where we crossed the tracks...
and followed the trail...
It was gloomy all day but at least it wasn't hot, humid, and best of all, not crowded during our visit.
In the distance is the Casitas pier, owned by Venoco, which is not open to the public. There was a parking area near it but closed only to employees of the pier which is part of the oil and gas processing refinneries located in this region. After searching for info about the pier for this post, I found out that the company and the property it owns has gone bankrupt and that this land may be up for development (articles linked at the end of the post). As of December 2017, the lease was supposed to have been reliquished and handed over to Chevron who once owned the pier and property.
The pier is used for access to crew boats transferring personel and equipment to offshore oil platforms.
Nearby is a protected seal rookery...
There were not that many seal out there the day of our visit. You could see a lot of seagulls waiting around for something though.
Near the closed off parking lot was Tar Pits Park. We didn't go down to the water since the trail was closed but you could see the oozing and dried up oil on the rocks and sand.
A cute bunny we saw that afternoon...
The Carpinteria Tar Pits are one of five natural asphalt lakes in the world (La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is another). Oil from beneath slowly rises up to the surface and becomes "bitumen", a sticky black substance, also known as asphalt.
You can see the blackish deposits on the cliff sides.
The tarry ground was not sticky as I had feared. In this area, the tar had already cooled off and hardened. It made interesting patterns on the ground.
Below, the parking lot for the pier. It would have been handy to park here but no, it was off limits.
Wildflowers still in bloom.
Marine layer coming in near the bluffs.
It was an interesting visit seeing the pier, the seal sanctuary and the tar pits. We made our way back to town for dinner at Sushi Teri, a local chain with other locations are in Lompoc, Goleta and Santa Barbara.
It's located at this art deco building (picture was taken earlier in the day. hence the earlier time).
The second special, the Spicy Tuna Crispy caught our eye. It ended up being a snafu later in our meal. I'll explain in a bit.
Menu here. Empty when we arrived and crowded when we left. Staff were nice. There was a mixup however with our order. Our server took our order where I clearly asked for the special, even showing her the photo I took of the menu board). They ended up giving us some sort of spicy tuna roll instead and were bewildered when I said I didn't order that item. I had to ask for the special again, and the server had a manager come out and I had to explain the mixup. I didn't think a wrong order would involve so many people. Despite this setback, we did enjoy our meal here.
Bert's teriyaki chicken and beef combo with California roll. He said this was just average. The meats looked the same to me, smothered under the sauce.
Our other rolls - scallop and crab plus the spicy tuna crispy roll. Average compared to what we can get in San Diego.
We really enjoyed the crisped rice squares with spicy tuna. I could have just eaten that plain. I'm not a fan of mushy raw tuna but it went well with the crispy rice base.
Articles:
Casitas Pier
"Venoco bankruptcy may open up Carpinteria land sites" KEYT.com (Channel 3), Nov. 2, 2017
"Goodbye oil processing: Carpinteria oil plant to be decommissioned" CoastalView, Nov. 22, 2017 (this is an informative article which explains the history of the site)
"Oil & Gas information" City of Carpinteria
Carpinteria Seal Sanctuary
carpinteriasealwatch.org
Carpinteria Bluffs
carpinteriabluffs.org
Tar Pits Park
3228 Sandy Lane Road
Sushi Teri
970 Linden Ave
Carpinteria, CA 93013
(805) 745-1314
sushiteri.com
Carpinteria Day 2 in order:
Franklin Trail
Return to Bree'osh, Montecito
Return to Lookout Park + Red Kettle Coffee, Summerland
Lunch @ Tacos don Roge + dessert from Rainbow Ice Cream
Island Brewing Company, Farmer's Market, Robitaille's + Carpinteria Valley Museum of History
8th Street Bridge
plus this last post!
Tomorrow, we would head back home. TC still had another day of arts camp but we wanted to be home ahead of time so we wouldn't be tired when we picked up her the next day.
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