Penultimate stop: Santa Barbara

Well, our penultimate RV stop is upon us: a 3 night stay in the slightly-misleadingly named Santa Barbara RV park; it’s 18 miles out of Santa Barbara, I guess Galeto hasn’t got quite as good a ring to it. Despite that, the park itself is nice; bathrooms and a pool worthy of a hotel, and only a couple of minutes walk from El Capitan beach (more on that later). Not only is the site well appointed from the grown-ups point-of-view, it’s also got a (triumphant trumpet sound)… playground with swings! The girls are in seventh heaven: swings, pool, beach. So much to do! (We haven’t even mentioned the prospect of Disneyland to them yet, fearing excitement overload…)



So for the past couple of days, we’ve been spending a lot of time playing at the beach. It’s a nice one, with a combination of large stones and sand, and with warm(ish) sea and great waves; apparently it’s a bit of a surfers mecca at certain points in the year. Today we had a bit of a nature extravaganza too. First, while I was out splashing in the waves, I noticed a seal popping its head out of the water about 30ft away from me! Luckily Jen spotted it too from the shore, otherwise I’d have no doubt been accused of a ‘the one that got away’ style exaggeration. Then a bit later, Jen spotted a pod of dolphins frolicking just offshore. We’d seen them yesterday too, but they were much closer and gave us a good show, jumping out of the water just long enough for Jen to snap them. Result!

There are also loads of Sand crabs on the beach too. I’d never heard of them (have you?) but a guy just wondered up to us (as people have been doing quite often on this holiday) and said “have you seen the sand crabs?” He showed us that all of the little dimples in the sand as the surf went out were in fact little burrowing crabs, and that you could dig your hand (or a spade, if you’re crab-phobic like me) into the sand and scoop ‘em out. Not particularly attractive little critters, but the fascination/horror kept Lily going for hours.


Tomorrow is the last RV stop: Malibu Beach. We’ll see if it’s as glamorous as it sounds. Early the next morning we give the RV back, then it’s (cough) slumming it in the Loews Hotel for a few days. While I’m looking forward to not being in charge of an oversized vehicle any more, it’s sad that it’s the beginning of the end of the holiday.

Posted: August 14th, 2010 under RV, Santa Barbara, Wildlife.