Penthouse RV

This recreational Vehicle has got a bit of fine styling, and has a captains lookout/ penthouse apartment. very handy if you don't like bungalows

Santa Barbara beach was a beautiful place. We ate succulent steaks in a restaurant on the pier overlooking the harbour. we had wonderful service and a view to die for... How many times have you heard that.
We also bought a souvenier but I am sworn to secrecy so you will have to guess that it is a photo of our favourite bird whos beak can hold more than his belly can... Come on wake up Ellie

Penelopes futile camouflage attempt.

We visited this lavender farm, which we smelled long before we saw it. The flowers are cropped before the seeds fall, and left in the sun to dry when they are effectively threshed to extract the seeds and husks
These are hand sieved, before being put in to a copper still to extract the all important essnce of lavender. Janet has made an effort to support the local economy, whilst disguising the smell of our growing bag of dirty washing in the suitcase.

Solvang the Danish Capital of California

Apparently ther was a windmill mine discovered just up the road from here.
Some of them are still standing, but in this gas guzzling society they have all been nailed up to make them less energy efficient.
The Danes were noted travellers in fact some of them were Great! The town is really pretty. They can grow the fancy blue flowers that Sara grows at least twice as big, and have the friendliest way of parting tourists from their money... by tantalising you with pastries or subtly fermented grapes which they have painstakingly encapsulated in glass bottles and sealed with a cork like material.Here comes the double whammy in order to extricate said libation they sell you a speciallist device not unlike our own corkscrew, which the Motel sees as non essential, and does not provide as standard along with the TV, VCR, CD player, Air Con Unit, Microwave, Fridge, 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels, bath mat, King Sized bed, Piezo ignition log fire in authentic stone fireplace.individually wrapped shower cap and various toiletries etc. I am forced to ask myself what the world is coming to. If the airline industry was not scared that I was going to cause inappropriate upset to their passengers crew and schedule, I would have had my less than dangerous plastic Volvo one in my rucsack. I have risen to the challenge, and tonights libation is a well chilled 2006 Bernardus Chardonnay that I intended to open last night before being short circuited by the largesse of Bill and his good lady. I can report that it has travelled well, (but is unlikely to do so again as we are here for two nights)

Her Castle and Solvang

We drove down from Her Castle. (Yes Heather that really was the name of the Band B we stayed in last night.) to Solvang today. Her Castle was run by a charming couple who looked after us phenomenally well, despite our Yorkshire charm. Lovely soft bed, quiet basement room, completely en suitewith terace to either side, and a welcoming bottle of chilled wine. . My advice to you all is not to leave it till the dollar strengthens.
Bill is an author, and we had a good chat with him over the most thorough breakfast, about a range of ecological projects he is working on, and I have left with a copy of his book on solar power for use on the plane. (Do not misconstrue dear reader. The plane will run on aviation fuel as usual and I will read the book whilst it does so,) although... given we will be well above the clouds and there fore on the same (sunny) side of them as the sun, there may be scope for some solar panel fixing on the upper aerofoil sections, and these might be capable of powering such things as air conditioning, or less usefully emergency lighting when it gets dark. I will doubtless get a battery of protests about this!

The Solvang Gardens Lodge is apleasant motel with a difference. It has really well laid out shaded gardens, which given temperatures have risen substantially in our 100 odd mile drive south, is refreshing.
There is a secret garden where you can have a quiet nap. uninterrupted by paparazzi, where your beard can grow in peace,, a key feature if you live life on the edge as we have been doing. THe stylish headgear I am currently modelling was purchased from a pony at Assateague bay early in our trip. I have sewn up the holes where his ears poked through, to give added protection to my thinning pate, and am adopting a provocative pose by teasingly showing the chin strap, which has proved so useful fully dployed, when Penelope discards her top and is blasting down the freeway.

Morro Bay lunch

This lunch included a beef sandwich so big we could not get it all on the photo
The beef involved was carved by two pleasant young girls who took it in turns to force the knife three times through a succulent medium rare spit roasted joint reducing its size by a centimetre per stroke, before levering it between a gigantic roll and climbing on to a stool to facilitate cutting it in half. Janet and I had one each, in order to balance our seafood diet and were charged the equivalent of £4 each for the sandwich chips and as much coffee as we could drink. The 'Naked Man' could learn a thing or two about pricing strategy.

With a view to die for out over Morro rock, and pelicans divebombing the water all around in a feeding frenzy it was another particularly memorable occasion.