Day 129
Lots of things to be thankful for today. Thank you to the weather, for finally calming the winds and cooling the air to allow the fire to be contained a little bit. Thank you to the fire fighters who came from all around the Santa Barbara area to fight this fire and save as many homes as possible, including Dan’s. Thank you to the family friend who took in Dan and his dad when they were evacuated from home. They spent the first night in their car, since they evacuated at 12:30am or something.
I rented some movies tonight to try to relax, and this appropriate bag is what I got to carry them home in.
3 cheers
Day 128
Last last night Dan had to evacuate his house. 
There were wildfires that started near Santa Barbara 2 days ago, and the winds caused them to flare up and travel FAST… We stayed in touch via text, so that I could know what was going on. It was very scary, and Dan describes it as worst weekend ever.
life line
Day 097
Today Dan and I discussed, again, what our options were in terms of being together (or rather, HOW to get to a point where we could be together). We decided to do things completely legally, as opposed to the sketchy, but easy to get away with, not completely proper way. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the legal way is extremely lengthy, and involves a lot of paperwork. I bought a binder an some folders to keep things organized. This is the binder before the paperwork.
lemme see your papers
Day 025
This was a sad day… My vacation was over, my time with my b/f was done for now, and I was scheduled to fly home at a horrible time of the morning. We ended up being able to get the flight rebooked to something 4 and a 1/2 hours later, which gave us an extra morning to enjoy each others company, and for me to sneak in an extra hour’s sleep.
After rebooking, we went to the beach and watched the sunrise (which was on our to-do list anyways.. lol 
) I think everyone has, and can take a photo of the sunrise, or sunset, so I won’t… well, I DID, but I won’t include it. Instead, this is the lemon tree in the backyard of Dan’s parents’ house. You can’t get lemon trees like this in Canada 
when life hands you a lemon tree...
Bonus (like you didn’t see that coming)… This is my view about 2 minutes after take off…. I haven’t seen Dan since.
Day 024
We had another ‘coolest thing ever’ experience, when we went whale watching on my last full day in California. We didn’t see any whales, but we did see lots of dolphins. It was amazing! They’re very hard to get photos of though, unfortunately. But still very neat. It was a real treat for sure, even just being on a boat out on the ocean, and I’d love to go again.
making a splash
Day 023
We returned to Dan’s city this day. The road trip was over. We still had the rental car though and took advantage of it by going downtown and strolling around. I was leaving town soon. We tried not to think about it. Especially me, as I looked around at everything being left behind.
Kate Winslet was in town apparently. We had to detour around her ‘red carpet’, as it was spread across the whole street. By the time we got back to that area (we’d parked pretty far away and gone to dinner before we came back) she was already in and the ceremony had started. Ah well.
her name in lights
Day 022
We drove up the mountains to a forest with HUUUGE giant redwood trees. Amongst them the largest tree in the world (not the tallest, nor the widest, but it’s combined mass is bigger than all the rest). It was neat. It was my first time being on a real sort of ‘mountain’. Unfortunately it was raining and foggy, so it put a slight damper on things, but we still had a good time for the most part and agreed to come back in better weather to get a more enjoyable experience.
This is one of my favourite shots of the day. Sort of puts things in perspective, so to speak.
before and after
I liked this pic of Dan and wanted to include it too. 
I didn’t know until I turned around to take a pic of the rock that he had decided to climb on top of it. lol You can see how the road used to go underneath the rock (though it’s closed off now).
king
Day 021
This day was filled with lots of driving. We made our way from the coast over to the mountains where we’d be spending the next two days. It took about 4 hours, from what I recall(?). I was bored as a passenger (otherwise I’m ok as a passenger on ‘normal’ roads, so long as the driver isn’t following too closely. What? I’m just sayin’… ).
I'm a good navigator
Bonus (don’t worry, these extras will stop soon):
Before we left, we visited the seals again, and this brave little guy was rather close to them on the beach. Hopefully one didn’t roll over and end up squishing him! lol
Hai!
Day 020
Road Trip continues. A lot of interesting things happened on Jan 20th. President Obama was inaugurated (we watched it that morning on the hotel room TV. lol), Dan and I visited Hearst Castle, and also saw one of the most amazing things in nature that I’ve ever really seen.
Hearst Castle is an amazing, and almost stupidly beautiful place. However, my favourite photo of the day isn’t of the castle itself (I could never do it justice anyways). It’s of one of the bonafide Cowboys (lol!) that tend to the cows on the Hearst grounds (and the grounds are huge… like, think Lion King: “everything the light touches” Huge). I took this photo from the tour bus that winds up the mountain to take people to the castle.
