From the Traveling Harrington’s.
Monday morning we took a short nature walk and found out the (tree) bush we are camped by is an Elderberry bush (tree?)! They say it blooms for several months then has berries in the summer. Now that we know what it looks like, we will be on the look out for it. We didn’t know it grew that big.
We took off for a few errands and spent 6 hours. We stopped at the National Park headquarters for the Santa Monica Mountains area and asked lots of questions and picked up lots of brochures and bought a California Road and camping atlas. It is like our roads of Texas atlas, but also includes all the campgrounds and RV parks. It has already paid off. Then we found a Target and Home Depot and Sprint store. We ran out of Sprint minutes and couldn’t log on to Sprint so we were there for a while getting the new info and finding out we can have emergency 200 minutes for $10 each month as needed. That is much better than $10 added to our current plan for 150 more minutes each month.
Across the street from us is a very cute, precocious 5 year old girl named Brooke. She adopted Fred and wanted to know all about us, the trailer, what was in Fred’s ears (hearing aids), etc. She was from Costa Mesa Ca. She had a dog bigger than she is and she pulled him all over the campground when she walked him. They reminded me of Angie and Michelle playing with Fluffy. He would do anything, including swinging in the swing in the back yard. Only his hind feet (front feet only on the swing seat) had to keep up with the swing. href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR90uDHlxklAQ5vC579KdMZbExOLTxy3Cg8D0iHHANk8QDvnaDP4rR25l8jq3MJM3KpjKVwqp1KO5PLN7lVy7rTQYxjj_NOt8p4DCFSms2dO0iiiI18LZaAKTb0iMwMc7QtEr2ozqhdJXl/s1600-h/7+Daniel+%26+Pops.jpg">
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Tuesday we took off for LA and another visit with Daniel. Fred was impressed with the way people drive in rush hour traffic. No changing lanes, weaving in and out. When you signal they generally let you over. It took us over an hour to get to Daniel. Olivia had read about Santee Alley in the Fashion District so we headed downtown. Well, Ladies, Santee Alley is more than Mexican markets and Harry Hines put together. Lots of stuff. She had not seen so much fabric in her life. Many stores had fabric and, like the other stores, had a lot of their wares on the side walk. Olivia was able to find some red sequin fabric she had been seeing at Walmart, but wasn’t on the dollar shelf. This was $1 a yard. That is her LA souvenier. Daniel said he didn’t need a suit, but if he ever did he knew where to go to get one. One store advertised 3 each suits, ties, shirts, and belts for $300.
We had planned to take Daniel to Universal Studios to take the stage tour, but we were surprised and disappointed that to take that tour you have to buy the whole package of the amusement park. We declined. So we headed to Daniel’s favorite deli and had a very good sandwich for lunch. After taking Daniel to the grocery store to buy his essential groceries, we hugged him goodbye and hit the freeway back to the campground. We enjoyed being with him and wished we could have taken him more places. He is a great young man with a good head on his shoulders and we wish him the best.
We appreciate the personal responses to our “Wild West Adventures” as Stacy calls it.
We left off our last letter talking about the Elderberry bush next to our trailer, and now that we have it identified we see it everywhere. Wednesday morning we left Malibu Creek State Park and drove the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) from now on. As we drove along through Oxnard we saw strawberries and tomatoes in the field, and no fruit stands. We saw the calm Pacific and beautiful flowers everywhere.
At Santa Barbara we turned north to Lake Cachuma County recreation park. It is on beautiful Lake Cachuma, but the hookups are away from the water, so we walk over to see it. We like the way this park operates. You can’t make reservations! So if there are spots empty you can take them and stay up to 2 weeks. They cost $30 for a night, which is much cheaper than trailer parks. One in this area starts at $50 per night. We took the afternoon to clean house and rest a little. It is nice to be able to stay several days in a place, enjoy the area and rest. The desert wasn’t very inviting, however we did really enjoy Lake Meade. The weather there was wonderful. LA was hot. Here it is very comfortable. We have had 35 days without clouds. Beautiful skies, except for the LA smog. We know we will get rain, but sure enjoy this wonderful weather.
Thursday we drove into Santa Barbara for Olivia to have a pedicure and hair cut and Fred, bless his heart, did the laundry. Next door to the beauty shop was a separate building called “the Bridge Club.” The beauticians said 2 days a week all the parking spaces are filled. We thought of Muddie and her bridge friends. It would have been nice to have a place to play like that.
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Then we drove to the Danish village of Solvang. It is a quaint village with Danish architecture and little shops. One was called “G Wilikers”. At the Olive House and Stolpman’s we tasted their wines and olives. At Stolpman’s we had a good time visiting with another traveling couple. This visit to Solvang was a high light of our trip so far.
On Friday, we went the long way into Santa Barbara, through Los Olivas and down 101 back into town. 
We walked a little ways to Nojoqui falls. The name means “Where Rocks grow”. It was very pretty thin fall of water into a small pool. Very peaceful. On our way down PCH,
yellow mustard was growing on the hillsides. Some hills were fully covered. We stopped for a look at Refurio State Beach and campground. It was very nice, but the reservation system had the campground booked.
Then a bigger highlight. We visited Rebecca Frische Morrison and her partner Rod. Their house is a small neat 2 bedroom house on the side of the hill in Santa Barbara. Their yard is their masterpiece. The first on the agenda was to tour the many gardens.
Rod’s roses,
Rod’s grotto,
The living room,
the Parisan,
the king palm, and
the front yard. They have truly made their yard a beautiful place to live.
Rebecca took us on a tour of the town and told us stories. Santa Barbara is a beautiful town and we understand why they enjoy living there. We even passed Ty Warner’s new mansion near the beach. Rod & Rebecca are wine connoisseurs. Rod is a gourmet chef, so we were treated to a wonderful meal on their deck, overlooking the bay with sail boats, and before the evening was over the moon came up between two palm trees. What more can you ask? We really enjoyed our evening with them and wish they would come to Texas more often and stay a while when they are there.
Saturday we drove into Santa Barbara and went to the farmer’s market. It was the nicest farmer’s market we have ever been to. Lots of farmer vendors with flowers, fruits, vegs, nuts, etc. We thought of Muddie when we saw a wreath of fresh flowers for $6. We bought a ½ flat of strawberries, new potatoes, spaghetti squash, 3 tomatoes, 5 avocados, 5 lb oranges, 2 artichokes, and snow peas all for $21. From the market we walked out on the pier where we got a good view of the harbor.
Then we found the huge fig tree. An engineer estimates over 1000 people can stand in its shade at noon. On the way back to the trailer, about 10 miles from Santa Barbara,
we took the old stagecoach road and stopped at the old stagecoach stop. It certainly looks like the building was used in the eighteen hundreds during the heyday of the stage coach. Part logs, part lumber and nothing painted. Now it is a very rustic tavern and roadhouse café popular with the locals. No other buildings for miles. No paved parking. The only parking available was along the very narrow canyon roadway. Among the menu items: buffalo burger, venison burger and rabbit dinner. It was packed at 2 pm!!
