Anotherbeautiful day with perfect weather. Afterbreakfast, we drove to Mission Buenaventura, the 21st and last missionon 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 missionis 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 asmall museum full of artifacts. We wereable to join a guided tour which had been set up ahead of time, so we learned alot of information about the mission that we would normally not haveheard. We actually toured with about 304th graders and some of their parents; California mission studiesare 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.
Whilewe 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 ElDorado Hills, not too far from where we live. We bought some delicious balsamic vinegar and basil oil in bottles thatcan be refilled at a reduced rate. Thestore was beautifully set up with lots of dips, oils and vinegars to taste andtry out.
Wethen drove to the Ventura Harbor and had lunch at Andria’s Seafood Restaurantand Market – fried halibut and chips, clam chowder and a shrimp tostada –delicious! We then walked around theshops 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.
Atthe entrance of the harbor, we toured the Channel Islands National Park visitor’scenter. The 5 Channel Islands, San Miguel,Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara lie just off the coast ofVentura County. They are protected areasthat have several species of birds, plants and animals that are found nowhereelse, as well as huge nesting areas for migratory birds and an enormous rookeryfor seals and sea lions. You can get boator airplane trips out to the islands, and even camp there overnight, but wedidn’t have time for that on this trip. The visitor’s center had a tidepool with 3 or 4 huge sea stars and aspiny lobster, as well as other kinds of fish and smaller sea stars. We also discovered there that there are twoother Channel Islands nearby which are not open to the public, San Nicholas andSan Clemente, both owned and used by the U.S. Navy.
Onthe way back to the RV, we stopped at the Navy Exchange (BX) for some ice andpizza for dinner, and watched an old movie on TV (Close Encounters of theThird Kind). Actually, this was oursecond movie of the day – this morning before we left the RV we watched most ofGiant, made in 1956 and James Dean’s last movie.
Day 8 Pictures
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