December 2013
The week before Christmas we travelled to Ventura. We rode a ferry out from Ventura Harbor to the Channel Islands. It was about 30 minute ride with lots of waves (tough to keep stomachs at bay) and seals swimming along beside the ferry.
After arriving on the island, we all changed into wetsuits, life jackets & helmets and set out on the kayaks.
We had kayaked many times prior to this trip. This was tougher than imagined. The strong ocean currents were tough to keep moving forward. Our arms sure got tired. Our trip while on the kayaks was about 2 hours. A great time exploring the different caves. We'd love to go back again having experienced it before. I think we'd all be a little more brave. It's scary entering a cave when it's dark and worrying the water level would rise while we were in the cave. You know what would happen then?....the ceiling of the cave would be closer to our heads.
The caves were so dark inside but, so beautiful to look out to the perfectly blue sky!
It was an exhilarating trip. Glad we wore our sunscreen!
The next day we drove to El Capitan Cabins in Santa Barbara (@ 30 minute drive).
This place was featured on Real Housewives of Orange County. I'm telling on myself- yes...this show is one of my guilty pleasures. This kind of camping, aka"glamping"- my kind of camping (my family too). We love the outdoors but, love a bed and shower just as much!
The cabin was so cozy...love the knotty pine walls. An upside for family time is that there was no tv and not really any cell reception. We enjoyed reading, talking and playing Risk. We had to move furniture so we could fit around the table. Such a fun time together.
The property has a Market that delivered a full barbeque kit to the cabin. We got hamburgers to BBQ ourselves on the BBQ pit out behind our cabin.
We also had beans, corn and S'mores for later. It was great!
The next morning we woke, had breakfast and headed off on a hike behind the property. We hiked up to a Llama farm. It was great to stand on the hillside with the llamas and have the fabulous site of the ocean across the way.
After our hike, we got sandwiches from the Market and headed a very short walk across the way from the Cabins to the beach (El Capitan State Beach). Jose and I took read and took a nap. Ryan and Camille had fun enjoying the beach...better weather than in Visalia. Who wouldn't enjoy the ocean sun & breeze in December??!!
After a few hours, we took the kids back to the cabin. Jose and I then took out bikes from the property and rode back over to the beach. It was great to ride for a bit then to sit and watch the sunset. We headed back over to the cabin for dinner. We got up early the next morning to drive back home to Visalia to celebrate Christmas.
