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| Strolling the beach of Carpinteria without a worry in the world, after all it's the World's Safest Beach! |
Our travels have taken us to some magnificent coastlines around the world. There is no way to compare or rank them, but if we did, we'd have coastal California near the top of the list. The rocky shorelines with waves crashing off the Pacific Ocean, interspersed with wide sandy beaches, are a jaw dropping sight to behold. Our plans were to spend four nights in two different locations as we made our way to Northern California.
After getting off the Norwegian Joy it was a short Uber ride to downtown Long Beach where we picked up our rental car. It was mid-morning and the traffic around Long Beach and Los Angeles wasn't too bad. Just a few miles south of Ventura, Highway 101 started hugging the coastline, which instantly brought smiles to our faces.
The first four nights of our California Coastal adventure were spent in the small (pop 14,000) seaside town of Carpinteria. The town proclaimed itself as having the world's safest beach in 1912. Rocky reefs and the Channel Islands, which are just offshore keep the waters along the shoreline calm. While the title is "unofficial", it has also been named as the number one swimming beach in the state of California. We didn't test the waters, which were checking in at a slightly less than tropical 55 degrees.
When we arrived in Carpinteria it was a bit rainy, windy and chilly. After checking into the hotel, we drove around a bit before enjoying a late lunch/early dinner at Teddy's by the Sea. The food was very good, and the service was outstanding. Many of the reviews we had read referenced a server named Tatum as being great. We were pleased to have Tatum. She guided us through the menu selection so smoothly that we ended up ordering way more that we would have without her charming personality. Our only disappointment was that the weather didn't allow us to enjoy eating on the outdoor patio.
Teddy's by the Sea
Santa Barbara-We woke up to beautiful, blue skies, which were a welcome change from the previous day's cold, damp and dreary weather. Our destination for the day was Santa Barbara, which was a short twenty-minute drive north of Carpinteria. We had stopped in Santa Barbara briefly on a previous drive through the area and were looking forward to taking a little deeper dive into the city that is often referred to as the "American Riveria".
We had a few things that we were interested in checking out, a church, Burro Beach Trail, the courthouse and Shoreline Drive. The church was the Santa Barbara Mission which was founded in 1786. The mission sits high up on the hillside overlooking the town of Santa Barbara. It is surrounded by lush gardens, including a huge rose garden. Although we were a little early for the roses, we enjoyed walking around the fifteen-acre grounds. Self-guided tours of the mission are available; however, it was closed when we were there for a special service. We've seen the insides of plenty of churches on our travels, so we weren't disappointed that we were unable to go inside.
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| Mission Santa Barbara......mountains in the background and the Pacific Ocean in front makes for a beautiful setting |
Leaving the mission, we headed down to an area just a few miles north of downtown called Douglas Family Preserve/Hendry Beach. The preserve is 70 acres of protected land along the coastline. It is full of trails including a very scenic one that runs along the coastline overlooking Hendry Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
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| Douglas Family Preserve and Hendry Beach |
A "must see" sight in Santa Barbara is Santa Barbara County Courthouse. The courthouse, which opened in 1929 is a great example of Spanish style architecture that is common in Santa Barbara. It's been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981. The building and surrounding gardens are open to the public and well worth visiting (make sure to check out the mural room and library). There's a good chance that if you roam around a bit that you'll encounter a wedding or two. During our visit, which was on a weekday afternoon, there were three that we came across.
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| Santa Barbara County Courthouse.........outside and |
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| ........inside. It's well worth visiting if you're in Santa Barbara |
After enjoying a great burger and tots at a small microbrewery called "The Nook", we finished our day walking a bit along the waterfront of shoreline drive. It was a wonderful day in the American Riveria!
The Nook
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| Wrapping up our day back in Carpinteria with a sunset walk |
Ventura and Ojai-Beth has a very large extended family. The annual beach house summer gatherings have been well documented in previous blogs. One of Beth's cousins (Richard) and his family (Mei-Ling and their three children (Juliana, Richard and Phillip) are fellow travelers. Our paths have crossed a couple of times, once in Hawaii and once in Spain. Additionally, Mei-Ling was an incredibly valuable resource a few years back when we visited her home country of Taiwan. Juliana is now living in Los Angeles. We were thrilled to have her join us for our days adventure to Ventura and Ojai. She met us at our hotel, where we treated her to the finest complimentary breakfast buffet that the Holiday Inn Express provides.
Our first stop was at the coastal town of Ventura, which is approximately 25 minutes south of Carpinteria. It was still a bit early, but the surfers were already out catching waves as we walked along the board walk and pier. Afterward we ventured into downtown and roamed around the large Saturday market along several blocks of main street. We loved hearing Juliana's stories about living in LA. Her frequent encounters with celebrities, as well as her recent close encounter with one of the tragic wildfires that ravaged the area were all interesting. While she and her roommates did have to evacuate, thankfully her home was not impacted.
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| Ventura Pier on a sunny Saturday morning! |
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| Mentoring Juliana on the finer points of "bench sitting", which is one of our favorite activities. |
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| Mission Ventura is located along Main Street which is also home to the large Saturday market |
From Ventura we headed inland to the small valley community of Ojai. Ojai is known for its boutique hotels, local restaurants and outdoor activities. The weather in Ojai is so favorable that it is home to what is considered to be the world's largest outdoor bookstore. We enjoyed an Olive Oil tasting at the Ojai Olive Oil Company, where the owner stopped by for a few minutes to share a bit about the groves and the history of the trees.
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| The Ojai Olive Oil Company is a little hard to find, but well worth the effort! |
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| Juliana preparing our tasting......... |
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| before............ |
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| after! |
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| Bart's Books |
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| Not too many places can offer a permanent outdoor bookstore........Ojai can! |
On our way back to Carpinteria we stopped for a short walk to Seal Beach. Dozens of seals were relaxing on the protected beach and frolicking in the waters near the shore. It was a wonderful day that we were honored to share with a wonderful young lady!
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| Seals soaking up the sun on Seal Beach |
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| The end of a great day! |
Carpinteria-For as sloppy as the weather was when we arrived at Carpinteria, it was the complete opposite for our last day. The skies were blue, and the temperature was pleasantly cool. We enjoyed roaming the small downtown and along the beach without a worry in the world, after all we were walking on the "World's Safest Beach".
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| Downtown Carpinteria |
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| Another day, another bench! |
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| The Spot is an outdoor, beach side restaurant in Carpinteria. In addition to burgers, shakes and fries they serve a wickedly good burrito that is large enough to share, especially with a side of onion rings! |
