Our Home Away From Home . . .

We were very lucky to be able to evacuate to our family house at the Alisal Guest Ranch in Solvang. It's a place we spend weekends during the summer and occasionally weekends during other times of year. So, unlike most evacuees who either had to stay at a hotel or a friends' house, we were able to stay in a familiar, nice place.

My parents and my brother, Jim and his family evacuated to cottages within the Alisal Guest Ranch -- so they were, essentially, in a hotel/resort.

We were particularly happy to have both of our pets there. Our dog, Spike, could sense that things were out of kilter with us. Max, our cat, seemed oblivious -- however, he did seem to really enjoy all the extra attention we gave him. As far as the cat was concerned, this fire was a great thing -- more food, more petting, more attention.

Our first night there we tried to get our minds off of the fire and went to a movie in Buellton. We saw 'Just Getting Started' with Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. It wasn't very good, but we had a few laughs.

Monday night we all got together as a 'refugee' family and had dinner at the Alisal in the main dining room.