Katie on Santa Barbara Beach

This past weekend Katie and I met up with my parents in California for my cousin’s wedding.  I had not seen Ian in over a decade and never met his wife – I had no idea what to expect.  Katie however, long holding a dream of being a California girl, was not concerned; she adores any thought of beaches and oceans.  We rented a moderately sized townhouse four blocks from State Street and approximately a mile from the ocean.  Being two couples, the townhouse was a spectacular deal when compared to renting a pair of hotel rooms.  Further, having a full kitchen and living room is really comfortable as opposed to being cramped in a small room.  The weather forecast had predicted temperatures with highs in the 70s for our entire trip; this grew to be a running joke.

On Friday morning we drove to the wine country with the intention of cycling; unfortunately we arrived in Santa Ynez at 11 am when the temperature had already reached 98 degrees F.  We aborted the cycling plans for the day and enjoyed lunch before venturing out to a lavender farm and the Alma Rosa Winery.  The organic Pinot Noir wines were stellar, though my palette is far from sophisticated.  On our way back to Santa Barbara we stopped at a small roadside stand and purchased the juiciest strawberries ever!  Concluding our overheated day we ate Southwestern for dinner at Left at Albuquergue where we unintentionally ran into the rehearsal dinner for the wedding party.

Dana and Dan in Wine Country

Katie and Dan at Alma Rosa

The next morning we woke early and headed back to Santa Ynez for a second attempt to rent road bikes.  Pulling into Santa Barbara Wine County Cycling Tours at 9 am the temperature was 70 degrees F and we were roaring to go.  My father rented a carbon Specialized Roubaix Compact while Katie and I took aluminum Specialized Allez Sport Triples.  The store had a decent selection of pedals so we were all able to use our regular road biking shoes.  Unfortunately the store did not seem to have a good maintenance program for the bikes.  Both of the rear derailleurs on the Allez bikes were horribly out of alignment; while mine was easily fixed with the barrel adjuster I could not get Katie’s to stop jumping.  After watching her ride I could easily see that a link in the chain was not bending as it went through the derailleur – I can only imagine how miserable the later parts of the ride were for her.  Compared to my steel Lemond bike, the aluminum frames conveyed every little bump in the road.  My other complaint was the route recommendation.  We asked for a 30-35 mile loop suggestion; I turned us around at 20 miles with the turn for the loop obviously still miles off.  We returned to the shop at 11:45 am as the temperatures rapidly approached triple digits.

That afternoon the wedding was held in a beautiful setting at the outdoor atrium of the Fess Parker.  My family learned something important at the wedding when we saw people enjoying the 98 degree F ceremony in shorts – events that you would normally wear formal clothes can be drastically dressed down in California.  The wedding and reception were completely first class and it was wonderful to catch up with family infrequently seen.

Santa Barbara Sea Lions

Katie Kayaking in Santa Barbara

On Sunday morning Katie and I wanted to go surfing; unfortunately my complete inability to read surf forecasts led us to believe the surf would be awful.  How wrong I was.  We rented sit-on-top kayaks from Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara and paddled out of the harbor.  We initially headed out to a buoy that was known to carry a number of lazy sea lions; it did not disappoint.  The sea lions reminded us of Sherbert as they contorted their bodies to rest their heads.    Up the coast we ran into small waves that were ideal for surfers of our caliper.  We returned to port before driving back into the hills to a biker bar for lunch with the extended family.  Continuing the trend of heat, it was 101 degrees F with no air conditioning.  We all went back to the townhouse to crash in the air conditioning before closing out the trip with wonderful seafood at the FisHouse.  The next morning we flew home out of LAX and saw the ever growing fires billowing smoke into the sky.