Back in June, Terry and I got to travel by ourselves, without kids, for the first time in a very long time. We went to Santa Barbara for the annual BEMA association meeting. We have taken the kids with us in the past when we were able to go. But this location seemed less kid friendly than past years. So we decided to combine the trip with our 25th anniversary celebration and go alone. Terry's mom came up from Texas to watch the kids for us. Thanks so much to her for being so generous. This is a dock in Santa Barbara that we stopped by before heading on to our hotel.

I think we made a cute couple.
It was cold and foggy often in the mornings. I was cold pretty much the whole time. But it wasn't too bad. Hey, I was away from home on a much needed vacation - no complaining here!
The hotel for the event was the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara. It was pretty incredible.
The hotel grounds were amazing. Everything was green and well manicured. This is a croquet court. I beat Terry 2 out of 3 times.
I love how big this tree is. The plaque said it is over 150 years old. There are roots hanging down from the branches that you can just see are going into the ground.
There is always a team-building activity for the BEMA board members. This year it was a softball game. Terry was back in his element. They let some of the people's kids play. There were kids from 9 yrs up to college.
There is also a theme for each meeting. This year it was Peace, Love and BEMA. People were encouraged to dress up in the sixties style for a party to be given on one of the nights. Some of the attendees went all out.
I think some of these people had their costumes stored away in their closets from when they actually used to wear them.
That is really a guy dressed like George Harrison from the Sgt. Pepper album. He looked great! Some of the guys wore wigs since they used to have hair and they looked pretty good.
Terry and I played it safe. I looked better without my jacket, very flower child like. But it was SO cold. I had a flower painted on my cheek. We had such a nice time. While there, we got to go kayaking on a tour out in the open ocean. The trip took an hour each way by ferry to some channel islands. We did take pictures but they are on another photo source and I hope to get them on here some time. We saw a lot of sea creatures. Namely, there was a huge pod(?) of dolphins swimming by our ferry on the trip home.

Our trip was so relaxing. I got to read a lot and walk in the mornings on the beach. I enjoyed myself but it was really nice to get back home to see Meg and Andrew.