January 11
Ocean Mesa has an unusual second resort contiguous to the RV facility called El Capitain Canyon that is a huge camping resort offering nicely appointed cottages and floored tents. There's a pretty little market/restaurant and over 15 miles of hiking trails in the hills.
Walking to the market for an L.A. Times we find a huge grove of avocado trees laden with fruit. The trees have been stripped of all the low hanging bounty, but rocket scientist Rick devises a tool out of a long branch that let's us get to the upper tier.
We gather about a dozen when it finally occurs to us that it's a long, steep walk back and we don't have a bag to carry all our treasures. We improvise!
Montecito's Butterfly Beach
Montecito is a gem of a village just south of Santa Barbara...chi chi shops and glorious homes perched over the sea. The Four Seasons Biltmore, a lovely low Spanish tiled rambling building, fronts on Butterfly Beach, a public park. We spend hours walking in the sand, gathering sea shell gems that Rick promises will become a necklace for me and delighting in the unexpected sea creatures (real and make-believe) that we find.
Turns out
Santa Barbara Fish Market has a restaurant on
Stern's Wharf and we try again to have good, fresh, local seafood for lunch....this time we score! It's a great dump of a place where unanticipated visitors meander in and out. The food is good...my crabcake has too much filler, but the chipotle dipping sauce is to die for....Rick's fried oysters are like silk.
Tomorrow we are going to go just about 20 miles north to Santa Barbara wine country. We were first going to do a day trip, then thought let's just move the "house" up there for a few days. That night, Rick just can't help himself and goes avocado picking again. When I see his harvest, I'm thinking there's a whole of guac and avocado soup in our future!
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