California, Here I Come

I'm not in Africa yet, but I am getting into this blogging thing, so I wanted to experiment with posting pictures, itunes, etc. As I mentioned, I'm not in Africa, however, I am in California - a place I had always thought of as somewhere I would enjoy to live. The coast, beaches, mountains, snow, sun, etc - Cali has it all who wouldn't want to live here?

I am living in La Conchita, a small coastal town in the Ventura (where the recent brush fire was headlining the news) vicinity between Santa Barbara and LA. La Conchita is a scary place. It is absolutely beautiful, but impending doom sometimes trumps the beauty. As recent as one year ago a mudslide killed 10 people one street over from ours. The slide, along with the houses, is still buried and apparent with a memorial to the community members who perished. I have an arial picture of the mudslide of 2004 below.

Nonetheless, it is absolutely wonderful here. Watching gorgeous sunsets, spotting jumping, playful dolphins, surfing, and hanging out with my nephews is just splendid. I am not going to want to leave for Africa in February.




Our house is in the bottom left hand corner

Sunset (with an oil rig in the distance)

Me TRYING to surf

The coastline