Carpinteria, CA - Dec 2006

While Carpinteria State Beach was not quite as spectacular as Jalama Beach, it was right on the ocean and we had a pretty nice view of the water and we were just steps away from the beach. The only downside was that the sites were very close together and so the only view we had was straight ahead out our front window. Looking out to the sides only gave us a view of our neighbor's rig. The hookup section of the campground was little more than a parking lot with lines painted to delineate the spaces. We had to park the RV all the way to one side to be able to squeeze our car in beside it and our neighbors awning practically touched the side of our RV. That was just too close for me to really enjoy the surroundings.

We arrived at the tail end of a huge storm surge that, for several days, had brought large waves and pounding surf to the normally calm, quiet bay. Normally, this park has a nice sandy beach, but when we arrived, the waves were breaking right up at the edge of the campground and the beach was non-existent. After a couple of days, the high tides receded and left huge piles of kelp washed up on shore. A day after that the beach was getting very "ripe" with the stench of rotting sea debris -- phew! The day before we left, they had a bulldozer out scraping the beach.

The storm also brought some other great entertainment -- surfers and magnificent sunsets. We watched as dozens of surfers congregated in the waves right in front our campground. What fun to watch these guys riding the waves. I took many, many pics of the surfers -- especially at sunset -- trying to get a nice silhouette shot and finally got this one. It's hard to see in such a small image, but there is a surfer on the left and he's backlit by the sunset.

Another beautiful sunset at the beach -- aaah, life is good!