To Santa Barbara or Bust….

I actually had a better title than “To Santa Barbara or Bust….” , I now cannot remember what it was.

This little adventure involved just two of us One Tankers.

I was running a little early. As a paranormal investigator at heart, I took the extra couple of minutes to take a look around Hollywood Forever Cemetery before I picked Terrie up.

Running along the back gate of Paramount Studios, Hollywood Forever is the home to many Hollywood icons including but not limited to Douglas Fairbanks, Mel Blanc, Demille Family, Peter Lorre, Tyrone Power, Rudolph Valentino, and Johnny Ramone. I just read that that Paramount Studios was originally part of the undeveloped cemetery land. I definitely need to return with a team and some equipment.

Every time I drop by Hollywood Forever Cemetery I see at least one gravestone or famous name that I did not see before. Toto was a surprise to me on this trip. I am not certain how I missed him before.

		Hollywood Forever Dec 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After scooping up Terrie, we headed to Ventura area to meet up with an acquaintance. Once our meeting was completed we followed whim and headed to Santa Barbara for a late lunch.

Now we could not be that close to a historical site such as the Old Mission Santa Barbara and not take a peek!

Now those of us that spent our formidable elementary school years in California were likely to be forced to study missions in the fourth grade. When I was a kid a three-d scale model of one of the missions was required to accompany the written report. My nephews, however, were required to complete a coffee can project on the missions. I have been unable to wrap my head around the coffee can concept.

For those of you who missed the California Mission history in school here goes my condensed reiteration: King Charles of Spain enacted a plan to control the fertile land and create safe harbors for Spanish ships. The Russians were heading southward and threatened to take over this valuable land. Father (Padre) Junipero Serra was tasked to settle the missions. Padre Serra is often given credit for all the missions. However, Santa Barbara Mission was the first to be founded by Padre Fermin Francisco de Lusuen, who raised a cross on the site where the mission stands and made the first converts from the local Chumash people. Don’t get me started on the treatment of the Native people.

 

 

		Mission Santa Barbara VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only real problem is the speed at which you can exit Santa Barbara heading south…and the death of my GPS, called “Dori”—I killed another one. I think Dori checked out for a vacation before she crashed.

Lunch and the drive home was, simply, gorgeous.

		Santa Barbara lunch VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

http://www.missionscalifornia.com/

http://library.thinkquest.org/3615/bib.html (cool internet tour of missions)

http://www.californiamissionsonline.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_California

http://www.ehow.com/about_5047663_history-santa-barbara-mission.html#ixzz2Gpmgd5Cg

One Tank to the fleas?

 

Our friends in San Diego can rarely attend One Tank.

We took One Tank to them!

I prepared a batch of my step grandma’s peanut brittle to take with us. To hear my grandma tell it, her ancestors were using THIS recipe as they trudged westward. This batch was set in the back of my car to cool along the way. So, I guess we carried on the tradition southward.

I shall post the recipe in another post.

The drive from Los Angeles to San Diego is not a hop, skip and a jump. We had to stop along way to stretch our legs. We ran along the view point with the birds.

In hindsight, this stop at the view point was not the best of ideas. In Italy—I hear—it is considered lucky to have a bird droppings hit you. If that is the case, then I should be hitting the lotto very soon…

As a kid we’d drive to Camp Pendleton on a regular basis. We’d pass the “Las Pulgas” exit and would think, “How terrible could that place be to call it ‘the fleas’?” Thank you to the Camp Pendleton history on the  Sacramento Marines site. I discovered that during the survey for San Luis Rey Mission the soldiers protecting the survey party were plagued with fleas. The insistence of the fleas overcame the beauty of the area. I knew it! How nasty could that have been?

 

We settled at our friend’s house for a lovely lunch of roasted vegetable soup and conversation among “Nightmare Before Christmas“ decorations and no fleas…..

		Nightmare Before Christmas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

References

http://www.sacramentomarines.com/knowledge_base/camp-pendleton-histor/

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/99spring/outposts.htm

http://www.sanluisrey.org/Museum/History

So Many Tamales so little time…..

 

We braved the traffic and the crowds to make it to the 18th annual Tamale Festival in downtown Placentia.

Wednesday evening, we mingled among the crowd of hungry patrons. We were too busy eating our way across the festival to take too many photos. I posted what we have below.

Hosted by Placita Santa Fe's Downtown Merchant's Association, the annual Tamale Festival included food,  Santa Claus, craft booth and entertainment. The Mariachi Divas were as brilliant as usual. We missed the traditional Las Posadas re-enactment of Joseph and Mary's search for lodging.

		Tamale Festival VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL