AdVentura

Wherein I regale you with tales of our Mini-Vacation:
(Pictures to follow in another post.  Posting pictures and writing is soooo frustrating!)

We set out Thursday afternoon for Ventura.  It is about a 90 drive and so we arrived just in time for the evening cocktail hour at our Bed & Breakfast. 
Let me interrupt myself for a commercial--- if ever you have an opportunity to stay in Ventura do yourselves a big favor and stay at the Victorian Rose.  It is on Main St and it was once a Methodist church.  They have done a great job restoring and adding all the modern conveniences.  The innkeepers are so friendly and hospitable and wonderful cooks. We LOVED it!  I know we will be back!
After our treats we settled into our room which was so pretty.  Sure a little Gothy Floral, but beautiful furniture and tile work.  Off to the first item on our list:  The wedge salad at C-Street followed by some amazing mac and cheese.  The waiter treated us to an amuse bouche of ahi tuna sashimi on a tortilla chip.  This sounds very fancy, I know.  I think it was a slow night, lol.  Of course being true to form we did manage to embarrass ourselves with our mutual lack of brain function:  I decided to move some money over to our joint account instead of constantly splitting the checks and so while I was doing the banking on my phone she was using the debit card for that account to pay for dinner.  That is right the one with no money in it until I had finished the transaction  And so this poor embarrassed waiter had to come to our table and announce that our credit card had been denied.  What fun! We slunk out of the restaurant and back to our room where we settled in for the night. During dinner we realizied that we had mis-communicated our need to work on Sunday and so decided to add a night to our trip.  Sadly we had to change motels but it worked out okay.  No repeat of last year when we did that only to end up in a smoking room!
Some of the fun of staying in a B & B is that you have breakfast around the table like a family in thte morning.  This gives you a great opportunity to meet interesting people.  We had a couple on their honeymoon, a couple from Peru, a couple from the East Coast.  And she served a creme brulee french toast that was amazing.  We discussed any manner of intersting topics around the table for almost 2 hours.  Then it was off to the harbor where we did some window shopping, took the harbor cruise with a very entertaining boat captain (saw some seals and pelicans and hear some very bad puns) and then stopped for a lunch of our favorite Flaming Goat Cheese at the Greek resaurant served by a very adorable young man.  Eye candy always is a Plus!  As hard as I was trying to have a care free day this was the day I was experiencing what I hope was good old anxiety and not actual chest pains as well as other yucky physical ailments.  And so we went back for a nap.  Ahhhh is there anything nicer than a nap?  We had many of these.  I should be completely rested up and yet today...... I still feel tired. 
After our nap we decided to go to the movies and see the Green Lantern.  Starring my sisters big celebrity crush Ryan Reynolds.  My sister has a poster of RR in her bedroom.  (Be sure to see pic of Monica and Ryan).
Saturday we decided to head up to Santa Barbara.  Last year we did this same thing and were surprised to find out it was Fiesta Weekend and so we were treated to booths and a parade.  Imagine our surprise when we realized we had happened upon another Festival:  The Summer Soltice Festival!  This was a parade of different groups of people dressed up in jungle themed outfits and dancing etc.  This had to be a "Doo Dah" type parade.  And of course there were booths and food and all kinds of fun in the park.  Monica and I got (henna) tattoos!   You can still see them!

It was a great early birthday weekend!!!
Be sure to see the pictures post follow