An Afternoon in Ojai

Anne Marie and Ben H (her boyfriend) drove up from Santa Fe to Ben's home in Ojai earlier than expected, so Brad and I drove up for a little day trip to hang out, since Ojai's just about an hour and a half drive north of Brad's apartment. Unfortunately, Memorial Day weekend traffic made that about a three hour drive. Ben's house is in this gorgeous valley up in the mountains. Imagine Italy transplanted to California, blended with some southwest-y ness. There are lots of orchards of avocados, kumquats, etc. and horses. We played some koob/kubb, which Anne posted about. Ben and I won thanks to default, though it was quite a close game. We grilled out summer style: Hamburgers, corn, eggplant. It all makes sense until the eggplant. This picture is when Anne and I were forming the patties and seasoning.
Ben grilling.
Brad looking very out of his element in a country setting.
Brad looking much more in his element with a SkeeBall machine. That's right, Ben's Dad got a SkeeBall machine off of ebay. Aside from the two black widow spiders that crawled out of it, it was great.
Afterwards, Anne, Brad, and I played a very close game of Settlers before Brad and I headed home.

Written down like this, it all sounds very short and like nothing much. But it was a fabulous day.