Paradise within 90 minutes of Los Angeles? Am I crazy?

Los Angeles, a smoggy, crowded, and traffic nightmare of a city, that many still call "Paradise". Hmmm? The fact is I was born and raised in the LA basin, but even as a child I longed to be in Yosemite or Lake Tahoe.  Any place without freeways and stoplights (which, by the way, isn't the case at Lake Tahoe anymore). So before I had a drivers licence, I was looking for places of solitude around LA. One of my favorite places was Millard Canyon outside of Pasadena. But for a real experience I would hop on my fathers sailboat in Marina Del Rey and go out on an adventure; bear in mind as a youth in the 70's we had a lot more freedoms then youths today. Out on the ocean I escaped Los Angeles by leaving that thick brown fog in my wake as I silently became one with nature. Both my Dad and I loved those sailing adventures, but soon we would separate. I headed North to Oregon and he bought a bigger sailboat so he could live aboard and headed slightly North to Oxnard. Years would pass and we got together every few years and go sailing and talk about our past adventures.

Then there was the unforgettable adventure of summer 2001 by now I had a family, 2 sons and my wife.  We went to Oxnard to meet up with my Dad for another sailing adventure. This one would

be the adventure of a lifetime! We were heading out to the Channel Islands!

We were only 90 minutes from the hustle and bustle of  LA yet out on that open ocean we felt we were in some South Pacific adventure. It all started when we a few dolphins came into view in the distance. I was saddling the bow sprint with a video camera in hand as more and more dolphins continued to make there way up to our boat. Hundreds of dolphins, everywhere for as far as we could see surrounded us! Many of them were frolicking in the wake made as the bow pushed forward through the water.  We had good wind in the sails and were making nice time. My oldest decided he wanted to pet one of these amazing creatures, so he leaned over the side of the boat.  His mother in a panic, grabbed his feet just before he went over the side!  She patiently held his ankles as the dolphins would jump up to him so he could pet them. Now I'm still on the bow video taping the event, giggling like a school child, with a high pitched voice and turning the camera every which direction so the camera really doesn't focus on anything. Needless to say I can only watch the video with the sound off, LOL. Now I had been videoing the dolphins jumping in our wake underneath me for awhile, when I thought, "If I continue to tape this then I will not be able to get footage of Anacapa Island." So I take my camera down into the cabin and go back to the bow sprint. Well that was a dumb thing to do...it wasn't a few minutes later when this very large blue whale surfaced right beside us! She was over twice the size of my dad's 40' sailboat!  As she blew it sounded like a Yellowstone geyser as the water was forced from the blow hole of this shinning grey surface of an island. To think that this living, breathing creature with a heart, lungs, a brain, and feelings can actually hear and see us, it was so surreal. Well I decided to run for my camera and fell on the non-skid deck and skinned my knee, by then the blue whale submerged never to be seen by us again.

As we sailed Southwest to Anacapa Island we continued to see the rich wildlife such as the beautiful, but dangerous jellyfish pulsating by the boat just below the surface of the sea.  As we approached Anacapa Island you can hear the Sea Lions barking and playing along the shore of the island, even coming to the boat in hopes of a handout (Keep in mind this is a National Park and has all the rules of any other National Park which is Do Not Feed the Animals!). As we approach the Island the first thing we see is Arch Rock the most recognizable landmark at Channel Islands National Park. 

During our adventure we also got to see the caves along the seashore of the islands, something I would like to explore yet, but for now I get to have all the fond memories of that adventure of a lifetime just outside Los Angeles.

Now you may be thinking that sounds like an awesome trip alright, but I don't own a boat.  How do I get to go to Channel Islands? This is the great thing about this trip! You don't need to own or even pilot a boat to enjoy the Channel Islands National Park, because there's a Visitors Center on the mainland to tell you all about the Islands history, like a ship that sank full of Gold and the last built lighthouse on the West Coast and much more. Then make reservations to take a boat to visit the islands and you may even come across a super-pod of dolphins or even a few Blue and Grey Whales. Here is a link to Channel Islands National Park and the boat that you can go on at http://islandpackers.com/. So if you live in the LA basin and want to get away from the hustle and bustle then go West and enjoy nature at it's finest.

#ChannelIslands, #sailing, #dolphinsuperpod, #NationalPark