A day in the life

We finally got back to what we like best, walking on the beach. Each day wer are amazed at how the beach changes. Last year there were not many storms, so for the most part the sand stayed put, but this year its a different beach every time we walk. The picture on the left is of beach erosion, the sand used to be level, but high tides caused a little cliff. I took this picture last week and today it was still present. The water in front is run off - I've read that takes about 2 hours for the first water to appear after the rain starts, in the mountains , and then seems to slowly receed. Today this spot continues to be too deep and move to fast to wade across.

The above right picture shows a couple of birds in water that again only happens with a significant rain - otherwise its a grassy park area. There was another very territorial bird that scared these off and ejoyed a swim by himself.

No day is complete without a sunset. The pic on the left was taken last year and is my favorite sunset picture.

The one below was today. Generally its not good to feed seagulls, but the man, child, and birds sure made a nice picture. Last year I had a bag of belongings drug across the sand by some seagulls looking for my peanuts!

Yes it rains on the Central Coast (and even snows)

Yesterday we were going to go into Santa Barbara for the farmer's market and music and an adult beverage at the James Joyce just as we were about to leave it started raining....hard. Needless to say we stayed home and made chili (what else when the weather is ugly). Today we decided we needed to get out and went to see the "Bucket List" very funny movie (and sad too), we had wanted to see it earlier, but during the last storm that came through the movie was only in selected cities, with LA the closest selected city, so we waited. The sun came out just as we were on our way home and Dale tells me the moon is shining as I write. The water is even higher now, but its too dark to take a picture. Seems to be splashing off the 2 trees on the left near the lower branches. Have a good one and keep warm - Dale and Beth PS There has been measurable snow just a little up the mountain.

Saturday in Santa Barbara

We spent the day in and around Santa Barbara. First the beach at low tide (see previous post), wine tasting and then out to eat. We were going to eat at one of the microbrewerys, but the sun on the water and the masts of the sail boats led us to the warf. All 3 picture are of the setting sun. After dinner we walked about 3 blocks to our car and about froze. We had the hoods up on our sweatshirts and even had gloves on. We got back to the car only to find the thermometer registered 60! Granted as we went down the street it dropped into the 50's, but even last year we wouldn't have been caught with gloves on, let alone feel that 60 was cold. We must be getting soft!

More low tide pictures

The star fish was on the main Carpinteria beach - it moved a little when I turned it over so was probably alive, but didn't look real healthy. The sea grass was on a beach in Santa Barbara - Hendry's beach. The tide was really low last Sat. its hard to believe the grass will be submerged enough to stand up all the way, just hours after we were walking around. We went to this beach because of fewer big rocks to walk on, Dale's shoes had gotten too thin and last time we were out he bruised his feet. But this is probably the best beach to find sea glass, and it did not disappoint us.

Here's another sunset

This was taken last week. The oil platforms can look pretty when in the sunset.

USS Ronald Reagan

The USS Ronald Reagan spent this past weekend near the Santa Barbara harbor. Beth had to work all 4 days they were here, but Dale was able to spend some time on the warf and downtown. I did see the ship for brief glimpses on the way to and home from work. They were about 1 mile from shore and the general public could not tour the ship, but we understood that if you struck up a conversation with a sailor, chances are they may have taken you aboard. Dale, Austin and I were able to tour the USS Missouri in the pre 911 era and that was good enough for us. Dale mentioned he saw a lot of very young sailors in uniform and he was able to thank some of them for what they are doing for all of us. We seem to have 2 goals when out and about - anyone who wants a picture taken with everyone in the photo gets to have one (not everyone wants to hand over their camera to a couple of strangers) and we thank military personnel for a job well done.

Hummingbirds

Our apartment in on the "creek" side of the complex. It is so nice to be able to step outside and see butterflies and birds. Soon after arriving we noticed several hummingbirds flying around, so off to "Austin's Hardware," (really that's the name of the store) to buy a hummingbird feeder. After several days of getting used to the feeder we now have several hungry birds around most of the day.

