Dreams, Moments, Travels
This is the main reason for going to Santa Barbara, to visit my Uncle Woody and Aunt Ann. Jutta first met them about four years ago and, ever since, has enjoyed visiting Santa Barbara and getting to know my aunt and uncle a little more.
Before she returns to Germany in April, we will go back at least once more for another long weekend binge of eating too much pizza, cookies, cake, drinking wine, and shopping at Costco.
Normally we would visit the Goleta farmers market on Sunday just before we leave for our drive back to Arizona, but this visit, we finally made it for an early morning Saturday visit to the Santa Barbara farmers market. We had heard that it was a much larger market, but we didn’t know it would be “that” much bigger! We bought about 20 pounds of fruits, veggies, and nuts. The organic strawberries were already sweet as could be; a guy selling walnuts told us that if we tried a sample, we would try the sweetest best walnuts we ever had, and he wasn’t wrong – his nuts are available from Rancho La Vina. And then, there she was, a striking pose, a fragrance that makes you stand up and notice curves that melt the soul; I’m talking about the bottles of Joelle Olive Oil. Joelle makes our favorite olive oil, the Early Harvest Manzanillo. This oil typically graces our fresh tomatoes and salads, and when an abundance of tomatoes allows me to make pasta sauce, Joelle is the only olive oil I add to it – yummers.
Note: on August 31, 2023, Joelle ceased operations and is no more.
Santa Barban’s love their Brussels sprouts, or why else would anyone bring 75 pounds of them to market? You’d never see this in Phoenix.
Wish we could have left with 4 or 5 of the most colorful ones.
By the way, Aunt Ann and Uncle Woody came with us, but Woody’s out walking the dog, and Tata (Aunt Ann) isn’t always happy to be on camera, so we’re trying to hurry through here.
Some of the photos I’m taking are to share with Tonopah Rob back in Arizona for him to see the presentation and the prices that people are paying in Santa Barbara.
I’ve seen this view since I was about seven years old back when this was still covered in walnut trees. The view is from Cathedral Oaks Road.
It didn’t take long after Jutta came to visit from the old country before we dragged her off to other far away places.
We are in Santa Barbara, California, at Shoreline Park Beach.
Our primary reason to be here is to visit with family, but on occasion, we must make a pilgrimage to the ocean to dunk a toe in the sea during the fierce winter storm front that bombards the West every January – har har.
Couldn’t find Britney Spears, so we looked for starfish instead. The tide wasn’t out very far; as a matter of fact, it was probably shortly after high tide that we were walking along this stretch of rocky, sandy shore.
No sea life to speak of, nor were there any other visitors.
I suppose that is a good deal for us that most people want to visit Santa Barbara in the heat of the summer when the fog and rains are never far away, and these winter sunny days with 72-degree temperatures just don’t measure up – silly fools.
It’s nice to share what would otherwise be a bitter cold dark winter in Frankfurt with Jutta here oceanside with us on a sunny day.
I’d swear this 73-year-old lady looks like a kid at times; it must be that she is enjoying these moments with her daughter.