We drove a couple of hours north to Santa Barbara on Friday 23rd August in the afternoon. Jo picked up Rob from work at about 1.30 pm with the intension of avoiding the Friday traffic. This didn't work out and we joined many others in the usual "Stop and Go" along sections of the freeway - at times travelling at 25km/hr and 120km/hr at other times, and completely stopped for short periods.

Anyway we arrived in Santa Barbara about 4.30pm and visited the court house which is very beautiful - built in a Mexican/Spanish style with terracotta roof tiles, white exterior walls (just like a lot of the local buildings) and with beautiful tiles on the floors walls and ceilings. We went inside one meeting room which had huge murals on the walls which I think were painted over 100 years ago (the curtains were over 100 years old).

The reason we had gone to Santa Barbara was for a Garrison Keillor of "Prairie Home Companion" concert. "Prairie Home Companion" is a radio show on NPR (National Public Radio - a bit like ABC but only partly Government funded) which is a combination of music and comedy. It used to be broadcast on an ABC radio station some years ago.

A quote from the ABC web site describes it well:

Garrison Keilor is one of America's greatest and subtlest humourists. His Lake Wogegon Tales have become a national and, indeed, international institution. On his radio show The Prairie Home Companion he is the droll sage of this fictional town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above-average".

We listen to the radio show most weekends, and it contains some great laughs - it focuses somewhat on St Paul, Minnesota which is Garrison Keillor's home town, and he tells these great tales about "Lake Wobegon" and supposed childhood escapades.

Anyhow, there was a concert on in Santa Barbara which was the closest the tour was coming to LA. It was held in the Santa Barbara Bowl, an open air auditorium. We were in the second from the back row (and we moved to the back after the interval so we had a back rest) and had binoculars, but seeing the stage wasn't that important. It was an excellent concert with lots of digs at the Californian recall election (which you must have heard about) and some really beautiful music. It was also a great way to experience a bit of American culture, and like some sports fans, you could tell who really enjoyed it because they stayed right till the end. Thanks to Jo's excellent navigation we avoided any traffic queues afterwards and were at our hotel before 11pm (30miles away - we didn't book one until Wed night which was leaving it a bit late).