On The Road Again: Santa Barbara & Ventura County

Though we had a wonderful three day weekend trip down to Camarillo to visit Friend E, I rediscovered allergies in the process and haven been a sore throat and snotty nose mess ever since. Hence why my nights have been spent in bed watching Lost (yes, just now finishing the series) instead of blogging or doing anything else remotely useful.

Anyway, after we picked up Penga-Sis, we drove down to San Luis Obispo to say hi to Penga-Bro, who was leaving soon for his own weekend trip to Yosemite.  Like every time we visit our Alma mater, I was overcome with emotion and kept repeating "Oh, the nostalgia" all geezer-like.  Seriously happy memories in that sleepy college town.  We picked up some donuts for breakfast from the newish SLO Donut Company, and continued down the road.

Their maple bacon bar wasn't quite as good as Voodoo's, but their banana fritter was delicious!

Next we headed into Santa Barbara, to -where else?- the zoo.

Can you spot Penga-Sis?

Santa Barbara has a cute zoo, though it is on the small side. And on a holiday weekend, it was packed.

Happy elephant

Gibbons

Up close and personal with a meerkatty.

You can feed the giraffes there, though we were lame and didn't want to wait in line.

The baby river otters weren't out that day, sadly - especially since they are Penga-Sis' favorite animal.  But we did see a lot of other cool critters.

Like a bleeding heart pigeon.  Seriously, it's chest feathers looks like a horrible wound!

And a dinosaur! 

Santa Barbara zoo used to be home to the world-famous "crooked-neck" giraffe, which I had the pleasure of seeing in the past.  She was pretty awesome, and for a long time my family had a framed photo of her around the house.

Though she's passed on, the zoo now has "penguin with a shoe".

Anyway, after cruising around Santa Barbara a bit, we headed further South, looking for beaches to stop at in the meantime.

Pretty crowded. And diva-fied.

We ate dinner at Cafe India in Camarillo, Penga-Sis' first exposure to Indian food, actually.

She approved.  How could she not? Yum.

The next day we checked out a maritime museum in Channel Island Harbor.  It had a ton of ship models, and even a workstation where you can see how they make the intricate vessels.

Korean turtle boat!

Engraved turtle shell.

Goorrrrtonnnn!

Nice day for a walk along the docks!

Eventually we ended up in another harbor village, and we had shark and chips for lunch!

Which tasted...like fish and chips, actually.

We had a really good time with Friend E and Penga-Sis, but eventually it was time to come home.  Though we stopped in Solvang for cookies along the way back home, that town is interesting enough on it's own to warrant a return trip and dedicated post. If you ever get a chance to stop through the little Danish village, just do it. It's awesome.