City of Arts and Flowers

We also traveled to Lompoc to see a public park today.  Lompoc is the city of "Arts and Flowers" and was long known as the flower seed capital of the world.  Traveling out U.S. Hwy 1 from U.S. Hwy 101, you traverse a beautiful canyon valley-the Santa Ynez Valley, that eventually opens out to this little city by the sea (Lompoc was named for the Spanish term for lagoon.) 

It is a place where people retire because it is economical and the community survives because it is adjacent to Vandenberg Air Force Base.  They are developing their winery business here too with a commercial area that has been transformed into “Wine Ghetto” [did you know that the term ghetto means:  (adj.) jury-rigged, improvised, or home-made (usually with extremely cheap or sub-standard components), yet still deserving of an odd sense of respect from ghetto dwellers and non-ghetto dwellers alike-according to Urban Dictionary.]  

The town turned a commercial area into a series of wine tasting venues and local wineries have created beautiful gift shops and tasting rooms in the former commercial buildings.  The town is also known for hosting the largest dog show west of the Mississippi once a year.  It was slated to become the western location for launches of the shuttle until the Challenger launch disaster in Cape Canaveral occurred.  

Today a Flower Festival was going on in one of the city parks.  The flowers here reminded me of La Connor, WA tulips.  We could not resist photographing them.  We ate lunch by a lake in a park adjacent to the city’s RV Park and watched the ducks chase each other (spring is in the air I presume…) it was nice being outside and taking a few minutes from work to enjoy doing nothing.  I am going to research more on this city and I’ll let you know what we learn.