Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Today we took the van down to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. We were surprised that the park was packed with people! Because it was MLK day, park entrance was free. We had a great walk. The trails are all boardwalks over the muddy parts and a raised gravel trail. This refuge is in the estuary of the Nisqually River. It was farmed in the early 1900s when they built a dike to keep out the tide waters. Now they're restoring the tidelands to their original condition and it makes for great birdwatching. The last 700 feet of the boardwalk to the Puget Sound overlook was closed due to water fowl hunting season.

We saw a lot of folks with fancy bird scopes. One set up his scope to spy on this mother Great Horned Owl sitting in her nest. You can just see her eyes above the edge of the hollow in a tree near the river.

We also saw this bald eagle--pretty far away even for our 60x lens, so the photo isn't so great.

We also saw a couple of other birds of prey: the first could be a peregrine falcon. Not sure what the second might be.

We also saw a couple of great blue herons.

We also saw a great assortment of ducks.

These are American Widgeons.

This could be a female Golden Eye.

This is a Hooded Merganser.

These are Northern Pintails. It was hard to catch them with their heads up. They were mostly bottoms up!

These of course are Mallards.

This fellow is a Ring-necked Duck. It hard to see his ringed neck, but the ring on his bill is clear.

These might be Wood Ducks.

Here're some more duck tails. Maybe Ring-necked Ducks?

Sandra is standing on the boardwalk over the wetlands. You can see the old dairy barn behind her on the right of the photo. At the far left, just above the trees, is Mount Ranier where the Nisqually River originates in the Nisqually Glacier.

 

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Butterflies! (Last two days in Ventura)

Today we went to the Goleta Monarch Grove west of Santa Barbara to look for butterflies. They winter here from November to February. The grove is about 3/4 mile from the parking lot. We asked the first group of hikers we passed if they'd seen butterflies and they said no. We were pretty disappointed with that, but kept going. Then we passed a guy walking his dog and he said he has seen a few clumps of butterflies and told us where to go and look for them. We walked over a little dry creek and up a short hill in a grove of Eucalyptus trees (smells great) and had to really hunt to see them. Finally we saw a hint of orange and then realized that there was a cluster of butterflies all around the orange. With their wings folded up they don't look orange--they look like dried leaves. They were also hard to see without the 60X telephoto lens on the camera. Once you knew they were there, though, you could see them, but they were well camouflaged.

 

 

Below you can see what they look like on the trees without the magnification. The seemingly dried bunches of leaves are bunches of butterflies. We had a lot of fun looking and taking pictures and pointing the butterflies out to other groups that came along. When we left around 9:30, a few butterflies had begun to take off, but most were still sleeping.

After the butterflies, we tried 3 different beaches: the Goleta City Beach, the Oxnard City beach, and Ventura beach, but only found 2 pieces of glass. We did get our feet wet at Goleta--the only time we've actually touched the water.

We also saw these royal terns at the Oxnard beach. They looked a lot like gulls all puffed up against the wind except for their crests. When they flew, they clearly looked like terns.

Yesterday we saw The Force Awakens at the downtown Ventura Century theatre. It was satisfyingly Star Wars (for those of us who hated the prequels). But I wish they'd let "General Leia" do more than look at maps and stare dreamy eyed at Han Solo. I guess to be part of the action, women have to be young. Han Solo certainly wasn't young but he got to do more than look dreamy eyed or mysterious (like Maz Kanata).

After the movie, we walked around downtown Ventura. We saw this landmark: the law office of Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of Perry Mason.

We ended the day by going back to Ventura Harbor to a tee shirt shop we remembered from when we were here before and found a couple of good tee shirts. Then we had dinner at Margarita Villa Mexican Restaurant.

 

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Beaches and more beaches!

Yesterday, we spent the morning washing clothes and then had lunch at Snapper Jack's. We couldn't drive north because there was a wildfire just west of here and they had shut down the 101 from Ventura to Santa Barbara. The wildfire started Friday night from a downed power line. It was really windy when we were driving home that night and we were lucky to make it home before the fire.

We went to Ventura Harbor and walked on the beach to the Santa Clara Estuary Nature Preserve. When we were here a few years ago in September, the preserve had hundreds of birds congregating on the estuary. We saw nothing but gulls on this day. We found a few pieces of beach glass, but not a lot. It was really windy. Here's Sandra with the harbor behind her. You can see the smoke from the fire above the top of the mountains in the background.

We drove up to the Ventura State Park and walked around a little more, but mostly gave up for the day. We had dinner at the Barrelhouse Brewery. Nita had a Bloody Mary--the first she's ever tried. It was HOT (made with habanero vodka), but good. Sandra had an Orange Blossom Old Fashioned that had Ventura Orangecello in it. She really liked the orange flavor. Our dinners were a grilled ahi tuna sandwich (Sandra) and a chicken Parmesan sandwich (Nita).

