Santa Barbara

This past weekend, we all went for a visit to Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a city about 100 miles north of LA. It's a long car ride from Walnut Creek. On the way down, we drove at night but I had (and still have) a head cold and found sleeping difficult. By the time we were about 40 miles away, I was ready to stop being in my car seat. I kept saying "off, off" but to no avail.

Happily, there was a good reward when I got there. We stayed with the Bergstroms, who I like very much. They have a granddaughter who is about 7 months old, and they were well equipped for my visit. When I arrived, at about 12:30 at night, they stayed up to greet us and presented me with a toy ambulance which I enjoyed driving around the house. They also had a big, red ball, which I enjoyed playing with. They have lots of other good stuff too, especially books. I got to read a book called "10 Minutes to Bedtime," which was fabulous. Mommy and Daddy seemed to like it too since it featured many hamsters (they like hamsters...a lot!) The best book of all in my opinion, however, was "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo." I liked this book so much that I got to take it home with me.

On Friday, while Daddy did his thing at the university, Mommy and I went to the Child's Place Zoo, also known as the Santa Barbara Zoo. We saw lots of animals. I especially enjoyed the giraffes, the otters, the monkeys, the sea lions, and the capybara. The capybara was eating a pumpkin and reminded me of a big version of my friend, Licorice the guinea pig. I tried to gently pet the capybara through the fence, but he was too far away. I also rode a fun train with Mommy at the zoo.

The weather on Saturday was pretty dreary in the morning and very rainy in the afternoon. We all went shopping on State Street in the morning. I got some new shoes and some other nice stuff, including a mini version of my good friend, Piggy! I napped most of the afternoon.

At the end of my visit to the Bergstroms's, I made a little regatta with some fallen flowers. They have lots of nice flowers in their backyard. I picked a couple up and deposited them in a big puddle. Thanks to the breeze, the flowers would glide across the puddle like little boats. I picked up several more and had a little sailing race across the puddle. Finally, it was time to go. I waved bye bye to the Bergstroms and blew them kisses (a new trick) to show that I really liked staying with them. I hope we get to go back soon.