Four, Five, Six States? In How Many Days?

Well the vacation we started thinking about five days after our Costa Rica trip has come and gone...
LAX to Atlanta.
Atlanta to Charleston.
Charleston Fun!
Drive to North Carolina.
Road Trip Fun!
Maggie Valley, NC Fun!
Drive through Tennessee to Kentucky.
Road Trip Fun!
But by all means avoid Pigeon Shit Forge!
Ugh...
More on that later.
Kentucky Bourbon Trail Fun!

Hurricane Irene coming.
Not Fun!
Watch Weather Channel for next 4 days...
Actually Pretty Fun!

Vacation! But First...

Meet the new family member:

Lexie!
Sort of after Lexington, Kentucky, not because we were in love with Lexington, Kentucky, but we did love Kentucky!
Because we fell in love with the dog via pics on the internet while waiting at LAX to fly towards Kentucky.
She's a love!
And she went swimming in the harbor yesterday...

Fair Flashback...

Which I assume would be like an acid flashback...
Go on one of these late at night and it will haunt you for a few weeks.
Or months...

Ventura Fair Part Dos

This time more mellow.
No concert unless you count hearing The Beach Boys whine out a few from their wheelchairs while we were back in the harbor four miles away as the seagull soars.
No staying out til midnight.
No crap wine from inside the arena.
No 45 minute wait for the bus.
No children being abused by giant spotted cows.
No crying on the bus.

This time with Jim.
This time animals.
We saw pigs.

We saw furry little short goats.

We saw sheep.

We heard sheep.

We saw a baby donkey.

Baby pigs.

A baby cow mmmmmm that one looks delicious.

A miniture cow.

And are still trying to figure out the point of that breeding.

Miniture steaks?

Those little bitesize slider burgers?

And we saw horses.

Ate a ridiculousy priced Pink's hotdog, that tasted pretty much like a Von's hotdog...

Walked through the commercial buildings and amazingly enough fought off all the hawkers selling products you cannot live without.

Except we are still alive five days later... go figure.

And then walked through the quiet midway section.

Why quiet?
We went on Senior Day.

Lots of wheelchairs, walkers and canes.

But very few surly tattooed punks.

All good.

Except for the zombies...

Successful Boat Delivery!

So, while I went to the fair and drank wine enjoyed Pat Benatar's concert and hung out with friends and did laundry and visited with a friend from high school and did more laundry and watched three chick flicks until midnight and slept in til an unacceptable hour this morning and did more laundry and uploaded pictures and doinked around on facebook and wasted an incredible amount of time doing nothing and folded towels and sheets, Jim did this.

Delivered a boat from San Diego to Ventura.

In sloppy seas.

With new boat owners.

With alternator belt problems.

And wore his new watchcap!

I Love The Ventura County Fair!

First of all, it's the most beautiful fairgrounds setting.
Anywhere.
In the world.
Hands down.
Not that I have been to very many fairgrounds.
It's close.
It has a free shuttle bus from the harbor.
And this year you only have to wait about 45 minutes to catch the damn bus!
It has lots of palm trees.
It's 100% Americana.
Although, the food scares the crap out of me...
It has great concerts.
Really great concerts!

Concerts like Pat Benatar!

Who rocks.
Who has an amazing voice!

Who is entertaining.
Who has a husband who wears funnier pants than my husband...

And I thought Jim's martini pants were cool...

Uh what else?
Rides that make you want to puke.

Sad part?
This one was my idea...
Thinking the "UR" means "you are a complete fool to ride this".

And fireworks!

Great fun and safer than Mexico fireworks!

And good friends!

And apparently people we don't know who are good at posing for pics too...

Islas ~ Prisoners Wind and Yellowbanks Calm

Trading that "corner window office with decent pay" for "The Dirt Pit" has it's rewards.
Such as sneaking out on a Friday afternoon at 1:00 pm.
Which means at the harbor entrance by 1:10 pm.
Used to be I would get the ok to sneak out at 3:30 or 4:00, which was followed by a 10 or 15 minute drive home.
Then the clomp down the dock in insurance duds.
The clomp onto the deck and scramble to change from skirt and blouse to shorts and t-shirt as El Jefe backed out of the slip.
The Dirt Pit has it's advantages.
Sneak out.
Actually walk out and wish the few remaining Dirt Pitters a good weekend.
Skip across the yard and down the ramp.
Onto boat.
Let me take that back.
Un-tie remaining two docklines, then get onto boat.
Already in shorts and t-shirt, so no scramble to change.
Back out.
On way.
To islands.

And on last Friday?
Right through the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race Fleet.

Spinnakers everywhere!

Luckily there was a nice gap between a two large groups.
So no getting in the way or stealing wind.



Then into Prisoners way, way, way before dark.
Thanks again to The Dirt Pit.
Anchoring.
Drinks and dinnering on "Shining Star".

Then getting wind into the anchorage early on Saturday.

White caps by 9:00 am.

What the....?

So as soon as "Shining Star" received their ice delivery, we headed down island.

Headsail out.

And out of there!

To calm.

Warm.

And flat.

Perfection at the end of the island!

And more friends...

I mentioned friends, right?

Which meant assisting Dave and Cherryl empty a few bottles of champagne.

Jim looking at Dave's electrical system.

Petting the cat.

And hora feliz on "Meerkat"!

With "Bodihisattva", "Sweet Lorraine" and of course "Shinola" "Shining Star".

We watched giant thunderheads form miles away over the mainland.

While pretending to be in Mexico...

And woke up to a tropical sky on Sunday!

Quite beautiful.

And Mexico like.

A lazy morning turned into the inevitable.

We had to head home...

Pulled anchor and after hearing the weather reports of boats in the channel, decided to keep the reef in the main.

Good thing!

We had 15-20 all the way into our slip.

The 15 is fine, but 20 inside the harbor while trying to furl, drop, get fenders and docklines out can be a little crazy.

But it made for a two hour sail from San Pedro Point to the whistle bouy!