Saturday found us, at the ungodly hour of 7:30 in the morning, northbound on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train, up the California coast headed toward Santa Barbara. We spent a full, fun day there. My favorite souvenir of our small adventure is this hardbound Pride & Prejudice comic book by Marvel discovered in a random comic book shop. I love it even more for the fact that the shop was totally unexpected. It was this tiny store stocked to the gills with geekery off of the main street that goes through town, and we sort of half stumbled into it, sloth-like from a delicious brunch, cupping hot drinks in our hands.

I had seen Volume 1 months ago in another comic book shop in Los Angeles, but the one above is the complete series, collected. I haven’t taken the shrink wrap off of it yet. I’m happy to just look at it for now. Below are some of the covers. I love the alliterative, irreverent modern blurbs!

If you want peeks of the stuff inside, Comic Book Resources has some pretty good pages.

And don’t laugh, but I also took home Vols. 1-3 of the “Archie Gets Married” Series. Haha.

On Saturday, I also got to smell Julia Child. Actually, I got the chance to smell the beautiful variety of yellow rose that was named after her. Ms. Julia smelled quite lovely.

This was during our tour of the Rose Garden on wondrous Lotus Land, a 37-acre private estate that was turned into a nonprofit. It used to be owned by an eccentric, extremely rich opera singer who dedicated her life to building this botanical masterpiece. It has 16 beautifully maintained gardens and is a must-see if you ever make your way to Santa Barbara.

So, Saturday may not have been as crafty as my usual Saturdays go, but it was still full of my favorite things. Flowers named after great chefs, Mr. Darcy and oh yes, taffy! (Pumpkin and Candy Corn are two flavors I love that are now in season.)

How was your weekend, world?