist, saxophonist, percussionist and a drummer. The guitar performances, whether solo or all three guitars in synchronous melody, were awesome. The dual percussion and talented keyboard musicians made for an incredible display of talent. The saxophone player was outstanding. Add to that…harmonizing vocals. It all made for a great show.

Some of their more well-known songs include: Takin’ it to the Streets, China Grove, Black Water, Jesus is Just Alright, and Listen to the Music. However, even the songs we did not know were enjoyable to listen to because of their incredible talent.

We were delighted to have the opportunity to attend this event. The end is near for classic rock band tours with any founding members, because most of them are now in their 70’s and 80’s.

On another note, we hadn’t been to the state fair for many years (12+) it was nice to go when the numbers were down…the streets were not too crowded and we didn’t have to stand in long lines for food.

It was a perfect evening for an outdoor concert, and a side benefit was our view from the grandstand of the midway Ferris Wheel with its changing light display.

Earthquakes and Fireworks

Bearutiful Santa Barbara: Ocean on one side, mountains on the other.

We were in southern California last week, with our son and his beautiful family, when a 6.4 and 7.1 earthquake hit, on two separate mornings. The significantly high-magnitude earthquakes happened over 100 miles from where we were staying. We didn’t feel any tremors from either one, but a lot of folks in our area did. It was interesting to find out about the earthquakes simply by hearing others talking about their experiences. I’m grateful there were no injuries, and we were safe.

Another event of significance on our visit to southern California was the Independence Day fireworks.

We were able to witness some outstanding fireworks set off over the ocean beach, and we were able to watch them from the rooftop pool area of our hotel, one block away from the water. The rooftop area has incredible 360* views and it was a special place to ouuu and ahhh over the stunning display.

Lemon trees growing in pots…their fragrance is delightful.

Various flowers growing all over the waterfront area added additional color to our 4^th of July trip to Santa Barbara. Here are a few photographs.