Weekly Update

We're still hanging out at CBC Port Hueneme.  We had a great visit and BBQ at Wayne & Debbie's on Sunday.  Then Monday afternoon, despite my best attempts, I caught Donna's cold.  Isn't a bad cold, but a day or two on Sudafed caused a lot of naps. We're both better now.

We're finding that when walking or bicycling around the base gets boring, we head off to the Seabridge area (see last week's pictures) just off South Victoria Avenue and take a walk along the pathways through those subdivisions where foreclosures run $1.4M or more.  I guess that's cheap for here, but it's outta our league. Anyhow, it makes for a very nice walk.  A stop at Yolanda's makes it even better, but also requires a longer walk!

Upcoming plans are to visit the Peterson Automotive Museum this weekend with Wayne & Debbie.  If all goes well, we might even catch a glimpse of the new 2014 Corvette.  I bet we do catch a glimpse of a large crowd!  Looking forward to it and a visit with Wayne & Debbie no matter what.  And if all goes as plan, we'll be in the best weather in the lower 48 states, too!

Until next week, later, David

Back at the Seabee base

We've returned for another month at the Seabee Base waiting for the great northwest to warm up.

We've had a nice week.  Spent a half day with Wayne & Debbie on Sunday, and Donna spent half a day on Tuesday learning a new knitting pattern.  Other than that, we're hangin' out at the base and waiting for Donna to get over her cold (and me trying not to catch Donna's cold)

The pictures here are of the canal area behind the Yolanda's restaurant just up the road on Victoria Ave.  The picture at right is of some seals making their way up one of the channels chasing some fish.  They managed to corner whatever they were chasing about 50 yards further up the channel.   About a half minute of excitement and it was all over (and too far away to shoot a video from the smart phone.)

So that's it for this week.  Current plans are to move to Pismo Beach March 15th.  Of course, that's unless the plans change!  Later, David

Happy Valentine's Day

Blue and Gold Macaw

California Condor

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're still at Ocean Mesa.  This week we took a trip up to Solvang, CA, a Danish Village, and visited the Santa Barbara Zoo.  Oh, and ate at In-N-Out Burger!  In between Donna has visited the state park and walked the beach several times.  Presently, high tide is at the most convenient time to walk, so she's not down there as often.

Snow Leopard

We've had a good visit these past two weeks. Tomorrow, if all goes well, we'll move back to CBC Port Hueneme, CA for four weeks.  From there it's off to Pismo Beach, CA.  At least that's the plan...until it changes.  Here's some pics from this week's adventures.

Oh, and put on your reading glasses and watch the video at the end.  There's a flock of small, white birds just above the drift wood feeding in the surf.  Later, David

Cacti Garden

Zoo's miniature train.

Solvang, CA

Solvang, CA

Solvang, CA

Solvang, CA

Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Barbara Harbor

"Jim"

We've been here about a week and gotten out a few times.  We're located up on a hill just across US 101 from the El Capitan Beach State Park and next to El Capitan Canyon.  We're due north of Santa Rosa Island, but unable to see the Channel Islands very well due to low hanging clouds.  Doesn't matter, though.  Donna enjoys her walks to and around the beach and watching the "human" seals do their thing.

While somewhat expensive, Ocean Mesa is a really nice campground. In my mind, it's an accurate example of a RV resort.  Maybe had a dozen and a half units in the campground for Super Bowl weekend.  Most were San Francisco fans.  Donna says San Francisco lost because these guys couldn't keep their inflatable San Francisco football player upright!  Could have been it knew what was coming...

I was here for a few hours back in 2006 and thought Santa Barbara was a neat place.  This time I see it as crowded, expensive, and almost makes you claustrophobic.  So the "neat place" is now a little tarnished in my mind.  I would suggest you visit and see for yourself, though.    If you drive a compact car and have $600,000 to blow on a $150,000 house, this may just be your kinda place.  The weather's certainly nice enough (though we're expecting a wet, cold weekend.)

Map of the Reagan Ranch

Pictures here are to give you an idea of the things we've done.  First up is the Santa Barbara Harbor followed by a couple of pictures from the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.  Following that are two pictures from the Reagan Ranch Center.  We got to visit it on Reagan's B-Day when they were throwing a small party.  Not a big museum, but definitely worth a stop (as is the Enterprise Fish Co. for lunch.)

The next four pictures are of the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens.  Primarily a teaching enterprise, it sits next to the Mission de Santa Barbara and contains plants native to California.  While the trees & plants are different, Donna and I felt we were back walking through Shenandoah National Park due to the landscape.  We had a great time there!

The bottom picture is one from a vista point off US 101 just west of us. We'd headed out searching for the Point Conception Lighthouse and never found it.  Turns out we can't get there from here, but found this nice stop on the way back.

That's it for us this week.  Still plan on visiting the Natural History Museum, Zoo, and the mission before returning to Port Hueneme next weekend.

Later, David

Redwoods!

Dam built after the Mission was established.