Lovely Southern California

We began our recent trip to California with a visit at my sister, Kathy's, along with sister, Cheryl, and hubby, John. We had a lovely lunch at Paradise Cove, located along the Southern California coastline. It was a hot day (90+ degrees at the beach is HOT!), but eating outside at tables in the sand was a real treat!

After lunch we went to visit our Uncle Harry. Doesn't he look fabulous at age 92?!?!? (I am certain my hair is grayer than his.) :(  He was married to our father's youngest sister but she passed away in 2002. We enjoyed our visit with him and his wife, oohing and ahhing over all her collections, especially depression glass in every color!

Loved our visit with brother, Joel, and his dear wife, Nan, who came for dinner back at Kathy's. (Mom called Nan her 4th daughter!)

We left the next day for our weekend stay in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara. Rich's 50th class reunion from Westmont College was this particular weekend. Cheryl and John were also in Santa Barbara, as Rich and John were classmates. I'll blog separately about that great occasion.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking the Carpinteria Farmer's Market. Not large in terms of vendors, but gorgeous offerings.  California oranges!!

Love California strawberries, especially those from Oxnard/Camarillo!

Never heard of Bacon Avocados! Was told they are very delicious (isn't anything with bacon in the name?!?), creamy, and fewer calories. We were trying NOT to load up, so we didn't try them, but probably should have. At 3/$1.00 quite a bargain compared to $1.00 each for the teeny ones we get in Kansas!

Beautiful FRESH field greens and veggies.

Kathy recommend we eat at a restaurant named Zookers. It was so enjoyable to dine on outside patio.

I LOVED my full-of-flavor scallops and shrimp tostada!!!

And Rich enjoyed his pork tenderloin with fennel and apple slaw. Beautiful, flavorful food!

Can you believe this is a Best Western??? Our room was on the first floor and we thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside in our little garden, enjoying the surrounding gardens and changing lights on the courtyard fountain.

It was a HOT, 99 degrees, at this beach town, which was unseasonably hot, and about 20 degrees over normal! But this hotel was a great location for what was a VERY busy weekend.