Yee haw.
On our way back from the castle, we stopped at the beach to look at this. I was basically dumb founded. I made Dan take me back the next morning before we continued our journey because it was getting dark and we had to leave before I was ‘done’. lol It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. They were loud, and lazy, and funny, and there were TWO groups this size to view. Seals and pups of all ages. It was a great time of year to go there. I think I’d like to go back and see them every year.
... WOW.
Day 019
We continued driving up the coast on the first section of our road trip. Needed a break and decided to follow some signs to the beach. It was well worth it. I got to drive ON the beach!!! That was pretty sweet. I’ve never done that before! The beach was sooo flat, sooo clean, so pretty. We had a good time searching for shells and sand dollars for Dan’s collection. He hit the jackpot after a few attempts. We also had lunch at a cute little place, saw a low flying helicopter, a guy riding his bike in the shallow waves (really) and a biplane giving rides and puffing smoke. So, you can imagine it was hard… again… to pick a photo.
This photo speaks for itself.
Bonus pic: We also saw the Madonna Inn, as it was visible from the highway and a ‘must see’ apparently. It’s NOT named after or affiliated with Madonna in any way actually, which is funny. It’s super, super, PINK. Weird, but neat. The inside is quite elaborate.
very cool looking, but weird inn.
Day 018
We continued/restarted our road trip this day. The first part of which consisted of driving partially up and around a mountain. The road looked mostly like this. A little nerve-wracking, especially for the passenger (which we quickly discovered should not be me since I really hated not being in control of the vehicle. I’ve driven myself around for the past 11-12 years, I don’t like being the passenger on a good day, let alone on a day when we drive on roads like this). I did a textbook three point turn in the area this photo was taken in too, which perhaps indicated that I should also have not been the driver. Oh well.
Curves and cliffs.
I must also include that we visited Ostrich Land this day. It was certainly an experience that Dan (and I) won’t soon forget. lol Quite fun, and awesome video to laugh at for a long time.
LOL....
Day 017
To avoid having two days in a row of pelican photos (we came across a LOT of birds on the beach, and got some good pics), I decided this day’’s pic would be one of a great view that we drove by. This was the middle Saturday of my trip, and we left for a week long road trip this day. There was some great scenery along the way (more to come).
Lovely.
Day 016
So we did a lot this day. Drove up the Riviera to try to find a virtual geocache with a TON of frog figurines (I’d have to post at least 3-4 pics to give you an idea of how many frogs were there… hundreds… seriously). Took a few turn arounds, but we found it.. lol
We also took a stroll down the main pier in town called Stern’s Wharf. I’d never really seen ‘wild’ pelicans before, so to see a bunch hanging out on the roof of a restaurant on the pier was a treat. There were a lot (more than just in this little pic).
Roosting time for the pelicans
Bonus pic: I did have to show you SOME frogs. I added to the pile with my own little guy. Here he is with some of the new neighbours. He’s the one on the far right in the foreground… with the big eyes.
It's not easy...
Day 015
So I might’ve cheated this day…? Having reviewed my photos from the day, and my b/f’s photos, I was reminded that this was the day that my camera batteries died. I was really disappointed by that. REALLY. I ended up buying $30 worth of batteries throughout the trip (I was only there 2 weeks) just to make sure I always had a spare from this point on. I had a charger back home, but didn’t think I’d need it (silly me). Anyways, I have some good batteries now, and that should never happen again. lol
I dug up this photo, taken with Dan’s camera. Does that still count? lol Anyways, we went to the SB Courthouse that day, and it’s supposedly one of the ‘prettiest’ courthouses in the country. I’d agree (not that I’ve seen many courthouses, but I can just imagine… it is quite pretty). I don’t think this building is from the courthouse though… it might’ve been across the street. But still… very, very pretty.
soooo pretty. I can't believe people don't understand why I'd willingly move there. lol
Day 014
This day Dan’s mom took me to an orchid farm. SOOOO many beautiful, colourful flowers. I really had no idea that orchids came in so many different colours, or with so many blooms per stem either. Thus, it was again hard to pick this day’s photo. lol So, to try to avoid the generic macro flower shot, I went for the one of the unopened flower… yes, it’s a close up, but I thought it turned out cool since you can also see some other flowers in the background
Not even open, and still gorgeous!
