We visited with Neal and Coleen Walters at the Schmankerl Stube in Hagerstown, Maryland. The restaurant is known for its Bavarian cuisine.

Ellen first met them several years ago on an Autoharp/Dulcimer cruise held by the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering (MLAG). Ellen decided that she wanted to try her hand at the autoharp and has since bought a couple of them.

Today, Ellen states that she is no longer trying to play every instrument in the world…badly! Hence, she is donating her instruments. MLAG recycles autoharps via a silent auction.

Less expensive instruments are given to beginning players to encourage them in the art. Coleen and Neal also have their own folk group with friends. It’s called Doofus.  She plays a standing bass and he is a multi-instrument fellow with a booming, low voice. It was great seeing them again!

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City at Reagan International Airport. for several days in early January. We tried booking a one-way ride to Los Angeles, California. However, mother nature had different ideas and brought the airlines to a stand still. Our flights got rescheduled and cancelled 8 times! However, the hotel included a excellent restaurant and a bar. We did well.

In March we scooted out of Oxnard, CA to visit Santa Barbara, CA. We did our usual thing of visiting a few off-beat, roadside attractions to take photographs. 

At the Sandpiper Golf Club, in Goleta, we came to an interesting World War II Memorial. A Japanese submarine had actually attacked the U.S mainland nearby. Our main focus was the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. It includes animatronic dinosaurs. Very funny.

We popped over to the MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation center. It is basically for children. We loved it. Ellen played all the games/exhibition available. Jorge stood by a giant guitar. Sometimes it feels as if we are regressing and loving it!

The next day we dedicated to visiting the Santa Barbara Zoo. A section (not on the map) is under major construction. When completed it will be a much bigger zoo. At the entrance we noticed that they had a small gauge railroad. We decided to ride it when the station opened at 10:00 a.m.

First we went down Rattlesnake Canyon and saw lots of birds and then the gorillas. One appeared to be kissing and playing with a giant die. The lions were lazy bums. The giraffes were very tall and slender. Then we rode the train.

You’ll see lots of photos. You may pause your mouse cursor over a slide show to stop it. Click on a picture and it will enlarge. Click off the picture and it goes back to normal. We had lunch near the beach. Hey, check-out that last picture of a giant tree!