Oooh, I can see the sea!

Ah salt is in the air, our train is enticingly close to the breaking waves and there are palm trees waving gently against the bluest of skies, we have arrived at what is sometimes called the American Riviera. Today we have various activities planned around Santa Barbara County; some are grabbing their bucket and spade and heading for the beach whereas Miss MJ and Miss E are stylishly dressed and meeting friends for hopefully, fish and chips somewhere by the sea. M and I have opted for a two pronged attack on Santa Barbara, we’re going up in the mountains to visit an intriguing biodynamic vineyard and also visit the equally intriguing Solvang.

Whilst the final preparations for detraining are taking place, I took our fantastic situation as an opportunity to visit the New York observation car for the first time and checked out the view from the back of the train. The views is better out of the other window (see above) and everyone is taking in their first shots of the azure sea.

It had been tricky to envisage the day ahead when checking out the first rays of sun this morning from our cabin window but it has turned out to be a perfect day.

And M is happy as there are plenty of palm trees and the sea, clearly a tropical Pisces.