Los Angeles, Day 2

Actually kind of slept in this morning, didn't put feet on the floor until 0830. 
We had a plan, but as always, it got moderately changed.

Today, we wound up at the following places:
Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, Ca. 
Santa Monica Mountains NRA, Thousand Oaks, Ca.
Sitwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center- Rancho Sierra Vista Ca.
Channel Islands National Park-  Ventura Ca., and also the Outdoors Center at Santa Barbara Ca. 

We stopped at a McDonalds along the way, then arrived at the Reagan Library, in Simi Valley.  Well, we planned to visit it anyway.   There was at least a 40 minute wait for tickets, and they insist on taking you through the exhibits, in small groups.  On top of that, there was no parking, people were parking a mile away and walking in! 

I did get a couple of pins, and we'll visit the next time we're in the area. 

The building is situated in a beautiful setting, overlooking the valley, on a hill top.  Sorry we didn't get to see the exhibits.

From there, we realized we were only 10 minutes away from the Visitors Center of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.  So we hustled over there.  they have a very pretty VC, and I got a pin and three stamps. 

Being the weekend, I was also able to drive over to the Satwiwa Indian Center, which is only staffed on the weekend.  The building sits in a big valley, next to a big mountain, and there are miles and miles of trails all around. 

 The main visitor center for the Santa Monica Mountains NRA in Thousand Oaks, California

 This is the Sitwiwa Native American Culture Center, a unit of the Santa Monica Mountains NRA-  Above is a shot of the mountain range that is a part of the park. 

From here, we headed East over to Ventura, California, for a visit to the main Visitor Center for the Channel Islands National Park.  We had a nice chat with the young lady ranger there, and got a pin and three stamps.  There are actually 8 islands in the park, and you can take a boat ride out to some of them. 

Since it was still early, we decided to head up the coast on Highway 101 to the Outdoors Santa Barbara Visitor Center.  There, we ran into a volunteer, who struggled with finding us the stamp, but he finally came up with it!   This was a bonus since we originally hadn't planned to visit this part of the park.  Thanks, Bette!

We hit stretches of traffic on the way back from Santa Barbara to our hotel in Hacienda Heights, the drive was about 105 miles, but it took about 2 and a half hours to get back.  We stopped in at Puente Hills Mall, and went to Johnny Rockets for sliders.  

A full day!  Tomorrow is actually a bonus day, I had forgotten we we staying in LA until Monday.   We've decided to head on out to Joshua Tree National Park.  Its a bit of a drive, but since Bette doesn't like to drive the motor home anywhere around Southern California, by visiting here, we won't have to bring the motor home anywhere around here.   We've now visited all the parks in SoCal as of tomorrow!