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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