Santa Barbara

My first stop when I got out of the desert was Wilderness Lakes Resort in Menifee, California. Beverley’s corporate office is close to the resort and she was flying in to attend meetings and spend a couple of days with me. One of the lady friends I had made this past winter used to be a tour guide in Santa Barbara invited us to meet her so she could show us around which was something that appealed to both Bev and myself. One of the things on my bucket list is to drive the California #1 coastal highway, and complete the U.S. 101 highway from north to south. I had driven quite a large section of that in Washington and Oregon last fall. So we joined the #1 at Laguna Beach and followed it up through Newport Beach, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu; all the places we have heard of in the movies. It was a lovely day and the trip was worth the extra miles. Santa Barbara is a lovely place and we thoroughly enjoyed Betty’s guided tour.
The next day we made a short detour so that I could go to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Located in a beautiful spot the Library is one of the best I’ve been to. Reagan certainly had a very interesting life. I was so lucky to be at the Library while the original Magna Carta was on display. The display is in a climate controlled room, the exhibit case is sensative to a person's body heat so must not be touched. The document is absolutely magnificent; it was written by monks on parchment made from sheep skin and is all in latin; but what is amazing
is that each letter and each word is so precise, it looks like it could have been typewritten. I was really impressed that it would be allowed to leave England, but was told by one of the "guards" that the Library had to take out an additional $20 million of insurance to have it here on display.

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