Pedaling Around Ventura

Those of you who follow the Adventures of Eddie and George will know by now that they woke up (and we are staying) in Ventura, California, more formally (or originally) known as San Buenaventura, after the Spanish Mission located in the historic downtown area.

Our RV park is right on Main Street, just beyond the west side of town.  Most everything in Ventura is within a pleasant bicycle ride, and, in fact, there are a goodly number of bicycle paths.  We took the Ventura Beach Bicycle Path into town today.

Kathy had a chiropractor appointment, and we took the opportunity to see the town.  It's an attractive, somewhat historic, beach town.  The shops are not strictly upscale, but they are not schlocky at all.  The downtown was an unrushed, pleasant experience.  Many homes and condominiums were located with a block or two of the downtown core.  Here's a representative view:

As we bicycled into historic downtown, the first and most notable thing we saw was the Mission San Buenaventura itself:

Founded in 1782, the mission was the ninth Spanish mission in California, and was the last of the missions founded by Father Junipero Serra.  It was named in honor of Saint Bonaventure, and is the namesake of the town.  Photos and history of the mission can be found at its official website, above, or on the californiamissionsonline website.

Kathy's chiropractor has an office in a Victorian house that is historic and has been preserved.  Here's a photo of the building, perched next to more modern storefronts:

After the doctor visit, we tracked down a local brewpub for lunch.  In this case, we found Anacapa Brewing Company, right on Main Street:

The lunch was delicious, but we found the beers wanting in character.  That's okay, because we have two more brewpubs to check out in Ventura - Barrelhouse 101 and Surf Brewery.  So many brewpubs, so little time.

Never mind.  Our next stop was to visit the Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center, which is on the west end of Ventura, at Ventura Harbor.  We wanted to get more information on the Channel Islands before we go camping there next week.  We did also make a quick stop at the Ventura Visitors Bureau to get lots of other ideas and tourist information, but that reading and those adventures are for another day.

As we cycled to the Channel Islands Visitor Center, we passed the Ventura Harbor Marina, which was chock full of sailboats, fishing boats, yachts, houseboats and what-not:

It turns out that the volunteer ranger we chatted with lives on a houseboat in the marina.  She's done so for the last five years and she still seems very enthusiastic about houseboat living and Ventura in particular (not to mention the Channel Islands).  Here's a photo of the national park visitor center, from the harbor:

We bicycled home about 5 miles, enjoying the cooling, late afternoon air and the sun sinking slowly into the Pacific Ocean on our left as we pedalled north.  As we came over the bridge near the Ojai Freeway, we could see the evening sun lighting Mira Monte across green farmland:

What nice, relaxing way to spend our first day in Ventura - especially considering today was Friday and all the weekend tourists are due in town tonight and tomorrow.  We'll see how peaceful it seems this weekend.  :)