Santa Barbara Zoo - Part 2

Have I mentioned we love the Santa Barbara Zoo? Ya, I know I have!  ;-)

We stopped there again on our way back through and re-visited some of the animals we didn't get great photos of, didn't see at all, or wanted to see again. 

Enjoy! 

Monkey business!
(Not great photos but didn't see these guys at all the first time.)

Better photo of one of the condors than last time.

Meerkat

Even a few plant photos this time!

White-faced Saki

Juvenile black-crowned night heron

Snow leopard

Because of the wire fencing and the difficulty focusing the camera over a larger area, I could get a photo of the whole snow leopard. It's hard to capture how impressively long its tail is!

These decorations, throughout the zoo, were starting to be set up when we were there the first time on this trip and were now complete and ready for the "zoo lights" tour and fundraiser starting in a couple of weeks. I bet they look great all lit up at night.

Santa Barbara Botanical Garden

After a long morning at the zoo, we still decided to head to the Botanical Garden. There weren't a lot of flowers this late in the very hot season but the trails were nice and Andrew found lots of lizards to photograph. 

Through the redwoods

Very typical . . . me waiting for Andrew to take photos!

Cutie!

A little free library and sitting area.

More of Santa Barbara

With all the great paragliding the past week, we didn't get a chance to go to some of our favourite places in Santa Barbara. We didn't even get to the zoo. Shocking, I know! (Rated one of America's best small zoos, it's really good and we love going there.) 

We always enjoy walking along the water and going to some of the parks. And normally we'd get out to some of the local wineries but this time it was just a couple of the tasting rooms. 

Morning fog rolling in over the palm trees; and a lovely reflection in the still water. 

Bright morning sunrise over Stearn's Wharf.

Mermaid momma and her baby.

An island lighthouse.

We really like the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden located not far from downtown. It has a beautiful pond full of koi, ducks and turtles (I don't think I've ever seen so many turtles in one place before!), and a variety of plants and beautiful flowers. 

Just a few of the many turtles.

Jaffurs Wine Cellar

More Flying in Santa Barbara

What an amazing week of flying in Santa Barbara! Six days, six mountain flights . . . and a short sled ride each to Bates Beach. 

Our first three days are highlighted in two previous blog posts, here and here. We then had return trips to Skyport, EJ Bowl and, the site of our very first mountain flight, VOR. We also tried to fly Pine Mountain (north of Ojai) but, unfortunately, it was blowing over the back. 

A hang glider near "the round house" -- one of several distinctive landmarks when flying Skyport or EJ Bowl.

Another distinctive landmark -- the antenna farm.
The ridge that both these buildings are on is a great thermal generator!

Paragliders and a jet.

Hang gliders fly much faster than paraglider.
As I was taking this photo, the hang glider seems to absolutely whiz between them! 

Andrew (centre of photo) making a perfect landing at the Parma LZ.

A hang glider getting low near the beautiful neighbourhood around Parma Park.

Andrew walking back to the car from the Parma LZ.

A foggy day on the coast but clear skies at VOR.

Andrew landing at VOR. Fog in the distance.

L-R: Logan, Chad and Sarah approaching the "T" -- the landing area for VOR.

Sarah, tell Chad to run faster and get out of your way! ;-) 

Looking out to Las Padres Forest from Pine Mountain launch. 

Ready to go! Waiting, hoping for the wind to cooperate. They didn't.  :-( 

But the stick insect was pretty cool. 

As was this ring-necked snake. (The red ring around his neck is hard to see in these photos.)

Thanks so much to all the pilots, friends new and old, who welcomed us to fly with them!

Santa Barbara Soaring Association
Fly Above All Paragliding (and Chris, our very first paragliding instructor!)
Eagle Paragliding
Let Fly Paragliding

Tandem Thermalling

I struggle with knowing how to thermal properly. At least that's what I tell myself even though I've had lots of explanations and coaching on it. Truthfully, I just really don't like it very much. It can be scary! (Ya, ya, ya, I can hear all the smart-assed remarks from some of you reading this!) 

Regardless, I decided to do a tandem flight with Dilan (our SIV instructor from Let Fly Paragliding) and, while I learned a lot from him and now know what it feels like to thermal efficiently (it's not nearly as bumpy when you actually have the skill to stay in the thermal!) I have to admit to myself that it's just going to take much more practice, pushing myself a bit more, and not running away when it starts to get uncomfortable. 

As Dilan pointed out, a few bumpy thermals is way less "exciting" that the maneuvers we did on the SIV course. I say, "But that's different!" And both of us are right. 

My goal for the next flights is forcing myself to thermal a little more and a little more each time. Eventually, the comfort and confidence will come. I hope! 

Off launch, we thermalled up and got high enough to do some cross country. We followed this main ridge for a while, getting additional thermals and height off some of the side ridges.

Flying tandem with Dilan.

View of the coastline south of Santa Barbara.

And then we headed to the beach! (About 20 km from launch.)

Looking down at our LZ at Padero Beach.