H.C. Seafood - Oxnard, CA

On Saturday I woke up early for a benefit 5k for the Ojai Valley Community Hospital. I am not in the best shape but I figured I could power it out with my friend Nichole. With her motivation not only did I finish but I recorded my best time ever! 34 minutes! Wahoo!!

After we completed the race we went our separate ways but I really wanted to reward myself for the job well done so I headed to Oxnard to escape the Ojai heat and to try a restaurant I had been scoping out. H.C. Seafood is an order at the counter seafood joint that is also a fish market.

They even have a pick your own crab tank. As cool as this is, it is a little sad too.  

My lunch! They had a lobster special of $22 for the Grilled Lobster plate complete with fries, cole slaw and toasted bread. It was delicious! The lobster was a perfect treat for me entering, finishing and blasting my run time. I could see this being a regular thing!

After lunch I took a little walk down the harbor to check out the boats. It was such a stunning day I wanted to spend as much time as possible outdoors. The heat spell in Ojai is hopefully coming to a close, otherwise you just might find me here parked at H.C. seafood more often. two thumbs up! 

Mar Meadows - Channel Islands, CA

Up way before the sun, I anxiously got dressed and threw on my favorite suit. Today was the day I was going to get to go to the Channel Islands! Technically, we were going to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the collection of islands. It is 22 miles long and 6 miles wide. Full of caves, beach and volcanic rock! Also home to some really cool surf spots...

My Captain!

My view of the sun rising up over the Pacific Ocean, so beautiful! The ride from the Ventura Harbor to the islands in our little C-Dory is about an hour and a half. The ride out of easy, maybe a bit chilly but nothing more than a sweat shirt and sweat pants could not handle.

We have arrived! We anchored the boat at Mar Meadows, a surf spot that is known for it's easy riding wave. We anchored in front of the wave break so I couldn't grab any cool surf action shots.

I loved the cool foggy photos because it was such a neat place. I felt like I was in a different part of the world. When you are at the Channel Islands you feel so far out of touch, yet you truly are not that far away at all. 

The crest of a wave that Scott was probably surfing on!

I had a pretty cool suit to rock while at the islands and splash around on my foam board but to be perfectly honest, it was pretty chilly! The suit is made by Seea, a super cool suit company. I opted to stay snuggled up on the boat and try to read my new book...

I got through the first chapter nodded off and seriously napped. This was the first day nap that I have taken in a long, long time. I woke up feeling totally refreshed and happy. Boat naps are the best!

The boys came back on the boat and I served up sandwiches that I had made the night before and put in the cooler. Milton's bread, swiss cheese, turkey, avocado, tomato and sprouts were the perfect fuel for the two surfers.

Vanilla Cream Soda's are my new favorite thing. So I supplied these to wash down the sandwiches. If you have not tried them yet please do!

I cannot express how relaxing, breath taking and just how special my day was. It was just a short little half day trip but it felt like I went around the world. I feel blessed to have experienced the joy of the channel islands, hopefully with more adventures to come!

Spasso - Ventura, CA

The weather over the 4th of July weekend was pretty toasty in Ojai but in Ventura it was amazing! Not too hot or too cold, which Ventura can very easily be. A walk on the beach is exactly what I had in mind on Sunday.

 There were a lot of things I could have taken pictures of but snagging this great shot of a seagull in flight was pretty impressive! I can't all the credit though, I have a really nice camera.

There was a dog show going on at the Ventura Fairgrounds so I decided to pop in and cheer for the wiener dog. It received 4th place in the Hound Group so I was happy I went to send all the support I could. I wish my Mom's dog "Duke" was there competing but I settled on meeting a poodle named, "Splash". 

 Yes, there is a dog in there under all that hair!

All that wandering around made me quite hungry. I was interested on trying a new restaurant today so I explored Seaward Avenue and discovered "Spasso" an Italian restaurant. I was craving pasta so this was the place to be. 

