Jesse and I have gotten to do a lot of fun activities since we moved to California, but it's been a year now and we don't want to get complacent and start taking our residence here for granted. There are still so many new things for us to try. So, with that in mind, we decided to drive out to Ojai for the afternoon last Saturday.
Ojai is a little town in a valley surrounded by lovely mountains and hills, not too far from Santa Barbara. It was supposedly photographed to represent the legendary Shangri-La in the 1939 movie The Lost Horizon. Now it's home to a number of interesting festivals, and at other times is just a nice, historic town with good shops and restaurants. And spas too, I am told. (We'll check those out next time.)
We didn't arrive until mid-afternoon (after a really pretty two-hour drive up the coast). The first thing we did was stop in a winery for a wine tasting. I hadn't eaten much all day, so from then on, things were a little fuzzy (but pleasant!) until we made it to dinner. Probably the three highlights for me were: the drive up on the Pacific Coast Highway and back down on the 101, Bart's Books (great outdoor bookstore, see photos below), and dinner (no shocker there).
A couple of pretty views on the edge of town.
We ate an early dinner at Osteria Monte Grappa, and oh my goodness, it was amazing.
Still a little fuzzy...need food!
Jesse with the duck linguine and a fresh-from-the-garden salad. Also had some incredible bruschetta.
A lot of the little shops were along this stretch of the main downtown road.
The rest of the pictures are from Bart's Books:
Weird. The photos of the bookstore look just like a (non-existent)library I had a dream about a few nights ago. I never would have remembered it, if not for those pictures. It's virtually the same place. Weeeeird.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, great pictures!! :)