26 Miles (Santa Catalina) - Sunday 11/23/2008

It was admittedly a bit gloomy as we set off "26 miles across the sea" as the song goes, aboard the Catalina Flyer. That's the Harborside Restaurant to the right. We pull out around 9:00 a.m.


A glimmer of sunshine along the way.

I spent about half an hour standing on the deck next to the--what do they call it?--the place where the captain hangs out. When we hit waves, I hung onto the railing and let my knees take the shock.

I felt like Slim Pickens riding the rocket at the end of Dr. Strangelove. Whoo hoo!


We passed an outgoing vessel on our way into port. The man next to us explained to his infant son that the jet engines put a lot of bubbles in the water and turned it this color. Thanks, daddy.



The Catalina Flyer safe in the harbor. That's the Avalon Casino in the background, from the Italian word for "gathering place." It's a movie theater and museum that never was a gambling place.


After poking around in some shops and having lunch with the gaggle of cousins, we hopped the trolley to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens, where we saw such Dr. Suess-esque plants as this one. (It has island in the name of it, appropriately. Why oh why don't I take notes?)


Along the way we pass this bum. I sneak up to leave a dollar on his chest, only to discover it's our very own Hydra grabbing a nap while the rest of us coo over the succulents and cacti.


From beneath the monument. That's Cuz-M pointing something out.



I love all the details and shoot at least fifty pix in and around the monument.



Inside looking out. What a glorious day.



Hydra and I split from the pack and head for the casino. One of our number has a stress fracture in her foot and is not up for more walking, which is so reasonable. We feel like we need to move.


It only takes us about ten minutes to get there, and we buzz through the museum, which includes a great little exhibit about the May 2007 fire that burned more than 4,000 acres on the island. That's about 10% of it. 2700 people were evacuated by vessels like the one we came over on.



We head back to the mainland at 4:30.


By 6:00, we're back and the lights are on at the pavilion/Harborside Restaurant.



Our welcoming crew. Anyone know what this guy is?

Solving Solvang

We drove three hours there and three hours back to visit Solvang. I've heard about this little Dutch-influenced town since about the time I moved to California in 1985.

The long drive probably puts more pressure on the place to please, but I have to say, I don't get it. It seemed mostly like a lot of overpriced shops selling things you could get anywhere with different town names stitched or painted or screen printed on them. We looked for a cowboy museum that was on a map, but which didn't seem to exist any longer.

This sandwich plate Hydra ordered at Bit o' Denmark, which I later found out is the oldest restaurant in town, was nice. So was the one that Kitty ordered.



This tasted better than it looks. It wasn't made of real wax. It was pork sausage and red potatoes.


The cultural highlight of the excursion: the giant bust of Hans Christian Anderson in the museum dedicated to him which is housed in the comfortable and inviting Book Loft bookstore.


I like this painting of him very, very much.

It wasn't a large exhibit, but it told about his unrequited loves and his publishing history, and there were lots of nicely illustrated books lying open inside cases. Would love to see more of the illustrations.


We wandered into an antiques place and wow! There were more grandfather clocks in this one shop than I had seen in the whole of my life before this day. They are amazing pieces of furniture with amazing prices like on sale for $34,000.00!

I tried to open the Louis the XVI cabinet to see if there were any deals on vintage Pyrex refrigerator containers, but it was locked.

Harumph.


Pretty gate on one of the side streets away from the commercial streets.


The drive up there and back through the Santa Ynez Valley was very pretty. Lots of rolling grassy hills dotted with live oaks...some of my favorite California landscapes.

We stopped to have a look at Lake Cachuma, which was created in 1953 by the construction of a dam. Amazing blue in the middle of the tan hills.