James' first day of Squadron Officer's School was on March 18th. We decided to take a couple weeks of leave before then to drive cross country and visit some family and friends. Our first stop was in Santa Barbara, CA to visit James' family. This was James' first visit home to SB since we moved to Japan three years ago, so we had a lot of catching up to do! Jon and Claire also took leave around that time so it was a full family reunion on the west coast! Below are some highlights from our three day visit:
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| Visiting with James parents and grandparents! |
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| Out for pizza with the Wentzel's youth pastor Mark and his kids |
On our second day in Santa Barbara, we took a two hour walking tour of the impressive gardens at the Lotus Land estate in Montecito. This is something James had never done before! Below is the official description of the property, with some of my favorite snapshots:
Ganna Walska Lotusland
Madame Ganna Walska, a well-known Polish opera singer and socialite, purchased the estate in 1941 and spent the next 43 years creating Lotusland. The spectacular collections of exotic plants throughout the 37-acre property are a very personal expression of Walska’s penchant for the dramatic, the unexpected, and the whimsical. After her death in 1984, Lotusland became a nonprofit botanical garden and opened to the public in 1993.
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| You can see the mansion peeking through the trees across the main lawns |
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| The tour ended in a Japanese garden. We felt right at home! |
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| Out to dinner with Jon & Claire, and Claire's best friend Alexandra and her fiancee |
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| LOVE Southern California cuisine! |
It was a pretty quick visit, but thankfully our time with James' family was not finished. On Friday morning we drove down to his step-brother Sam's house north of San Diego for more family fun!
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