hot!

We took a one-day vacation yesterday and delivered a last load of college supplies to M. We left early (to miss the LA traffic; ha) and had a great breakfast at the Cajun Kitchen in Carpinteria. A nice surprise, and we'll be going back. The Cajun scramble was just spicy enough, and the home fries were crisp/soft just as they should be. Instead of toast, I ordered a "homemade" blueberry muffin to go -- actually it was two small muffins, just out of the oven. Obviously from a mix, but then they don't advertise as a bakery and I should have ordered cornbread like the guys next to us recommended. We walked on the beach for a bit and then headed on to Santa Barbara.

We combined the delivery with an early-season soccer game. Hot, that's all you can say. It was hot. I was uncomfortable sitting in the shade, and the girls were sprinting in the sun for 90 minutes.

To recover, we headed for the harbor and had an early dinner at Brophy Bros, which overlooks the marina. Great location, inexpensive prices for the view....a good place to watch the crowd. Good service, basket of chewy bread, bottled beer only, but a decent selection. Steamed mussels were good, but the broth was strongly flavored with bay leaf, even with pieces of leaves still there. They win awards for the clam chowder -- I'm picky about chowder. (My father started that; he told me to stay away from the places where "they tie a clam to a string and drag it through some white sauce." Anyway, Brophy's was good, plenty of chopped clams -- but would someone please take the bay leaves away from the chef? I tasted bay for hours afterward.

The view from our outside table:


After eating, we walked out on the seawall, which is a great view -- especially on a hot clear day.


It was nice to come home, and not have a suitcase to unpack. We are so fortunate to live close to so many beautiful places.