Spring Training Trip - Day 8

Another beautiful day with perfect weather.  After breakfast, we drove to Mission Buenaventura, the 21^st and last mission on the mission tour we started 2 years ago.  It is about 15 miles from Point Mugu Campground in downtown Ventura, easy to find with the GPS.  The mission is a working Catholic church and has been restored to its 1800’s appearance, with a beautiful courtyard, many statues and paintings in the church, and a small museum full of artifacts.  We were able to join a guided tour which had been set up ahead of time, so we learned a lot of information about the mission that we would normally not have heard.  We actually toured with about 30 4^th graders and some of their parents; California mission studies are taught in that school year to all students.   We are really glad we did the mission tour – it’s such a big piece of California history.

While we were walking back to the car, we noticed an olive oil store, All Olive, which looked interesting, so we went in and talked to the owner for a while.  There is another branch of the store in El Dorado Hills, not too far from where we live.  We bought some delicious balsamic vinegar and basil oil in bottles that can be refilled at a reduced rate.  The store was beautifully set up with lots of dips, oils and vinegars to taste and try out.

We then drove to the Ventura Harbor and had lunch at Andria’s Seafood Restaurant and Market – fried halibut and chips, clam chowder and a shrimp tostada – delicious!  We then walked around the shops in the harbor area, looking at all the beautiful boats moored there, meanwhile looking for chocolate chip cookies.  We found the cookies and got mochas also.

 

At the entrance of the harbor, we toured the Channel Islands National Park visitor’s center.  The 5 Channel Islands, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara lie just off the coast of Ventura County.  They are protected areas that have several species of birds, plants and animals that are found nowhere else, as well as huge nesting areas for migratory birds and an enormous rookery for seals and sea lions.  You can get boat or airplane trips out to the islands, and even camp there overnight, but we didn’t have time for that on this trip.  The visitor’s center had a tidepool with 3 or 4 huge sea stars and a spiny lobster, as well as other kinds of fish and smaller sea stars.  We also discovered there that there are two other Channel Islands nearby which are not open to the public, San Nicholas and San Clemente, both owned and used by the U.S. Navy.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the Navy Exchange (BX) for some ice and pizza for dinner, and watched an old movie on TV (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).  Actually, this was our second movie of the day – this morning before we left the RV we watched most of Giant, made in 1956 and James Dean’s last movie.

Day 8 Pictures