January 2007

Newsletter

Union Square Christmas Tree

Lunch after seeing A Christmas Carol in San Francisco on Christmas Eve

Happy New Year!

We drove to San Luis Obispo on our way down to Southern California and spent a couple of nights in this college town.  It's half way to Los Angeles in an area famed for Pinot Noir wines (Sideways was filmed near by).  Our Bed and Breakfast was French themed and very nicely decorated. They served local wines at 5pm and were very generous with their pours!  The down town buildings are brick built and it's a bit worrying that all the shops and restaurants have window signs warning that in the event of an earthquake, falling masonry is possible!  We then headed onto Ventura which is just south of Santa Barbara. We stopped here for lunch last year and thought it might be worth a night's stay.  We were wrong! The River Bike Trail was not at all scenic as it passed through an industrial landscape of oil drillers and haulage depots! 

Dana Point (60 miles north of San Diego) was our final destination. Donald and Henny are friends from Scotland and Germany respectively and have been in the US as long as we have.  We visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in nearby Yerba Linda (his birthplace) and found it very interesting. Since he was in Government for a long time, there were exhibits from the Kennedy era, Vietnam, China and the Cold War. We spent 3 hours and could have spent longer. Not sure George Dubbya's Library will contain much!