Proverbs 16:9
The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Ventura is the place to go to escape the heat. This past weekend we stayed in Santa Paula. The inn was quaint, if you thought the hotel in the Shining was quaint. The hotel itself was dark and velvety… it had an Italian restaurant attached so it smelled, to me, like tomatoes and garlic. Our hotel was over the kitchen, so the nights were interesting. We traveled to Ventura to watch the Cuban band Conjunto Oye. This was the penultimate concert of the Ventura Music under the Stars Series. It was in the courtyard of the historic Olivas Small Adobe Home, which I was able to walk through during the intermission. Michael and I danced a few dances and enjoyed the music.
The two nights we spent at Dennison Campground were wonderful, but each day we didn’t get to the campsite until is started to cool down. The first night, an owl came to visit us. There were so many birds and wildlife at this campground. But, the days were hot so the first day we left to do a hike over Ojai before leaving for the coast. We needed to charge our generator and stay out of the record breaking heat. We went to a lovely park called Palo Verde in the hills above Ventura and spent the day reading. I finished the book James that my sister had lent me to read. This night, we saw a frog jumping around our water source.
We had the chance to stop by the house where I spent years 0-5. I didn’t remember the house at all but I remembered the street, mostly the hill at the end of it. We tried to visit the mission Basilica San Buenaventura but they wanted a hefty entrance fee and so we just looked at the outside, which was pretty.
Michael promised me coffee overlooking the Ojai Valley and on Tuesday morning we were able to do that. We also hooked our shower right up to the water source in our campground and had a lovely camp shower!
