paddle surfing and doggy paddle surfing?

Seal Beach

This looked crazy!  A group of people set off from Seal Beach and paddled what seemed to be miles into the ocean.  After a while they disappeared around a headland.

Dog Beach, Huntington Beach

This looked crazy too!  Dog owners were dipping their pooches into rollers, letting them go and watching them "surf" to shore.  Dogs of all sizes were subject to this weird initiation.  I still have a lot to learn...

Newport Beach Yacht Club

Newport Beach Yacht Club - lunch

Chicken caesar salad wrap.  Another circle of delight served in a yachty environment in the company of two charming young women and two beautiful children.  My travelling companion was elsewhere, somewhere in the mountains doing manly things in a log cabin.  Could NBYC be affiliated to RCC?  Maybe we could do some sort of exchange. 

Queen Mary, Long Beach LA

Our stay on the Queen Mary was intended to be a treat to round off the second leg of our American adventure but there were far more negatives than positives to the experience.  The most negative was the cost of all the compulsary add-ons.  After enjoying generous US hospitality and welcome this was a shock to the system which didn't sit well in a setting that was supposed to give a taste of British oppulance.

The most positive was sitting on recliner deckchairs on the promenade deck sipping smuggled-aboard red wine from plastic cups taken from our cabin.  We watched pelicans dive for their last fish of the day as the sky changed from blue to pink to velvet indigo complimenting a cityscape that came alive with coloured lights.

Queen Mary:  corridor to cabin

Queen Mary:  marquetry





What...?

Ah... this!

Santa Barabara - home from home...

Santa Barbara Habour

My travelling companion who is a yachtie, thought this boat / boathouse combo was "tremendous" and has his sights on a summer spent this way... as members of Santa Barbara Yacht Club of course.    

Santa Barbara Yacht Club

Santa Barbara Yacht Club

a niece, another cute bird & new & old missions

This was a mission...  Two hours of walking uphill in the morning sun.  We caught a bus for the nearly last mile and as we alighted a women said to no-one in particular, "Are you walking up there?"  We know why now.  It took the relative coolness of the mission's beautiful garden an hour or so for us to cool down but it was worth it.
http://www.santabarbaramission.org/

...and we came across a likeness of Anna there.

Anna?

east & west doors of church

ceiling light below painted decoration



St Francis & a cute bird

Old Mission Santa Barbara

new version of Old Mission of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, life's a beach...

pelican on pier overlooking harbour

beach volley ball

Moby Dick's

ubiquitous palm trees

The Union Hotel, Los Alamos



Union Hotel, Los Alamos



I  love the crazy, wheeled horse tied outside.