Santa Barbara in January

Santa Barbara has blooming flowers in January! It's hard for me to get my head around that fact. I'm used to frozen ground covered with snow. The only gardening is some pruning once a short thaw has reduced the snow cover a bit. 

Beth and Java got to play at the beach near UCSB. 

During a wine tour near Stearns Pier in Santa Barbara, we saw an Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile—an unlikely sight, I would have thought. I lived for a time in the 80s near an Oscar Meyer facility at which an older Weiner Mobile was parked. Back then, I saw it regularly. 

The mission in Solvang, which got its mission bell in a second wave of missions. The Mexican government secularized it and eventually the ranch it was on was sold to Danes. The Danes created a folk school. Now it is a tourist village with a Danish-wine motif. 

We did sample some of the Santa Barbara County wine.