California Republic

Babbitt has been raving about Ojia, CA ever since Katie met him back in 1997 and luckily his childhood memories lived up to the hype!  Fortunately, Aunt Barbara had the perfect place for us to park The Rig for a few days at her tranquil house in the canyon and from there we walked through the darling downtown, relaxed by her pool, made key stops Babbitt remembered visiting with his grandma, ran through the hilly, but picturesque canyon & even made day trips to Santa Barbara & Simi Valley!

The O'Babbitt's with Barbara at the Old-Fashioned Independence Day Parade in Ojia
Babbitt read that this is the #1 small town parade in the country & we were got the best seat
in the house, right in front of Barbara's boutique, Barbara Bowman in downtown Ojia

La Super Rica in Santa Barbara
The next day we dropped Barbara off at work, took her car & waited in line for lunch at one of Julia Child's favorite restaurants...we were there for close to 3 hours, but the #2, #7, #6 & #13 made it all worthwhile

View from Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara
We ran out of time quickly after lunch, which led to a typical O'Babbitt argument about what to do next
 Even though we were annoyed with each other, we couldn't help but take in these sailboats & mountains

Mike, Gay, Babbitt & Joe at their home in Simi Valley
When we heard Babbitt's cousin, Joe was in town for the weekend, we jumped in The Rig
to see him,  hang with their miniature pinschers, eat homemade pizza & watch the UFC fights