We did an afternoon trip out to Santa Cruz island, which is part of Channel Islands National Park. It was a short trip, but the boat ride out and back was fun.

It started with a wait at the Island Packers headquarters in Ventura Harbor. Once we boarded the boat, we got seats up on the top deck and headed out to sea. It was a rough ride, having the recent small craft advisory for the area being lifted earlier that morning. Even with Dramamine, Alex got a bit woozy and had to move down to the lower deck. I stayed up on top with my brother and his wife and we had an enjoyable, cool ride across the channel.

Once we landed on the island, we shuffled off and headed straight to the visitor center. It wasn't that thrilling, mostly just pictures and placards to read about the more recent history of the island. After that, we went on a short loop hike on the Cavern Point trail. It wasn't very long, but we didn't have a lot of time, and we were still some of the last people to make it back to the boat before it left.

Then we rode the boat back to the mainland, with a much smoother ride going with the wind and waves instead of against them. We finished the day with dinner at Lazy Dog and then did the 100 mile or so drive back home.