Santa Barbara has a lovely beach, warf and marina. I made the 15 minute walk here from my hotel after work. Suprisingly I found little photographic inspiration until I came across this reflection in the waning evening light.

 
As colorful as the produce was, none could compete with this street performer. I have seen him here on prior trips and hope to get a better portrait of him on my next visit. For me, he captures the spirit of Santa Barbara.

 
I travelled to Santa Barbara today for work, arriving at about 6pm. Around the corner from my hotel each Tuesday is the open air farmer’s market. Although things were winding down as I arrived I was able to purchase some delicious fruit and get a few pictures.

 
We thoroughly enjoyed the visit by Anita and Dave. Anita prepared dinner for the family last night while Dave, who is an excellent musician, jammed with the boys in the basement. Jeanine drove Kyle to the rendezvous point for his 3am departure to Nicaragua while the rest of us slept.

 
The blueberry pie masterpiece created by Jeanine from this mornings berry harvest. Delicious!!

 
A final remembrance from Camp Encore Coda.

 
It would have taken less time had a realized earlier that we were not suppose to eat the berries as we picked them.

 
…. Jeanine and Maya discover wild blueberries along the roadside which we harvested for almost an hour. When we returned home Jeanine turned our gatherings into an unbelievably yummy pie which we shared with my cousin Anita and her boyfriend Dave who called out of the blue and are visiting with us this evening as they travel through the area.

 
While I stopped the car for this photo of Bear Lake ….

 
This B&B is known for their collection of Nubian goats and the cheese they make from their milk. I wandered into the barn for a peek at a couple of the young Nubians. There is a good joke here, but I will pass it up in favor of maintaining a G rating for this blog.

 
We spent last night at the Fern Hill bed and breakfast just as we did last year. After their numerous performances on Saturday, campers unwind with an all camp dance that evening. Parents return on the following day to collect them necessitating the overnight stay. The proprietor is a veteran mountain climber and was a little skeptical last year when I told him that Nicolai and I intended to climb Kilimanjaro. This year having heard of our adventure on the radio was most congratulatory and thrilled to discuss the climb at length.

 
This morning Jeanine, Maya and I left the house at 6am to make the three hour derive to Sweden, Maine where Nicolai has been attending music camp Encore Coda for the last three weeks. Maya is the first to embrace her brother and he is thrilled to see her.

 
In his final performance, Nico played drums in a rock band. we were all very impressed with the set and it was great to see Nico having so much fun, not that you could tell by his facial expression while performing. Not cool to smile I guess. How do you get a guitar player to stop playing? Put some music in front of him. How do you get two picolo players to play in tune? Shoot one of them. Nico now has a full complement of musician jokes and he was very happy to share them with us.

 
After playing percussion for the symphonic orchestra he then played drums for a jazz ensemble. It’s a shame they always put the drummer in the back. Nico asked me why it was important to make sure the drums are set up perfectly level. It is so the drummer will drool equally from both sides of their mouth. He then asked me what you call a trombone player without a girl friend? …. Homeless.