 The focaccia brought to the table was absolutely delicious. The sun dried tomato spread was nice but I was mostly craving olive oil and balsamic. I am guilty for consuming the entire basket, by myself.

 The pasta special was a vegetarian concocction that was terrific! Perfectly cooked pasta, goat cheese, mushrooms, re peppers and a basil pesto swirled together made for a creamy, addicting dream. I could not stop eating it or dipping addition slices of focaccia in it. They should put this on their menu!

 The dessert menu was incrediable. My two favorite choices were on it and I was actually torn on what to order: Budino or Creme Brulee...

Ahhh, my old love won the battle. I was once told that,  "A restaurant is a restaurant if they have Creme brulee, those who do not are just dining houses." That quote was never anything I ever really thought about until last Sunday. I was totally impressed with the quantity of the dessert, it was huge! The texture was maybe a touch eggy than most custards I usually enjoy but delicious none the less.

Spasso's is a quant Italian restaurant doing nice things in Ventura. The location is amazing, just steps from the beach! Be sure to snag the first parking spot you see when traveling there as the availability is quite limited. But, give it a try and see if it meets your fancy as it did mine.

Spasso - Ventura, CA

The weather over the 4th of July weekend was pretty toasty in Ojai but in Ventura it was amazing! Not too hot or too cold, which Ventura can very easily be. A walk on the beach is exactly what I had in mind on Sunday.

 There were a lot of things I could have taken pictures of but snagging this great shot of a seagull in flight was pretty impressive! I can't all the credit though, I have a really nice camera.

There was a dog show going on at the Ventura Fairgrounds so I decided to pop in and cheer for the wiener dog. It received 4th place in the Hound Group so I was happy I went to send all the support I could. I wish my Mom's dog "Duke" was there competing but I settled on meeting a poodle named, "Splash". 

 Yes, there is a dog in there under all that hair!

All that wandering around made me quite hungry. I was interested on trying a new restaurant today so I explored Seaward Avenue and discovered "Spasso" an Italian restaurant. I was craving pasta so this was the place to be. 

 The focaccia brought to the table was absolutely delicious. The sun dried tomato spread was nice but I was mostly craving olive oil and balsamic. I am guilty for consuming the entire basket, by myself.

 The pasta special was a vegetarian concocction that was terrific! Perfectly cooked pasta, goat cheese, mushrooms, re peppers and a basil pesto swirled together made for a creamy, addicting dream. I could not stop eating it or dipping addition slices of focaccia in it. They should put this on their menu!

 The dessert menu was incrediable. My two favorite choices were on it and I was actually torn on what to order: Budino or Creme Brulee...

Ahhh, my old love won the battle. I was once told that,  "A restaurant is a restaurant if they have Creme brulee, those who do not are just dining houses." That quote was never anything I ever really thought about until last Sunday. I was totally impressed with the quantity of the dessert, it was huge! The texture was maybe a touch eggy than most custards I usually enjoy but delicious none the less.

Spasso's is a quant Italian restaurant doing nice things in Ventura. The location is amazing, just steps from the beach! Be sure to snag the first parking spot you see when traveling there as the availability is quite limited. But, give it a try and see if it meets your fancy as it did mine.

Pacific Sailing - Ventura, CA

Scott is the king of surprises. He likes a great date day, so I was pleased to find out he had arranged for our very first Sailing Lesson. We met our teacher from Pacific Sailing at the dock in the Ventura Harbor and looked forward to soaking it all in!

We learned all about our boat, her name was "Layla"and was a 34 foot Hunter. I thought she looked pretty seaworthy and looked forward to getting her out in the open water.

Scott was taught how to work the lines and open up the sails properly. 

I took charge of the boat first and steered her out to sea and off towards Oxnard... 

We switched at about the halfway point of our lesson and I was happy for a rest. Sailing a boat in the wind is a full body workout!

It was a beautiful experience and I know if we could handle the rough waters of yesterday we will be handle any day! Our instructor was quite proud of us!

