California Dreams

Every year we visit sunny California to see our daughter and to continue to explore this interesting state. This year, we used recommendations from our daughter to visit Carpinteria and Solvang. I didn’t know anything about either city, but I’m always ready for a new adventure. Carpinteria is a small town located along the Pacific coast. The drive from Los Angeles was beautiful, and the entire town had a lot to offer. Off the coast, are the remains of oil rigs left from previous drilling and asphalt mining that occurred. You still see asphalt that bubbles up from the earth and washes onto the shoreline.

The brown sand is home to the Carpinteria Seal Sanctuary. The seals live on a protected beach but they love to visit the public beach and some of them will follow you and play in the water as you walk along the shore. There was an abundance of kelp, mussels, and pieces of crabs and lobster that washed ashore that could have been food for the seals. Even though this town is along the ocean, it really is an arid environment and the plants reflect that. We were fortunate to see many of the succulents in bloom. They sure grow big in California! In town, we explored the Wardholme Torrey Pine (largest in existence), visited a dry creek bed, and enjoyed several diners that employed local singers and musicians.

Even traveling from Carpinteria to Solvang offered fun opportunities for exploring. As we traveled along the highway, we drove into wine country and were able to stop for lunch and tastings along the way. In addition, we passed through the Los Padres National Forest and stopped at “look-out” site to view the forest. It’s a lot different than our great northern forests, since this is located in such arid country. It’s no less beautiful, though. Aren’t the mountains gorgeous?

Solvang is known as a Scandinavian community that promotes Scandinavian foods, candies, and glassware. With a little investigating, you can find some hidden gems. We visited Ostrichland, where you can feed ostriches and emus. They are a lot of fun to watch. It reminded me how territorial birds can be. Warning signs let you know that they will bite if given the chance. Those beaks are so big, I wouldn’t want to take that chance. Later, we visited Nojoqui Falls in Santa Barbara County. This is an 80 foot high waterfall that reduces to a trickle in the off season and actually forms calcium and magnesium carbonate deposits. There are signs warning you of mountain lions in the area. If you look closely, you will find butterflies enjoying the scarce water and drying their wings.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Hollywood Bowl to see our favorite, Rod Stewart. Cheap Trick opened for him, so the night couldn’t have been better. The acoustics were incredible and it included a light show and a great view of the Hollywood sign. Prior to the show, we enjoyed steak at Taylor’s in Los Angeles with martinis ahead of time and B&B after. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip. Enjoy my pictures!