June 20, 2013--Carpinteria and Santa Barbara

June 20 2013—167231 odometer reading

       Carpinteria--what a gorgeous town. It is the quintessential beach town, with beautiful well-kept old homes and business buildings, art galleries, coffee shops, etc. 

  

       We stopped at the Lucky LLama coffee shop and sat outside on the deck with Guayo. Met a young man 

there, 4-5 years old, Atticus, who was a joy to converse with and loved and was loved by Guayo. Could have been because he was such a sweetheart, or because he had whipped cream from his

 cocoa all over his hands! Guayo is an aficionado of whipped cream.

        The weather continues to cooperate with clear blue skies, light breezes, and temps in the 70’s. Perfect traveling, photography, and camping weather. And sitting there checking emails with their wifi hookup and having the sun on us and be comfortable and serene, was perfect.

        After staying the night at Carpinteria State Beach, we secured the site for another night as had more exploring of the area to do, and it’s a fabulous camp site. Waking up at 7am to the sound of the train whistle and then the waves was fabulous. The mattress and coziness of the Teardrop would be perfection if just Roy and I, but the addition of a 40 lb Black Mouth Cur who was only comfortable up by our chest, and who laid on top of the blankets instead of under them, made things a bit tight. So  much for plenty of room if he slept at the bottom near our feet. That if turned out to be a NO WAY. I’ll try putting his furry Eddie Bauer blanket down there tonight and see if that helps, but why do I think that will not affect any change what so ever?

        We figured out this morning that we missed the Anacapa Lighthouse back on the Channel Islands. I looked up the information on the print out, and it suggested contacting Island Packers 805-642-1393 for the boat trip out there. So I called. Roy said he’d stay on shore with Guayo and I could go, if price was prohibitive. Turned out it was not the price that was prohibitive, but the access. After taking a 1.5 hour boat ride to the island, having to take food and water with you as none available there, having to leave at 10am and not return until 4:45pm, no dogs allowed, having to climb 153 steps from the dock to the island, and then a 3.5 mile hike to the lighthouse one way, decided this was not going to happen. This is an archival photo from the internet which I thought was cute. I also sent Kai Smart a FB message….her partner Mykl is working on the Channel Islands at this time, so I asked if she could request from him a few photos to put in my blog. I am hoping this might happen, but if not, that’s how it goes, as after all, he is there working, not there for my lighthouse pictures.

         Exploring Carpenteria, I went into an antiques

shop. There was an older lady there (oh dear, she may not have been much older than me actually) who was so sweet. We talked a bit, and I exclaimed how beautiful the flowers were up and down the streets.

She immediately took me to the back of the store and told me to go outside and look. There was an amazing "secret garden" in a small patio out in the back. It was so gorgeous, so sweet...again, I

wanted to run home and start working on my garden. I am going to have so many wonderful ideas when I get home, it will take me a life time to make the place into what I want...poor Roy!

  

       Today is not a great day. I'm tired, hurting a lot, and just kind of blah. So after the Lucky Llama and a run to the post office to mail cards, we looked around Carpinteria for awhile and then headed to Santa Barbara for a drive around and the possibility of finding and being able to access the Santa Barbara Lighthouse. 
       A beautiful city of hills and valleys and unsurpassable views of the ocean, plus a light!

        Again, it was on a secure area of U.S. Coast

to the right of the white topped structure....look carefully, it's there!

Guard property, but we did find a cul de sac street that went out on a point after some instructions from a lady and her daughter at a nearby park. Their suggestion was to park there and go down the steps and take a photo from the beach. But alas, there were a few too many steps…1000.  Plus in looking at the topography, going to the beach would not yield any better a shot then from the point, as once you got close enough to the lighthouse for a shot,

In case you think I'm exagerating

 the cliff from the beach to the top would have blocked your view of it. So once again, a photo from afar. But at least we were able to secure the photo.

        While in a market earlier in the day, I asked a lady if she was local. Confirming this, I asked her where we might find a good fish market in the area. She said there were 2 in Santa Barbara…and gave in sketchy directions to each. So thought we’d seek out a fresh fish market while there, I’d try to find one of them. I saw one of the roads she had said to use as a freeway exit, so took it. Not knowing which way to turn, I turned along the ocean view road toward a pier I could see in the distance.  While traversing the road, we saw a restaurant that said “fresh fish”. One of the things we were looking forward to on this trip, was eating fresh fish and seafood along the way. Since nothing had been decided for dinner, I decided to check with them to see if the sold fresh fish, or just fixed it there at the restaurant.  As I pulled into the parking lot, a truck marked “Santa Barbara Fish Market” was turning around. I got out of the truck, and waived him down. He said they were just down the road at the harbor and had great fresh fish. So I hopped back in the truck and followed his directions. A block down the road, I saw I was in back of him, so followed him and he took me right to the place.  Inside there was an assortment of fish, seafood, and ocean products that was amazing. I settled on a pound of clams and a half pound of white sea bass caught locally. (Later Roy did remind me that we had seen a ton of signs at all the piers and harbors we’d been to to take lighthouse photos warning against eating a barrage of local fish as they were contaminated…I chose to not listen). 
       We took them back to camp, and having no white wine or butter, I used water with salt, garlic, chives, 

 and Tuscan Olive Oil in it to steam the clams, and pan seared the sea bass in Persian olive oil, lemon pepper, salt, and 1864 Prescott

seasoning mix.  Made a salad with romaine lettuce, avocado, and some leftover seaweed salad from lunch, and finished things up with some multi-grain bread. Roy said it was as good as any meal he’d ever had, and really enjoyed dipping

the bread in the juices left from the steaming of the clams.  Even Guayo got to have some of the bass and was delighted.

        And another great day was had on the coast. Because we didn’t push anything today, I was feeling better by night fall, and decided to take a shower. Now, last night, I used 3 quarters and had plenty of water to wash and condition my hair and scrub and rinse head to toe. Tonight, I ran out of water just for a quick shower right in the middle of sudsing up and had to towel the soap off, put clothes back on, and go back to the truck for more quarters. Yuk!  I had whistled my distinctive ear splitting whistle, but everyone in the camp heard it but Roy, so from now on I will take extra quarters with me for all showering!  But once completed, I was very satisfied to sit at the table with the wonderful LED lantern and use the computer to type up my blog entry. Can’t post to the internet, as not connection, but at least could get some of the writing done. That was until the mosquitos/gnats and beetles decided to come to the light also, and it was a bit damper and cooler then and night before, so between bugs and cold, signing off and hitting the mattress!