In the Ventura Harbor there are tons of restaurants: Seafood, French, Sushi, Greek, Italian and Mexican places are all available for the enjoyment of visitors. We both were pretty chilly and needed something to warm up our bellies pronto. Margarita Villa was close by so we decided to see if we could catch the tail end of the NBA - Miami vs. San Antonio game.

We sat down at the bar to watch the last quarter of the game and tore into a basket of chips and salsa. I was ravenous, anything would taste good to me at that very moment. The salsa was not bad, chips maybe a tick stale but it was not anything I could not work with.

As our entrees came out Lebron James got hurt and it was looking bad for the Miami Heat, the San Antonio Spurs took the lead and eventually won the game pretty handily. Scott ordered the Chicken Soft Tacos and he said that they really were not very good. I have to say they were poorly constructed because the tortilla kept ripping just as he would go to bite into it. The guacamole looked good though...

I did the Two Item Combo - Chile Relleno and Chicken Enchilada. The enchilada was fantastic! The chicken was really moist and the sauce very mild but totally pleasant. I did not care for the chile, as it was not cooked as soft as I prefer. The rice and beans were just fine.

I was so proud of Scott for planning this little adventure for the both of us. I know how much he loves the water so I was happy to be included in his passion. He looked like a little kid in a candy store. I look forward to many more days like this! 

Arizona Cutting Horse Association - Queen Creek, AZ

The Horseshoe Park in Queen Creek, AZ is a beautiful event space. I took this shot of Scott loping Scamper during an early morning session. 

Between the two of us we were very excellent help to each other. Husband and wife, and coworkers... Oh my!

One of my favorite places during the show was the snack bar, of course. The people running it were extremely friendly and willing to please.

I ordered many different things from the snack bar but my most favorite item was the Fried Green Beans. They came out piping hot, salted and perfectly breaded. The cool Ranch dressing was delicious with each dip. They had really great iced tea that quenched my thirst in between rides.

The Arizona Cutting Horse Assion put on a very nice show for us. Scott Weis on Rubys CD was the Open Derby Circuit Champion - taking home a nice check and a really cool travel bag for owner, Ron Malone. Hip Hip Roo Rey won two checks in a really tough Open Classic Challenge. Torpedo Rey won two checks in the 1500 Novice, winning it last night with a 73! The rest of the horses all did well and we were extremely proud of their performances!

The Jolly Oyster - Ventura, CA

Scott and I set out on a date day hoping to spend the whole day at the beach, but the wind nixed those plans. We instead switched it up and decided to run some errands. One of our stops included running into Dan and Laura Dotson from the television show, "Storage Wars". They were so nice! 

I have wanted to dine at The Jolly Oyster for ever, but they are only set up on Fridays and weekends when we are usually out of town horse showing it. They are set up at the Buenaventura State Beach Park so go through the gate and wrap around to the back of the lot to find them.

Everything on the menu sounded great but Scott and I controlled ourselves and only ordered a few things to share.

We started with a split of "Jolly Oysters" on the right which were baked with leeks, thyme,bacon in a white wine cream sauce. It sort of tasted like a clam chowder baked oyster. They were Scott's favorite. On the left were "Creole Baked Oysters" baked with garlic, butter, herbs, green onions, creole seasonings, white wine, parmesan and lemon zest. And, I preferred these.

We both saw the Baja Stone Crab Spring Roll and wanted to try it. It was delicious crisp roll of stone crab, shitake mushrooms, cabbage, green onions and carrots. The sweet and sour dipping sauce just made this! 

I was surprised when Scott wanted to try the Clam Chowder but he did and I happily shared it with him as well. The Clam Chowder was much more reminiscent of an Oyster Stew. It was packed full of them and the consistency was much thinner than your average chowder. I thought it was delicious!

All in all, I was very impressed with The Jolly Oyster. The quality of the food that came out of that food truck was amazing! I will return, hopefully on a less windy day!