Santa Barbara

We left San Diego Thursday morning and headed north.  
Robert had always wanted to visit the Brea Tar Pits. As
we headed north I looked for and found the Tar Pits 
and the Page Museum on our GPS.  That made
locating the place MUCH easier.  I do hate LA.  It
is so sprawling and when you realize you are navigating
on 8 lanes of highway, you know why you're happy
you don't live here.

Rochelle does live here and loves it, I guess.  In any
case this is tax season so I didn't want to put her on
the spot by showing up at her proverbial doorstep.

The museum had thousands of bones on display
that had been dug out of the tar pits.  Huge skeletons
of Mastodons.  And I do mean huge.  Outside you
could still see the tar pits and they are still digging
stuff out of them!  Amazing.

We went on from there and headed for Santa
Barbara and for Cicely and Bud Wheelon's
lovely home. 

There we are parked in their garden just outside
the gate and plugged into the garage.  The guest
room was ready and they had turned on the 
heat, but we opted to sleep in our van.  We are
used to our bed and it makes it easier to give
them space, too.  The guests room is fine for
sleeping, but our van is better for reading and/or
computing.

We plan to head north in the morning, along the
coast, but have no idea, yet, of where we'll
spend the next few days.

San Diego

We spent the day in San Diego with Merry Maisel.  Merry is a friend
from my and her NCAR days.  She is a fun person to spend the day
with.  She has lots of stories to tell and is well read and well educated.

She picked us up and we went off to Balboa Park and the Zoo.  Wow!
I had no idea what Balboa Park what Balboa Park was, nor how many
museums it had plus the Globe Theater and the Zoo.  

We spent several hours and several miles at the zoo.  Most of the animals,
as at the Denver zoo were hiding.  Zoo animals have gotten tired of the
mobs and hide.  We did see a tiger, birds and some monkeys.  We saw
some very sad apes who were sitting with their backs to the windows,
but sitting there despite their obvious loathing of us.  There were heaters
overhead that drew them to the windows, but they made it clear that
they didn't like to have to sit there by the windows.  It was very sad.

After the zoo we returned to Merry's house and toured her gardens.
She has very ambitious plans for her gardens and planning a garden
party this summer to celebrate her aunt's 90th birthday.


We had dinner in a small local Italian restaurant.  The food was excellent.
I ordered wine and it came in a 10 ounce glass..and was full!

It's been a full day...and I'm ready to go to bed.  More adventures
tomorrow.

Another day on the road.
We keep getting late starts!  Up to day
at 7, but not on the road until after
10.

We stopped in Truth or Consequences to
visit Wayne.  He bought Robert's sailboat
about 5 years ago.  He has fixed the boat
up beautifully and also a couple of others.
Clearly, that is his hobby.

We went on then to Deming, NM and are at
El Robos Ranchero for the night.  We
arrived after dark, so have no idea what
we have found.