Early Summer Hike

I walked along San Antonio Creek again today. It was a real pretty morning after the fog burned off.

Now that it is summer, the wildflowers are just about gone. The creek is quite low, and even dried up in long stretches.

Low Water

No water

There were very few flowers. Here was an asparagus-looking plant at the top. Maybe it is indeed asparagus?

Though the area is drying up, I did enjoy seeing a bunny, bees, butterflies, boulders, a bunch of lizards, and birds!

Not the bunny I saw (he was too fast), but one like it.

A bee enjoying a flower

Cabbage Butterfly

Sandstone Boulder and Coast Live Oak


One of bunches of Alligator Lizards

I surprised a covey of quail, and they hustled out of sight. I was able to catch Mom before she went under the brush to collect and reassure her babies. I listened to them for quite a while murmuring among themselves. And darn it! I forgot again that I had the movie feature on my camera. I could've recorded their sweet voices. I did find this, though. My quail sounded softer than that, and there were cute baby voices answering back. But you get the idea.

We're addicted!

Our spring break was so fun that we decided to recreate--actually, expand--our experience and do another cruise vacation! We're sailing on August 10 on the M/S Pride. It is another Carnival Cruise, 7 days of FUN! Ports o' call: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas!

¡Lo más mejor viaje!

Very Important Sister

Guess who was born on this day?










A Very Important Sister, that's who!

Happy Birthday, Pagrs!

Summer Solstice Parade

Happy Summer!

Santa Barbarans love summer! One of our beloved community events is the annual Solstice Parade. It is part music, part dance, part art, part theater, all fun. This parade is unique, as there are no printed words allowed, no motorized floats, no animals; just people making merry! It was a perfect summer day, temperature in the mid-80s at high noon!

This year's theme was "Solar Flairs."

Here are some pictures and a few videos. The videos are each only a few seconds long. They give you a tiny taste of the party atmosphere.

I wish I remembered at the beginning of the parade
that I had a video feature on my camera;
this group was good!

Santa Barbara's Mayor, Marty Blum

A Lounge Lizard

Again, Hula-Hoopers difficult to catch with a still shot.

This picture shows about a third of the hanging triangles float.

I tried loading these videos on YouTube, but they didn't work at all. And after hours of telling me they were uploading! Boo! Enjoy the Blogger versions, anyway.

Grocery Guy

Kevin now works at Vons! Come visit and maybe he'll bag your groceries and help you to the car!

Comix

The LA Times prints two sections of Sunday Comics. Last Sunday, they gave us three copies of one of the sections. My first thought was of Dad. Cool! Extra wrapping paper!

Happy Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE #1 DAD!

Yessssssssss!

Finally!

Mike and I took a walk along the bluffs above the beach near Coal Oil Point today. On the way back, I finally got to see my snake! This California Kingsnake was a big 'un...about 3-4 feet long! By the time I got the camera out and turned on, it had crossed the path and slithered under some brush. But I got a couple shots!

What exactly is my line, anyway?

This video is 9+ minutes.

Timmmmm....berrrrrrrrrr!

Chuckbert's recent blog post reminded me that I had these pictures on my computer. After fighting my mac to give 'em up so I can use it (I hate iPhoto! It is the worst program I've ever used!), I submit them to you.

We took this ginormous ash tree down in December 2007. It was destroying our driveway and our neighbor hated the leaves come January. It was a hard decision, but we decided it had to go.

The workmen worked very fast! It was down in a day, and they came the next day to grind the stump. It was raining that day, and I was a little nervous about someone getting hurt. I guess they know what they're doing!

I decided to take some pictures last minute. I didn't get the final shots, but you saw the fungus (sorry, slime mold) helping to complete the circle of life by sucking on the leftover chips.

Some of these photos are rather dark, but after messing around with just trying to get them to use them, I didn't have the energy to fool with them.























By the way, we're waiting for when our tree no longer dominates the Google Maps image of our neighborhood!

View Larger Map

La Purisima Mission

Yesterday we went to Mision La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santísima. Mike's parents were in the area to attend his niece's high school graduation, so we enjoyed a visit with them.

Erin did her Mission report on La Purisima in the 4th grade, when all California school children learn about California history. We enjoyed our memories from that previous visit!







I couldn't resist taking pictures of some of the flowers in their gardens. Here are some Matilija poppies. You may remember Chuckbert sharing a photo of his Matilija poppies recently.







Here are some California poppies, hanging on for dear life in the late spring sun. They were being visited by some bumblebees.





Here are some swallows flying in and out of their nests. I had tried to make a movie of them to post, but the movie didn't work out, so this is a still from a small bit of video I did manage.



And some family photos:


Goofing off in the parking lot.... I was holding a dollar bill that had a really cool serial number. In fact, its coolness index is 96.6%.


Kevin shaved his head last week!







We had lunch together after the visit to the mission, and then we all headed to our respective homes. It was a nice afternoon!

Sunset on Mars

Taken May 19, 2005.