April 17 - United States: Ventura, CA

Today we exerted our bad influence on the Andersons.  Robe went in for only a half-day of work in the morning, and someone called Laurie's high school claiming an afternoon doctor's appointment so she could join us.  The four of us headed out to Santa Barbara around 11:30.  The weather was cool and sunny - one of the first truly sunny days we've seen in Southern California.

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a beautiful town on the beach.  I was here many years ago, but I don't remember it being quite so resorty.  We drove through Lower State Street and found a place for lunch - Johnny's Rib Shack.  Very yummy BBQ.  After lunch, we spent the afternoon wandering around State Street (upper and lower).  Rob and Jon spend most of the time following me and Laurie into various shops.  I told Laurie - who turns 16 next week - that we were going to redecorate her room in leopard print patterns.  She had a typical teenage reaction of disgust, and we had a good time laughing at the various leopard-print decor in Pier 1.

Kite Surfing

We stopped at a beach are in Santa Barbara, where some guys were kite surfing.  

At the Kite Surfer Beach

This involves a surfboard strapped to their feet and a massive kite that's cabled to their waist.  Through controlling the direction of the kite, they can navigate where and how fast they go.  Usually, these kite surfers go against the waves rather than with the waves.  The end result is a skateboard effect: the surfers fly into a wave and then shoot up into the air, often twisting around a few times.  It's quite impressive to watch, actually.

Kite Surfers

A Trip Down Memory Lane

At 6:00, we dropped off Laurie for her flute lesson and drove to Oxnard Road.  Jon was born in Port Hueneme, the nearby naval base and he and his parents lived here until he was three and a half.  In a trailer, actually.  So Rob took us to the park - "Oxnard Estates".  It was cool to see, because Jon could actually remember parts of it: "Hey! I remember that pool!".  Oxnard Estates is actually a very nice place, where trailer parks are concerned.  We had to call Jon's Mom because he couldn't recall whether they lived at 130 or 131 Benicia Way.  She told us it was 131 and seemed really excited we were there.  She said that it was in this trailer where Jon got his first pair of "big boy shoes".

And he has yet to grow into them!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Benicia Way - Jon's First Home

Dinner

For dinner, we went back to the house to get Sandy and Laurie and then went to an Italian restaurant called "Ferrano's" (or something like that).  The lasagna was delicious, and the garlic bread had enough garlic that I can probably burn a house down with my breath.