And The ADVENTURE Continues...: June 9 & 10, 2015 Jalama Beach County Park, CA

Tuesday, June 9 – Travel day to Jalama Beach County Park, CA.

We wanted to try and get ahead of the traffic while going around Los Angeles on our way to Jalama Beach just north of Santa Barbara so we got up at 4am and left by 5am. It didn’t work. Even though we did not actually go through LA the traffic was still pretty bad.

It took us 6 hours for that trip. Our first view of the Pacific Ocean was spectacular and sad at the same time. We could see workers out on the beach cleaning up the oil spill that occurred about 1 month ago. In fact one of the places that we had reservations for cancelled our reservation due to the mess on the beaches. The last 12 miles to Jalama Beach Park was on a small two lane road with switch backs and even a one lane bridge. Pat was not having a great time with the narrow roads and steep drop offs but at the end of the road when the Pacific Ocean came in to view she forgave Jeff for the campground choice. Our campsites were perfect. We decided to pull the coaches in facing the Ocean and leaving our curtains open to take in the beautiful view. This campground restaurant has been owned by the same family since 1978. I think that says a lot and the restaurant and the campground continued to stay full. As soon as one camper leaves another moves in.

We decided that the drive back out and the hour and forty five minute ride to Santa Barbara was not worth it so we just sat around the campsite meeting our neighbors and then taking a nice walk on the beach. We did not want to cook so we went to the restaurant on site and had their world famous Jalama Burger. Amy and I split one, Jeff had a whole one and Mike had a “T” Burger which is a triple Jalama Burger. What a meal! After dinner we sat around a fire and enjoyed the view of the ocean and the cool breeze.

Road going into campground

View of campground from road above

Pretty bird- think it is a golden finch

View of the beach from our coach

Our coaches

Our first sunset

the surf

Another beautiful sunset

Wednesday, June 10 – Jalama Beach and a new refrigerator for Jeff and Amy

Jeff and Amy had problems with their residential refrigerator. The freezer stopped freezing so we had taken some of their meats and put them in our freezer. Jeff had ordered a new refrigerator from Home Depot and they actually delivered it to this remote campground. It arrived just as we were fixing to cook breakfast so we got the fridge in the door and then finished our omelets and bacon and then Jeff and Mike put the new refrigerator in the slot where the old one came out. Success!! We are back on track.

We just sat around enjoying the view and later in the afternoon as we were watching the ocean Jeff saw whales breaching. So for the next hour or so we just watched them from our campsite. What a wonderful trip this has been. Unexpected things just happened. It is nice that they do because then we are not disappointed.

Later in the afternoon Jeff, Mike and I went for a 3.5 mile walk along the beach. It was extremely strange that I couldn’t find sea shells but what we did find along the beach were different colored stones. I collected some for the grandkids and myself of course. As we headed back to home base and to Amy we thought that we would eat at the restaurant again to try some other menu items. It was as good as the burgers last night. After dinner we sat outside watching the sunset and sharing some Port we had saved for this occasion. We don’t have to leave early tomorrow since we have only 90 miles to go to our next campground so we are all sleeping in.