Did not see the Bionic Woman. Or Sasquatch. And the weather was cooler than usual, so it was never too hot.
I hit the world's largest outdoor bookstore and it was very nice, a great setup. As a bookstore, I was a bit underwhelmed. It was rather like Powell's - big inventory but not that much depth in any section except fiction, and even that was mostly well-known things. But the art section was very good, as was poetry, and Lit Crit was fairly large as well. There was another used bookstore downtown, but I didn't make it there.
We did a couple of food related things. A quick trip to the Friend's Ranch citrus farm packing house (just a warehouse) where we got some of the last of the crop of Ojai Pixie tangerines. They're very good, and seedless. And got an
Ojai Pixie lunchbox with artwork by Sergio Aragones. He lives in town, and might be the last survivor of the old Mad mag crew. Then up past town to an olive oil farm that was hard to find. You can't tour the farm but a tasting is $15 with pretty much all the bread you want, so cheap for the four of us. And their oils were very tasty, plus they imported some nice balsamic vinegars. We wound up buying some of both.
Of course some cultural stuff. We hit the Ojai museum for a little history, and it was pretty good. We went over the hill into Happy Valley to the Beatrice Wood Art Center. She was a friend of Duchamp who published a Dada magazine early last century. She later had some fame as a ceramicist. It's not a museum per se, it's her house and studio, with art in all the rooms, some by her and some by visiting artists who do residencies and workshops there. Most of it was for sale. There were some nice small abstract figures made from her original molds and set in small frames. I wanted one, but they were $150. Back in town, we went to a ceramics studio for a two hour wheel throwing workshop. Christina had been wanting to try it, but the classes in downtown SJ run six weeks and she wasn't sure she'd like it, so this was a good intro. And she did like it. We didn't pay for them to glaze our pots and send them to us; they just weren't very good. But we might take a class.
Downtown is charming, with mostly old buildings. Lots of art in some of the shops, which was nice. And good coffee at Ojai Roasting Co.
We both enjoyed it a lot and would go back. It would be a good place to retire except for the hot summers.
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