Damn Nature

So, on Sunday we did head to Santa Barbara. The destination was the botanical gardens and its hiking trails. It was cool that day. Low 70s according to the car thermometer and we had an easy drive up the coast. We finally get to the gardens (after some directionally challenged navigation by my wife) and the parking lot was eerily empty. I walk up to the gate and hear a distant voice say, "We're closed." The woman with the voice appeared and kindly told us that because of the fires over the ridge the gardens were closed in case they had to evacuate (it's a small and windy road up there). Fuck.

So, we drove down to the main drag (State Street) for some lunch and poked into a couple of shops (definitely an advantage of having a son rather than a daughter). Downtown SB is ok, but a bit touristy and commercial for my tastes. At least a few of the places had music coming out of them. The drive home sucked as there must have been some wrecks on the freeway earlier in the day that were still messing up traffic. But, we got to listen to the Angels beat the A's, so all was not lost.