Boring interim travel day jan 6, 2010

---

Wednesday, Jan 6, 2009 - side trip to Oxnard/Ventura

Taking a break from the metro area. Drove up the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) through Malibu (which covers 27 miles of coast) to Oxnard. I made motel reservations ahead of time, but not boat rez, because hard to plan on the weather, etc. I thought when I checked online, that the company had a trip likely on Thursday this time of year, but they don't, so I won't get out to the actual Channel Islands NP. I did go to the visitor center in Ventura, and made a rez for a whale watching trip on Friday, which gives me a day of unscheduled leisure for tomorrow.

It took about three hours to get to Oxnard from Anaheim on surface streets and PCH (Hwy 1). Checked out the local outlet mall and had my Panda leftovers again for dinner. Finally had Jack in the Box tacos for lunch today (they're an addiction from way-back - no one else makes tacos like Jack!).

My word, this is a boring entry - most people who do travel blogs on this site are going to really exotic places and doing wild things, and here I am talking about USA junk food!

The coastline along the way was pretty rugged, with low scrub vegetation, and some very fancy houses (as well as not-so-fancy ones). Saw a few hardy surfers. The weather is wonderful - warm during the day, and cool at night and in the morning. Finally watched the evening news for the first time in many days - looks like it's miserably cold at home, and in much of the country. This is the place to be right now apparently.

Hopefully I'll have some whales to report on Friday!

Thursday I wandered/drove around the Oxnard/Ventura area -- looks like a lovely place to live. Lots of activity in the surrounding strawberry fields. Downtown Oxnard is charming; enjoyed the small museum and local farmer's market. It was kind of a day off, so I ended up going to see Avatar -- which I had had no intention of seeing originally. It's visually gorgeous, with banal plot -- lots of rip-offs of previous works; I left before it was over.

---

Photos

CINP Visitors Center
Exterior of the visitor center in Ventura for Channel Islands National Park

Carnegie Museum
in Oxnard; nice little museum; exterior more impressive than interior