Camp Cleveland.......

Quite a few years ago, the grandkids and I tried to go camping in the Santa Barbara area  on the ocean- foolish me, as we were told at several places that you had to reserve, sometimes months to a year in advance.  Ian and his then wife were at a conference so it seemed a good time to have some grandkid fun and I drove over from Az..  We ended up at a motel in Lompoc after trying lakes and shoreside areas - all jammed.  We then spent an overnight at Barbara and Dick's house, high in Montecito - against the hills of Santa Barbara - which the kids loved as they had a pool and good food.  We headed out again to more motels, and Barbara graciously suggested we come back and Camp Cleveland was born.  Besides the pool, there were horses at the stable and each kid was given a walk around the paddock wearing huge smiles.  These are city kids, however they used to go to a place called Glacier east of the mountains to catch trout, so they know something about wilderness areas.  But Camp Cleveland, to them, was the best.
We think so, too - we just sit and stare at the islands offshore, listen to the quiet, except there seems to be a huge number of yard people out and about in the daytime, and take small hikes up into the hills.  Indian summer was hot, hot, hot and we thought a walk along the beach  to the art vendors would cool us off.  Fool's Harbor is what this area offshore is named by the locals:  we were here in two Februarys ago and found several large boats swept ashore by the high storm winds and waves.  We arrived again in October of last year, to join the Haha in San Diego and were put in a tiny slip in the marina, and visited Camp Cleveland, nervous and tired and  were refreshed at CC.

There are bouys in a few places,  but given enough pressure from wind and waves, the mooring lines chafe from the rock and roll and trouble starts. 

Koa's introduction to Camp Cleveland was as a puppy.   Barbara and I went somewhere and left Koa, a six month old inside here large horse trailer.  When we returned, Koa was in the middle of the driveway, having climbed the metal wall and jumped about six feet out of the trailer.  Escape artist.  We took him and the terriers for a walk along Padaro -Loon Point beach and Koa's anxiety with waves was developed there as he was dumped by a big one.  He will walk along the shore, one eye on his peeps and one eye on the waves, and try to herd anyone he considers in danger away from the water.

No waves, but steps that dropped off into a deep pool....it is five in the evening and we both needed to cool off.  We didn't remember at any time that Santa Barbara could get that warm - the wind was blowing down from the mountains and surprised us with the heat.

The other part of being in this area is meeting friends for dinner - Harold, who travels alot met us in Ventura for seafood at a great little joint, and joint it is, but the cook is fantastic.  It is a secret we don't tell too many people.