Going Coastal.

Nancy and I grew up in fly-over country and plotted our escape to points East. Nancy settled there while I made the long trek West with three thousand miles and decades between our meet-ups. But the last few years have afforded more get-togethers, most recently our visit to Nancy and Zane’s beautiful perch in the Chesapeake Bay last summer. They told us then that they were thinking about a trip our direction to visit Yosemite and Sequoia National Park, which meant they could not sneak out of California without stopping by to see us.

See that dot in front of Sequoia’s General Sherman tree? That’s Nancy.

Within three minutes of their arrival at our house, Nancy and Zane were in the chicken yard handing out treats to the hens. Talk about model houseguests!

Fastest conversion to chicken aficiionados we’ve ever seen! (It helps that Zane grew up on a farm…)

They just happened to show up during what might have been the best weather Santa Barbara has ever seen. We had a beautiful dinner al fresco (kudos to Ashleigh, per usual) their first evening here.

“Please tell me you’re not serving CHICKEN, right?”

And the next day we had an idyllic late afternoon meal at Shoreline Beach Cafe and took a harbor walk. We happened to be driving home past a favorite local vista spot while the sun was setting – what a show!

Shrimp skewers and sticky rice. Heaven.

With this view, the food wouldn’t even have to be good. But it is.

Zane and Nancy enjoying the harbor walk

Now that’s a sunset!!

Between meals, Nancy and Zane satisfied the animals’ every whim. Birdie even spent a night with them in the pool house and he has been sad ever since they left. Thinking about UPS’ing him to Maryland…

Nancy and Soho

Birdie says “I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me with this beard”

Nancy is a horticultural fangirl so we did the Lotusland tour on their last morning with us. I was just there in June but this visit was just as amazing as my first.

Nancy enjoys the topiary garden

One of the “grotesques” in Madame Ganna Walska’s theatre garden.

The lotuses were past their bloom, but the water lilies were worthy of Monet.

In the cactus garden at Lotusland

We finished off their visit with one last meal and off they went to finish their West Coast tour with a stop at both Getty museums.  Hope they didn’t see everything, because we (and the chickens, dogs, cats and Birdie!)  want them to come back! One coast or the other, hope to see you guys soon!

One of the few people I know who can eat this without guilt…