During our Christmas visit to see my mother and and in Los Angeles in 1984, we ll took a day trip up the coat to Ventura and Santa Barbara. After a morning coffee break at Oxnard, we arrived in Ventura. The city of Ventura is the gateway to California's Channel Islands. Most of the northern islands of the chain are part of Channel Islands National Park. The park headquarters, at Ventura Harbor Village, has interpretive displays about the islands and their flora, fauna, aquatic life, and ecosystem. (The Channel Islands themselves can be reached by private boats or through park tours. There are beaches and hiking trails on the islands.) We spent some time viewing the displays at the visitor center, which Susan said reminded her of the one at Assateague National Seashore in Virginia. It
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