Reason for My Week-Long Hiatus

When I found out that I had to attend a work conference in Monterey I saw it as an opportunity to check out the Central California coastal areas.  Of course, I had to take a few extra days off in order to really survey the sites.  I'm fairly new at blogging so I didn't even think about taking my computer.  Otherwise, you would have had a day-by-day recall of all the sweet places we saw on our way up from Ventura, to Santa Barbara, to Monterey and on to Santa Cruz, and everywhere in between.   

This break is called The Hook.
Check out the fun little waves just perfect for me!

The surf was pretty flat from Ventura to Santa Cruz.  We still were able to get a couple of small surf days, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The big surprise for me was Santa Barbara as a whole.  There is so much to see and do!  I especially loved riding my bike up and down the coast and through the town.  Bike lanes are accessible almost everywhere through SB.  I'm looking forward to taking my daughter to Santa Barbara.  I think it's the perfect spot for beginning SUPers.  There are a ton of protected ocean water paddling so it doesn't get real choppy and the surf is small and mushy (or at least it was while we were there).

This was taken on the beach at Carmel, which is a ritzy little community
not far from Monterey.