Carpinteria State Parking Lot

I arrived back at the Pacific Ocean to find it looking much as when I left it just over a year ago....

the ever-present off-shore oil rigs dotting the horizon....

  and ominously looming over an otherwise spectacular seascape.

These nice black rock formations that provide interest and a sand barrier...

turn out to be not-suitable for sitting or climbing....

Close examination exposed them as congealed oil just soft enough to ruin a bathing suit or your favorite flip flops. 

I wondered if the oil patches dated as far back as the great oil spill in the '60s or if it is an ongoing nuisance coming from those rigs that never stop pumping.

My sister, Jo, arrived several hours after I parked.  We would spend one night then head into Santa Barbara to a house designated to be the headquarters for the week of the wedding.

Thank goodness we were here for only one night.  Sister, Jo, observed that these vacationer's children will probably grow up believing this is 'camping'.  I noted that sleeping in a Cracker Barrel parking lot is closer to camping than this is.

This photo is from the window of the RV.  At dusk every one of the campers (except us) had to start a raging fire in their fire pit to roast their Su'mores. Breathing wasn't even optional.  And parties lasted until well after midnight.

But we did have some ocean view from the van window...

And Jo was able to enjoy the beach as long as she didn't sit on an oil patch.

She reminisced about climbing a tree but controlled the urge...

But we decided walking and meditating are the best cures for anything that ails you...

and the artwork is as beautiful as any found in a museum or gallery...

The local residents welcomed us..

and later we headed for a neighborhood Mexican restaurant...

that served dynamite Margaritas...

and a salsa that was good to the last lick.

(Sister, Mary, in Hawaii did not get to come to the wedding because of the lava flow that is still inching its way closer to the town of Pahoa.  Ultimately the flow will reach somewhere very near her house though she is optimistic that it will not enter her neighborhood.  She and her husband, Jim, are studying the options, and there are a few but it may take a long while for them to know what their option may be.   I ache for them and all their friends that are losing their community.)