Continuing the conversation from back in December…. The Peacemaker and I got up early so we could get in a nice hike before leaving this gorgeous area of California (the redwood forest, not the town of Orick).

The night before, when I was plotting my escape from Orick, I decided we would make our next stop, an unplanned one, in Healdsburg, CA. Well, thankfully Healdsburg is an adorable, thriving town and we had a great night at the lovely River Belle Inn Bed & Breakfast.

We left Healdsburg and headed south for New Years Eve. We had always planned on being in San Francisco on 12/31. The Peacemaker talked us in to purchasing tickets to a Kaskade (electronics DJ?) concert to ring in the new year. Unfortunately, we went back and forth, and back and forth on whether it was safe for us old geezers (me and Blue Eyes) to attend the concert due to the recent insurgence of the dreaded Omicron variant and so, we all decided it was really not smart, and we stayed in our hotel room and ordered a BOAT LOAD of sushi and watched a movie. We were staying at the gorgeous Ritz Carlton Nob Hill, so we weren’t all that sad about staying in.

From San Francisco we traveled south to Santa Barbara. This would be our last stop before my January retreat destination of Ojai.

Santa Barbara never disappoints. It’s a beautiful oceanfront town with generally sunny and mild weather, gorgeous gardens, and beaches, great food and lots to do.

I was then in Ojai, as previously blogged about, through not only January, but February and a little bit of March as well. Which leads into… our next road trip, back to Oregon.

To be continued…