Cute window, Solvang, CA

I found this cute window while we were in Solvang, CA.  Then I went inside the shop!  Oh, my!  What a delight!

Babysitters

The ranch owner moved the mom and colt next to Sunni this week.  They had rain move in and the corral next to Sir Sunni is covered.  Apparently he is now the "babysitter" and has taken quite a liking to the little guy!  Who would have thought?  Quad...er, not so much!  I'm not sure if I'll be able to go up there today as it is VERY windy, cloudy, and rainy.  I'll have to see what the weaather is like in a couple of hours.  The winds woke me up early this morning...they were so strong!  We have trees out front, along our porch, and the whole porch roof was moving!  That's how bad they were!  They have calmed down now, but I'll have to check the weather forecast before I head up the hill.

Road trip!

Hubby was able to get us 2 nights up in Buellton this week, so off we went.  We left Wednesday morning (early).  The desert was having HORRIBLE winds and blowing sand, so we wanted to get out of it.  We had originally planned to go to Arizona, but who wants to drive through windy, sandy desert to get there?  So, instead, we headed north.

We went up the 101, past Santa Barbara, to Buellton, which is next to Solvang.  If you've never stopped at the Anderson Pea Soup restaurant there in Buellton, I believe it is the original one.  We didn't eat there.  Instead, we headed up to the Firestone Brewery Tasting Room and restaurant for a delicious meal!  I had oriechetta and the hubs had a gigantic burger.  I got to try one of the local Pinot Noir wines and it wasn't bad!  (I'm not a real fan of Pinot Noir...I LOVE big, bold reds and PN isn't one of them!)  We went into town the next two mornings for breakfast and enjoyed both places:  The Solvang Restaurant (we returned there for lunch), then the Belgian Cafe (where we had the best crepes and waffle EVER!)

We drove around for 2 1/2 days, visiting places we've never seen before.  Wednesday afternoon we drove out the 246 to Surf Beach and the inlet where we saw all kinds of water birds.  Surf Beach had HUGE waves from the storm that was coming in that day.  LOTS of crashing waves!

The next day, we drove out the 1 to another road which took us to the Santa Barbara county beach at Jalama.  Boy, that is some drive!  It wanders through wine country and beautiful, green hills, but it's about a 14 mile drive.  The beach there was windy and cold.  We weren't impressed, so we returned back the 14 mile drive.  We ordered take out from the brewery and hubby watched UCLA lose its basketball game... so sad...

We awoke Friday morning, headed to town for our last breakfast, then headed home.  The desert winds had calmed down and it's actually fairly mild here today (mid 70's).

I'm glad we got away for a couple of days, but it sure is good to be home.  Here are some highlights from our trip below:

SURPRISE!

The ranch owners were pleasantly surprised today with the arrival of a colt.  Their pinto mare was pregnant, but they didn't know when the foal was due.  She didn't bag up, she didn't wax up, but her appetite sure did increase!  The little bundle appeared about midnight and somehow crawled out of his mother's corral and made his way down to their stallion (NOT the sire!)...The owner heard the dogs barking during the night and made the discovery!  He's a cute little thing, with LONG legs!  Here he is...SURPRISE!  A boy!

HELLO from Quad!

Quad just seems to be settling down and getting more handsome as the years go by.  His mane is much lighter now.  His tail is growing.  He lets out loud sighs...:-)

Had the grandson yesterday

We had unexpected plans yesterday.  We had to watch the grandson from 8:30 until 1:00 p.m.  His mom had class and his dad was at work...

So, Mom dropped him off and we took him to the Living Desert.  He got to see the trains there, go to the Discovery Room (where they have lots of stuffed animals), and then to Gecko Gulch (where they have slides and a play area with toys for the sand pile).  He's only 5, so he enjoyed all of this.  Next, he went on the carousel!  By then, he was getting tired (and so were we!), so we headed back out through the garden center and the gift shop.  Grandpa bought him a helicopter.  He climbed into his car seat, opened up his lunch, and proceeded to eat it in the back seat!  Poor little guy!  We stopped and bought some sandwiches for us adults and took him to the park to play on the old fire engine, which has a nice slide on it.  He met a little boy there and the two of them played for an hour!  Then Mom came to pick him up and Grandpa and I went home for a nice, LONG nap!

Smoke trees and sky~SkyWatch Friday~031414

Our desert is full of smoke trees. However, they aren't blooming yet.  Our valley is FULL of blooming palo verde trees, but the smoke trees don't bloom until late May.  When they do, they will have tiny violet flowers.  I always love to look at smoke trees.  They are so stately and graceful, don't you think?  SkyWatch Friday for March 14, 2014.  To visit SWF, please go to:   http://skyley.blogspot.com/