California-Oregon NPs-Channel Islands-042126
I reached Ventura before sunrise and located the visitor center for the Channel Islands National Park. Since the center wouldn’t open for several hours, I drove to the dock where Island Packers, the official boat transport to the islands, was located. I had scheduled a tour with them to see the islands–I thought. Somehow, the tour I had in mind turned into one that dropped campers/hikers at two points on one of the park’s five islands, Santa Cruz, and would then pick up others from the same two piers before returning to Ventura. My plan to spend the morning on the boat tour, followed by a drive to Irvine–where a colleague was holding an opera performance ticket for me–had to be adjusted because the boat would not return until after 5 p.m., which left insufficient time to make the drive to Irvine before the performance began. As sometimes happens with…
California-Oregon NPs-Gettin’ There-April 17-20, 2026
Departure day finally arrived on Friday, April 17th, but I wasn’t ready. While I had worked on prepping equipment and information for the trip to California, I hadn’t packed anything. This is not much of a problem when I am driving SB for the duration, but when I am reliant upon mass transit (Amtrak in this case), I have to operate under their schedule. I managed to finish laundry and gather things, but I accidentally left four important items: my tablet–which contains several downloaded files about my anticipated stops–and its peripherals, my handicap parking tag, my print 2027 atlas, plus the dash camera I wanted to use to video some of the scenic routes I would drive in my rental car. More about the impacts of these missing items in later posts. My youngest brother got Debra, my eldest sister, and me to Washington Union Station in time to catch…