I got home last night from the coolest perk of any job, anywhere-- a swim party at the Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle. I volunteer at the elephant seal rookery because I love it, but I sure don't mind also being included in the swim party! We made a two-day trip of it, my husband and I and two of our best friends.

On the way up, we had lunch at one of our favorite places in the universe, the Palace Cafe in Santa Barbara. If you're ever in Santa Barbara, and you like New Orleans-style food at all, be sure to go there. It has the best Cajun/Creole food west of the Rockies, by all accounts.

The water in the Neptune Pool was cold, as always. We were afraid that the weather might be too cool, as well, but the cloud cover hugged the shoreline. The castle was well above the clouds; the sky couldn't have been bluer. We stayed in the water until sunset, so we didn't have a chance to warm up until the next day. After the swim party and a modest dinner (mustn't feast twice in one day), we watched the Emmy Awards in our rooms. That was the only time I had for knitting on that trip-- the bacon slice is now past the half-way mark.

Breakfast was at the Creekside-- Inn? Cafe? I don't remember, but it's a great place to breakfast in Cambria.

From there, we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo. It's having some troubles; they had to move out a lot of their mammals in order to upgrade their habitats. We may increase our donation this year, in order to facilitate the return of the lemurs and red pandas.

Today looks like it might be another busy one-- or not. If I have to see the back doc today, it will be very difficult to also pick up the dogs in Riverside. If the doc doesn't want to see me until tomorrow or the next day, it'll be easy-peasy.