This weekend we were determined to go out and do something, beyond our usual adventuresome outings to the market and the coffee shop. So we packed the baby into the car and headed off to Knapp's Castle. This is the ruin of a former mansion up in the Santa Ynez mountains. The house, first built by the (I presume robber-baronish) founder of Union Carbide, was consumed in a forest fire just a few weeks after the second owners moved in, in 1940. As you can see at the Wikipedia link, the remaining sandstone bits made for quite majestic ruins, much more attractive probably than the original building.
You can visit it as the apex of a long hike, or you can drive nearly all the way there and park at the top trailhead. We were in the market for more of a little outing suitable for tucking in between lunch and Her Majesty's afternoon nap, and less of a multi-hour trudge with infant strapped to one's front, so up we drove.
Oh, up and up and up, windier and windier, blind turn after blind turn, and the fog blew across the road and the mountain sheered off just to our right into the deathsome abyss, and Steve's knuckles got whiter and whiter on the steering wheel. Poor Steve.
Then we emerged through the top of the clouds and arrived at our destination, hurrah!
Well, perhaps not entirely hurrah.
There were some bugs. Indeed, there were dense swarms of bugs, and the swarming they did was around our heads.
So we gave the view a brisk, admiring glance, turned smartly on our heels, and went home. The drive was much less harrowing on the way down, as mountain drives often are, and we even got back in time for a quick trip to the coffee shop. I call that an outstanding success, especially as no one got shat on.
What did you do this weekend?
What did you do this weekend?
Enjoyed the dry sunshine (sandwiched as it was between a week of damp cold and another one) and gnawed my fingernails.
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | 10/05/2010 at 02:48 PM
Update -- the fingernail-gnawing appears to have worked!
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | 10/06/2010 at 09:36 AM
Picked apples and pressed them to make cider. Went to a 7 yr old's pirate party. Argued with the husband and kids on Sunday.
Posted by: Betty m | 10/06/2010 at 06:44 PM
Went baby dunking: failed to drown baby (he just keeps bobbing back up to the surface! Who'd have thought they'd float so well?). Picked up errant husband from the airport after a paragliding holiday. Ate extravagantly large roast at my parents'. Wiped quite a lot of vomit off myself. You know, the usual.
The views look awesome, and Knapp's Castle looks intriguing. Boo to bugs, though.
Posted by: Lumpy badger | 10/08/2010 at 11:02 AM