Ventura Coast - Saturday 4/4/2009

Just some Gerbera daisies we saw in a gas station we stopped at. Love the colors.


We started out our visit to Ventura with a meal on the pier. Hydra had the mussels. I had a seared ahi sandwich.



Unfortunately, the restaurant's logo is better than its food.


The view from our table was pretty great, though. This is the Ventura Pier.


Hydra gives Flat Brayden his first look at the Pacific Ocean. Later, we helped Flat Brayden pick up a piece of a shell and a small smooth stone for souvenirs.


The water at the end of the pier. Beautiful color, huh!?

There were lots of people fishing. We noticed someone using shrimp as bait, which prompted me to ask Hydra, "What can you fish for that's better than shrimp?"



Looking back at the shore. Honestly, if I could choose any coastal Southern California town to live in, it would be Ventura.


The tracks the water leaves behind.


Yes. This is when my foot got wet. Right before I leapt onto this rock.


These little guys amused us by hopping away while never putting the other foot on the ground. Hee!


Just a cool shop sign in the shopping district of Ventura.



We stopped at a fruit stand on the way back so Flat Brayden could check out the orange groves. He's growing up in a farming community, like I did. Figure he'll be interested to know that California produces something like 75% of all the domestic fruit the U.S. eats.

Point Mugu - Saturday 5/3/2008

We drove out to Point Magu to hang out with some Songmakers friends who were camping up there for the weekend. We didn't camp because of various other things we wanted to do on Friday and Sunday, but it was a great day to go up there!

This is the way to the beach, passing under Pacific Coast Highway from the Sycamore Canyon campground.



There weren't as many people with guitars there as we'd expected. I took my bagel with me to the beach and ate it for lunch while sitting on this very large piece of driftwood.




My foot at the beach. As you can see, my original Crocs are holding up nicely.


Hydra joined me and we walked down the beach. Cool kite!



Can you see the Easter Island-like face at the tip of the outcropping of rock?

This area is one of the first my brother Joe brought us to when we moved out here. We came back here pretty often.

There's a place near here where the water undermined Pacific Coast Highway and it was rebuilt a little further inland. It is forever known as The Place Where Sundry Tried to Kill a Seagull.

Not that I actually intended to kill a seagull.

We'd only been out here a few months (from Indiana) and were not yet wise to the ways of the gull. We took a bucket of KFC out to the beach for a picnic. I tossed a chicken drumstick bone toward some gulls, thinking they'd pick it clean and I'd go pick it up.

It was not to be.

One of the gulls grabbed the bone, tilted its head back, and proceed to swallow it whole! We were horrified! I fully expected the bird, who didn't look like it could accommodate a bone of that size, to keel over in front of us.

Instead, it shook it's snowy head, fluffed its wings contentedly and blithely winged its way up the beach.

Yow. Never again. Even if they can handle it, I don't want to see that again!



The bridge from the other side.



Swallows nesting in the roof of the bath house.


Our friend's campsite and the place we hung out and talked and played a little music. It was a good day. We returned home with that feeling you get from being at the beach...tired in a very satisfying way.