Friday 1 July - Santa Barbara (and it's harbourer as seems inevitably to trip off the tongue) provided a beautiful setting for a relaxing day. The port is still an active fishing community with over two hundred boats fishing for shellfish, crustacea and red snapper. This is independence day weekend and the roads and parking places down the Pacific coast are thronged with huge RVs (Recreational Vehicles) most of them the size of a double-decker coach). Temperatu...

Thursday 30 June - there are officially only 18 people living in harmony in California - there's a sign to prove it - Harmony - population 18, altitude 175 feet! The guide books would have you believe that sitting in a Santa Barbara cafe is the place to watch the beautiful people of the city walk by - what you actually see, of course, is an endless parade of other tourists and the semi-derelicts of Santa Barbara - at least the food and weather are good!