A Day or Two in Channel Islands
Channel islands are a group of eight islands near the coast of Southern California. They have been on my wishlist for a while now so I was elated when I got invited to fill in a spot in a camping site on the Santa Cruz island.
This was my first time camping and because I like visiting national parks, I assumed I would love it. Although it would be too rash to form an opinion after a night in a tent, I am pretty sure I am booking a hotel during my next visit to a national park.
The ferry taking you to channel islands leaves from Ventura and the one hour ride in the ferry was easily the best part of the trip. M clicked pretty pictures of schools of dolphins jumping and swimming around the boat, and a whale. Its fun to see wildlife in the zoo but the thrill of an unexpected sighting and the natural charm of untrained animals is something else.
The island itself was rather arid. We did a couple of hikes and watched the sky turn to pink and then black.
We watched beautiful stars in the night sky and I narrowed down a technique to make marshmallows spotty golden brown. Lot of people seemed to be kayaking and M and S were impressed with their first snorkeling experience on the next day.
Our trip was cut short by a day due to bad weather forecast and I narrowly escaped a night of tossing and turning in a sack. What I liked most about the island is the isolation. The idea of being able to cover all of it if we stayed long enough. And then do it in a different season. It was time to come back to civilization.
