Pining for the Fjords

Are you caught up?  Part One is here . When last I blogged, Chris and I had turned in for the night in our room at the Franciscan Inn near the bay in Santa Barbara.  Sunday morning (our second day there) found me waking up early and getting ready to head out for a run.  See, I was still training for the Long Beach Marathon during our trip, so I knew I would have a long run while we were gone; thankfully, Santa Barbara is very pedestrian friendly, and a well paved bike path was at my disposal.  Off I went, leaving Chris in bed but starting to stir.  I did 10 miles total, first heading west/south along the coast, then turning around and heading east/north up a hill and into a very posh residential area along the bluffs.  I snapped a few selfies along the way: Selfie master. I mean, obviously. After I made it back and cleaned up, Chris and I headed out for caffeine and a small spot of second breakfast.  We ended up at the Santa Barbara...

Last weekend, Chris and I hopped on the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak train and headed north to the city of Santa Barbara for a short getaway.  Since Santa Barbara is a decently small city (and a very walkable one at that), and the train trip up would run right along the Pacific Coast, we decided we'd go (in the words of the Santa Barbara Tourist Department) car-free and carefree! Unfortunately, the Surfliner doesn't run out west to Long Beach, so after some consultation with Dad and Risa, we picked the Anaheim station as our starting point.  They kindly let us park our car at their house for the weekend, and we took our very first Uber right to the station (Dad and Risa were over in Catalina for the weekend, or they would have driven us themselves).  The Anaheim station is gigantic and brand, shiny new, as it serves as a transport hub for the buses, trains, and light rails in the area.  Here's the ARTIC: The ARTIC is also conveniently located near the Anaheim sp...

Need to get caught up?  Here's  Part One ,   Part Two , and Part Three . Okay, so full disclosure time.  This particular blog entry won't have any real architecture, or at least any that could possibly compete with the Stahl or Eames houses or the Getty Villa.  In fairness, though, there's not much that could, right? Anywhoo, on Mom's last day with us here in California, she and I spent most of the day doing more work in the house.  While I made some calls to contractors and whatnot to get the ball rolling on different projects, she started hanging pictures in the different rooms of the house.  We have an awful lot of artwork and photos, so this is quite an undertaking (you'll have to ask her whether organizing the books or hanging the photos was the more annoying task).  We had a smorgasbord lunch (you know, where you just randomly eat whatever you find in the fridge), and afterward, we headed out to run some errands and show her our new city...