Going to Santa Barbara

For the past two years I have traveled to Santa Barbara for an art workshop. I am taking the workshop again this year. I enjoy the presenter so much. He is Skip Lawrence. A great watercolorest plus he makes learning fun. Every morning before we start to paint he gives a lecture and slide show. He shows us paintings of the Masters and more contemporary paintings. Skip is never without a joke or two to loosen up the nerves. We take notes and talk about the paintings that we are drawn to. The past two years the lecture and slides are different. There are a few the same but he manages to keep it fresh and interesting. The workshop starts tomorrow at nine o'clock A. M. But I drove up here today. I wanted to get a feel for the new hotel and go find the new venue for the workshop. After a quick drive around I grabbed some dinner (more on that later) ,went back to the hotel and decided to see how long a walk it would be to the venue. It was getting dark by the time I left but the walk was only twenty minutes. I felt much better finding my way around and knowing where I would be going. Can you take the Girl Scout out of the girl? Guess not. Not this Girl Scout anyway. About dinner... I had been to a certain Chineese restaurant last year but had a hard time remembering what it was called and where it was. After some Google and Yelp searches There it was. I think. My daughter is on this adventure with me and she was pretty sure this was the one we ate at before. As we drove up to the restaurant we both sang, "yes this is it!" great food and nice people. China Pavilion on Chapala St. For anyone wanting good Chineese food in Santa Barbara. I have promised to blog about the workshop so will be here every night. There might not be any pictures though. My laptop is sick and I don't know how to do pictures with my iPad. So if things get better with the laptop I'll add photos. Stay tuned in for an interesting week.