Low Tide

The low tides have been really low this week, whenever that happens there are tide pools full of sea creatures. Our favorite low tide beach is a bit of a challenge to get to - down a bluff with lots of rocks, etc - but lots to see. This year we've seen some star fish - like in the pic - but not as many as last year when we saw over 20 in one walk. They come in several colors with this purple one being the most common, orange is my favorite. The things around the star fish are some sort of spineless creatures (can't remember their names), but they do have shells and stones aroud them to protect them from the sun. When we walk we also look for sea glass - glass thrown in by humans, beat up by the ocean and sand, then thrown back up on shore as treasures. Generally we take at least 2 bags with us - one for treasures and one for trash.

This week the lowest tide happened around 5 pm, just at sunset and when the sun goes down it gets dark quickly - we had to be careful of our timing. In a couple of weeks a fairly low tide happens around 1 pm - much easier to time our hike.

And I couldn't stop without adding a sunset picture. Tonight's was nice, low tide and just enough clouds to add a little interest.

Sunset at the James Joyce

Tuesday was a most pleasant night. Went to the Farmer's Market in Old Town Santa Barbara and then listened to some Jazz and had a beer (or in Dale's case an Irish coffee) and some peanuts. Very pleasant!

Still OSU Fans

Well what a disappointing game. Dale and I watched the game from a sports bar that is part of the Santa Barbara Brewing Company. Probably half OSU and half LSU fans.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the team at least played a decent game.

We did get some good deals at Coldwater Creek before the game - so the night wasn't wasted!

Oh well there's always basketball and next year's football! GO BUCKS

Dinner with Mansfield friends (and Linda and Jack)

This blog is jumping all around, but we had a very nice dinner with friends from Mansfield, along with Jack and Linda the beginning of Dec. And we needed to share some of pictures from that night. (sorry Terri, this was too cute to let sit in a file on our computer)

This picture shows how high the water ran during the night. The grass was flattened all the way to the green patches on the left of the picture.

The weather for the past 2 years has been pretty dry around here, this weekend a major storm (actually 3 storms one after another) move through dumping a lot of rain (or snow depending on the elevation) this stream is usually a trickle in spots and dry in others. It was even higher last night, but it was raining too hard to go out and get a picture.

Christmas in Ohio

We had a wonderful Christmas in OH before leaving for the west. Dec 8 at our home and Dec 9 at Marty and Timi's (Dale's dad's home place). It was quite exciting this year to add new faces to our celebrations - Heidi"s (Beth's neice) new husband Tim, and Austin's girlfriend Jess and her son Colton were with us. Having a 5 year old in the group added some excitement. The kids from farther away (Aaron, James, Jodi, Jon, Jess and Colton) were not able to make the Dec 9 party due to weather, but we enjoyed everyone being around while they were at home! PS Don't Lynne and Jane look alike, with their glasses and blonde hair?

Settling in (in CA)

Since we dont' e-mail everyone on a regular basis, we decided to follow after our nieces and start a blog. We'll try really try to keep up with regular entries and photos. My guess is we'll be ok in the winter and slower in the summer.



Dec 9th we had an ice storm at home and slid around getting packed (see photo above) We left home Dec 11 (Really the 10th just before midnight) Usually we leave at 4 or 5 am and spend the night with Lynn and Helen (Dale's brother and sister-in-law), but with ice predicted for Ohio in the AM and Kansas much of the day we headed to Indianapolis then south to Nashville. Where the temp was in the 70's. We missed all the ice and went west between storms - pretty good drive all in all. If we can figure out how to add pictures you can see some of the ice in OK. We did have a bit of a time finding a room the first night - stayed on the AK / OK border and had to share rooms with all the electrical companies heading to put OK back together.



Christmas was spent with some friends from church - John and Vera are always ready to open their home for some displaced folks from the east. Beth worked Christmas night, only had 1 adult beverage and got to eat first, Dale on the other hand certainly enjoyed the wine provided by ours hosts.



The last Sun in Dec with the final service by Pastor Dave, he has made us feel welcome at Faith Lutheran church and he will be greatly missed. The church had a very nice lunch for Pastor and his wife Barbara. They are staying in Carpinteria, so hopefully we will be able to see them some through the winter.

Sorry the pictures are all on top and mixed up - Top 3 are Christmas - Dale and Pastor Dave, Dale and his wine, John and Vera, the the ice in OK and lastly a view of the ice outside our home.


We miss everyone at home and hope this will help us keep in touch.