Today the 101 was back open and we drove up to Santa Barbara to visit Stearns Wharf and to beach glass hunt. We could see areas where the fire had burned the dry grass and brush on the road just west of Ventura. In Santa Barbara, we walked the wharf first. There aren't many souvenir shops here like we remembered--really just one that was open. The rest were restaurants. Here's Sandra with the wharf behind her.

We had lunch at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company at the end of the wharf. Sandra had crab cakes and I had fried oysters, shrimp, and scallops. It was really yummy. Sandra took this photo of me outside the natural science museum on the pier.

Santa Barbara panhandlers are very inventive. We saw this off the wharf. This sheet was staked out on the sand below the wharf and people were throwing coins trying to get them into the bucket. It looked very successful.

We walked about a mile down the beach looking for glass. We found quite a bit, including one very tiny piece of cobalt blue and 2 very corroded pennies. After the first 1/4 mile, though we didn't find much more. Here's Sandra looking for glass. You can see Stearns Wharf behind her.

We did see pelicans and coots along with sea gulls in some small ponds right on the beach.

We came home after that, took naps, and then had dinner at the Wnchester Saloon in Ventura. We both had petit tri-tips steaks with baked potatoes (Sandra's was a yam and mine a regular potato). It also came with ranch beans. Another good meal we could walk to from our hotel.

 

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Merry Christmas to all from Ventura, CA

Yesterday we spent most of the day with our friend Allison who lives in Santa Barbara. We drove up to Carpinteria (half way between) for lunch. On the way, we stopped at the Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve for a walk. We had beautiful views of the ocean to the south and mountains to the north.

We had lunch with Allison at Sly's in downtown Carpinteria. Sandra had grilled sand dab (a type of flat fish) and Allison and I had Cobb salads, We also shared a fabulous piece of chocolate cake. After that, the plan was to go to the Carpinteria beach and walk. But when we got there, the wind was blowing so hard that the sand stung our skin and got in our teeth. We decided to bag the walk.

We drove into Santa Barbara and went to the old Mission Santa Barbara to see the nativity, a family tradition for Allision. It's a typical nativity, but with live animals. There were two miniature donkeys and some black lambs. Then we walked a bit in the rose garden. The roses smelled wonderful. Here's Allison and me in the rose garden.

Then we went to Allison's sister Ivanie's house for mahj and dinner. Ivanie's house is up on one of the hills around Santa Barbara and has a great view of the water and mountains. We played mahj Jongg until dinner at 7:30. It was a fun time.

Christmas morning we went to Surfer's Point--a city park on the water. The beach here wasn't very sandy--mostly big boulders. We only found three pieces of glass that weren't just broken glass. Here's a giant piece we found.

I also got my a good warning sign (only slightly defaced) for my collection.

True to the name Surfer's Point, we saw lots of folks out surfing.

Here's some more photos of us in the park.

After lunch at the Vagarbond Inn (packed as it was one of few places open) and naps at the hotel, we went back to Ivanie's house in Santa Barbara for Christmas dinner with Allison, Ivanie, Wendy, and Michelle. We had Allison's and Ivanie's traditional Norwegian Christmas dinner with spare ribs, baked potatoes, jello salad, rolls, and rice pudding for dessert. Everyone shared their family Christmas traditions. It was a great Christmas evening.

 

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Relaxing in Ventura

Today feels like the first day of vacation after yesterday's grueling car trip. We got up later, had a more relaxed breakfast (the hotel has a full hot breakfast). Then we went into Ventura to get snacks and drinks for the hotel room. We also stopped at the bank to get quarters for when we play Mah Jongg on Thursday.

After shopping, we came back to the hotel and checked out the pool. It's really small, so we decided not worth getting into suits to try swimming. Instead we walked into town and had lunch at Snapper Jack's Taco Shack. Sandra had a shrimp burrito and Nita had a steak fajitas burrito.

After that we came back to the hotel and played Carcasonne, read, and took naps until 3pm when we left for the San Buenaventura State Beach. It's a very short walk from our hotel--half a block over and then across the highway on a pedestrian bridge and then you're there. You can only go a little way out on the pier due to storm damage. Here's a photo of us on the pier looking south towards the beach.

We walked down to the beach and looked for beach glass. Here's the first peice we found:

There wasn't a lot of glass, but we found a respectable amount. There were some nice waves out on the water.

After about 2 hours of searching, we went back to the pier and ate at Beach House Fish. You order fish and then say how you want it cooked and what you want for a side. Sandra got scallops with pasta and apple slaw. Nita got grilled ahi tuna with cucumber ginger salad. They were both yummy.

While we were eating, we watched surfers trying to catch a wave. There were some good waves, but seems like you have to have a lot of patience to surf. You have to wait for the waves and then if you're not in the exact right spot, you miss it. Some of the waves were about 5-6 feet high.

Here's our sea glass catch of the day.

 

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