Southern Cal

My daughter and her husband decided that it was time for us to get together and spend sometime at the beach. We planned, planned and planned it, so it would turn out perfect.
Believe me, there is a lot of coast line in California, so deciding on where was the biggest factor, but for some reason Oxnard won out.
Unfortunately for some reason we didn't take any photos from the first day, but after arriving in California we headed to Venus Beach. I learned one thing that beaches can be controversal not only with the tourists but definitely with the residents. Venus Beach is a mish-mash of artists, performers, eclectic shops, and transients. For some reason someone got a bee in their bonnet and tried to ban everything except the shops and the tourists from the beach. Well the artists, performers and transients won that battle. They had been temporary residents of this beach long before most of the permanent residents were there.
Then off to Santa Monica to meet up with one of our friends from our hometown. We had appes at a restaurant on the promonade (a beautiful outside shopping area). Then a walk along the pier and then off to hotel for the night.
The next day we headed for Oxnard. It was an absolute beautiful drive out. We had taken a turn up into the canyons that dropped down into Malibu. Then we realized we were into coastal fog. Now did I tell you we planned this to be perfect, well the fog was sort of in our way.
We rented one of the original beach shacks that had been renovated for just us renters. It was cute and quaint. Beyond a few things lacking in the house, we felt right at home.

Everyone played in the water, we threw a frezbie around hoping the waves wouldn't take it out to the middle of the ocean. We walked along and made sand castles.

Since it was so foggy and we really didn't want to deal with the fog, we set our sites on going out to the Channel Islands. We would have wanted to stay longer and explore more of the islands, but it was going to be a 3 hour tour and believe me between Brian and Gary, we were reminded a lot of times what a 3 hour tour could mean if we don't come back.

Brian and Randi took off for a hike and Gary and I took off for a stroll. The island was sunny and perfect temperature. It beat fog.
The next day off to the local Farmers Market. It was interesting when we saw this sign. We finally realized that this market was in the heart of commercial produce area, so the certified is actually home grown organic fruits and vegetables where the uncertified comes from commercial growers. INTERESTING.

Too much fog we headed into Pasadena. Up to the Griffin Observatory in Hollywood. Then Brian and Gary flew away for business and left Randi and I to play in LA. We went to Forest Lawn to see where the stars ended up. We saw Nate King Cole, George Burns, Louis L'More, Jean Herschel, and several other's burial plots.

Next day we headed for the parks and the mountains. Randi and Brian had frequented this park before. It was an old college or school turned into a private christian school. Part of it had been shut down and so it was fun to pick in the windows.

Then off to the mountains to another observatory, Mt. Wilson. So many people could be bored driving up a mountain, I found it not only fun, but excellerating to go from 400 elavation to 7000 within an hour. It would have been nice if it hadn't been so smoggy, but it still was a nice drive and hike.

The week was a nice week to catch up and just be with my daughter and her husband. The weather might not have been so great, but the visit, the food, and the things we did we wanted we all had needed for a long time.