Greetings from Santa Barbara

Glorious day on the west coast started with breakfast at the hotel in Camarillo and a morning ride to Santa Barbara, during which we saw dolphins leaping in the waves and pelicans diving over the Pacific. We met up with Liz from Penn and her husband Gary at the Santa Barbara Zoo, where we saw many of our favorite animals including elephants, lions, leopards, and of course penguins, plus we took a train ride around the zoo and nearby bird sanctuary before going out to lunch at Paradise Cafe.

Then we drove through the San Marcos Pass to Pismo Beach, passing through severe wildfire damage from last month and stopping at a couple of amazing vistas. We picked up some food before checking in to our hotel, from which we walked to the boardwalk and down onto the sand. The water is quite chilly but we could see whales spouting far out past where the waves were breaking and there were lots of sand crabs! We ate sandwiches for dinner at the hotel after walking through the tourist shops: