A Ventura Adventure: Day 1

This road trip with Cindy was a couple of years in the making. It was worth the wait!

Our first stop was at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center. We're in Ventura because we have planned a full day on Santa Cruz Island and we wanted to get the lay of the land!

We learned as much as we could in the center and then we were mesmerized by this introductory video narrated by Kevin Costner.

Coffees were had overlooking the harbor.

"Ventura Harbor is a 274-acre working waterfront and recreational destination featuring the vibrant Ventura Harbor Village. It offers diverse dining, boutique shopping, and year-round activities, including Channel Islands National Park boat trips, paddle boarding, and fishing, all managed by the Ventura Port District."

Lunch was a picnic at the beach followed by feet in the ocean... a must!

We couldn't check into our hotel until 4 PM so we just explored the delightful Old Town. Wow.

I happen to LOVE faces in cut-outs photo opportunities!

Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura, was founded in 1782 when Saint Junipero Serra established Mission San Buenaventura, the ninth of the California missions. Serra named the mission after the Italian Saint Bonaventure, hence the nickname that Ventura is the “city of good fortune.” Located along the Pacific Ocean between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the City was incorporated in 1866.

An oil boom and growth in agricultural operations brought immigrants, wealth, bridges and roadways to the city from 1910 to 1930. Ventura continued to prosper with an eclectic architectural mix of red brick storefronts, terracotta "Beaux-Arts" buildings, along with Victorian and Spanish Revival style homes. To meander its streets is to get lost in history.

In the early 1880s, a flourishing Chinese settlement made up of merchants, laborers, and families settled here. The largest concentration of activity was in an area known as China Alley. Only this mural remains to tell us of Ventura’s Chinatown (called Sui Mon Gong by its residents) that began in 1866 and grew to house over 200 Chinese until 1923.

Cindy purchased tickets to the 4:40 PM sneak preview of the newest romcom to take place in Italy- You, Me, & Tuscany.

What a fun theater right in the heart of Downtown.

"When a woman crashes at an empty Italian villa, posing as the owner's fiancée, she discovers an unexpected romance that may transform her life." What's not to like? (Solo Mio is still my favorite!)