Parks and Music

So I’ve discovered the secret to having an excellent weekend – start on Thursday.

This past Thursday Steve and I headed out for a two-night, three-day getaway. We had access to a lovely 22-ft. Navion RV, so we loaded it up and headed to Emma Woods State Beach near Ventura. Delays kept us from getting there until after dark, which was too bad because we had hoped to have our camp chairs set up, facing west, with a glass of red wine in hand to watch the sunset. Oh, well.

Up Friday morning at 7 a.m., we headed to Ventura Harbor to catch a boat to Santa Cruz Island. I had been to Anacapa Island when I was a teenager and I remembered there wasn’t much of anything there, so I wasn’t sure what to expect at Santa Cruz. Surprisingly, Santa Cruz has a rich history that we learned while taking a tour of the island under the guidance of Larry Driscoll with the National Parks Service. That information, in addition to the fantastic views of the ocean from the top of the island, made the hour-long boat ride well worth the trip.

Upon our return to Ventura, we headed over to the Marriott Hotel where we got a beautiful room overlooking the hotel’s waterfall. A swim in the pool followed by a Jacuzzi then a hot shower and I was asleep before I even ate dinner! I made up for it the next morning at the expansive breakfast buffet. Then we were heading to the Circle Bar B Ranch in Santa Barbara for an afternoon of horseback riding. The setting was beautiful, though charred from a recent fire. Our guide, Jimmy, was well versed in the ranch’s past and had been around horses his whole life. I, on the other hand, have not and was a little saddle sore once our 90-minute ride was over.

From Circle Bar B we headed a little farther north to Solvang. We made a beeline to the ice cream shop where I indulged in a hot fudge sundae (nuts and whipped cream thankyouverymuch). Was that enough chocolate for us?

Apparently not because 15 minutes later we were in a candy store buying some caramel turtles. And that was about the extent of our time spent in Solvang.

We then headed home, stopping first at Gaviota State Beach for a (sugar-induced I’m sure) nap. We arrived home around 10:15.

On Sunday, my son Matt and I went to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a performance of the Cal Phil, under the direction of Maestro Victor Vener. Guest vocalists were Judith Hill and Darren Ritchey.

To finish the weekend, we headed over to Memorial Park for the Past Action Heroes, an ’80s flashback band. They had just about everyone on their feet either doing a Conga line or dancing to The Cars. Quite a contrast to the afternoon’s classical music but a concert equally entertaining that beautifully combined my weekend of parks and music.

  robin goldsworthy