On Christmas day in the morning My family and I traveled to Ventura Harbor to go to Channel Island National Park. The main point of the trip was going to see Dolphins and Whales. We left early in the morning so we can reach the hotel early. The ride to the hotel, Shores Inn took about 5 hours. In about 2 hours 30 minutes, we stopped in grocery store. At the store my dad bought Marble Bread, Normal Bread, Strawberry Jam, Gouda cheese and Spicy Hummus. A few minutes later, we were back on the road.  We reached at 4 pm. At the inn I was just testing out the TV and what channels it had. After sometime there was this Basketball game that I wanted to see. It was Between the Los Angeles Clippers 21-10 @ Los Angeles Lakers 24-6. Just then My dad suggested that we should walk for sometime.

Our first stop was Lucky Thai restaurant that we were going to eat dinner in. The walk continued until we reached the beach that was nearby. On the beach, I got to stand on some big rocks. When I was standing on those rocks I could see boats in the deep waters.

Around the small city we saw Christmas lights hanging from almost every house. Since there was nobody my mom suggested that My dad should drive to the main town so we can at least see more people. Everyone agreed with that. At the town there was surely more people then in where the hotel was. The only problem was that the crowd was only at popular restaurants. After a few minutes we decided to go back toward the Thai restaurant and eat dinner. At the place I ate some noodles with vegetable. When we finished eating, we saw that it was pouring heavily outside. We didn’t even have an umbrella with us! I charged to the rain just like a bull ramming in to a brick wall. Finally when everyone was safely inside I started to watch the Basketball game. It was very competitive both teams were trying to win. The final score was Los Angeles Clippers 22-10 111 Los Angeles Lakers 24-7 106. I started watching another game for sometime until my parent told me that I had to go to sleep. I turned of the TV and went to bed.

The next morning all three of us got out of bed early. Since the breakfast only opened at 7:30 I decided to watch a Premier League game on TV until I had to go for breakfast. A few minutes later my dad went and checked what was there in the breakfast room. He told us that since there was only Waffles in the room my mom had to eat bread. My mom told me that “I should finish quickly”. I asked her “Why are we leaving at 8:30 when our ferry ride is only at 10:00″. We are going to try taking the 9:00 ferry so we have more time on the island” She replied. Directly after finishing our breakfast we went in the car and my dad started to drive to Ventura Harbor. The harbor was freezing cold. All of us ran into the warmth of the visitor center. At the visitor center my dad got tickets for the 9:00 boat. When the boat started to sail toward the pacific ocean the speed was slow. After it exited the beach it became very rocky and fast. First I was scared because the boat kept lurching up and then suddenly when you least expect it goes down. After a few wild waves I got used to it. The Common Dolphins only appeared when we were nearly at Scorpion Cove. We thought that they had to race the boat. The actual reason is that they had to follow us because  the waves created by the boat were going toward the boat.

---

At Scorpion Cove the boat guys way of boarding the island was terrible. It took forever to take people on the island. Every once in a while the boat would drift away and then the captain had to make it go back to the ladder. Finally all of us made it to Scorpion Cove. We decided to do the easy hike because the boat that went back to Ventura departs at 3:00. My dad found a hike which was called the Cavern Point hike which is 2 miles long. The trail was just like any old trail I have been to. In sometime there was a sign. My parents both agreed that we can walk halfway through the Potato head trail and then come back to this point and finish the Cavern Point loop trail hike. The hike kept on going up. We had to move slowly because the trail path was very narrow. Suddenly My dad spotted a baby fox not to far from where we were standing. As I neared closer it ran away.   The trail seemed to take forever and we had to stop to eat lunch at some point. All of us couldn’t spot a place to eat, but I spotted tiny paw prints on the trail. I thought that it must be the fox. Since we didn’t find a place we turned around and started hiking back toward Cavern point loop trail. In the same place we saw the fox again, but this time there was 2 foxes. Then they ran away. When we were finally back a sign that we faced earlier we started eating.     I ate bread with avocado and Hummus. While I was eating there was a crow nearby that clearly wanted the food. It kept on cawing on and on again. I couldn’t eat quickly because the crow was so annoying. My dad called it the annoying crow. Finally when we finished eating the crow flew somewhere else. Then the hike began finish again to finish the Cavern point loop trail. After a while all of us reached Cavern point. The view was spectacular. We tried to search for more sea animals, but since all of us were in a very high altitude I didn’t see anything. After taking a few pictures the trail continued. When we were close to the end of the trail we saw people kayaking in to painted caves. At the end of the trail all of us waited on the bench until we all had to go to the boat. At 3:00 we were at the boarding place ready to get on the the boat. The boarding took forever. Finally the boat roared out on to the open seas. Since I wasn’t scared anymore I was on the front on the boat. Most of the journey everyone didn’t see anything. Until finally more Common Dolphins when we were very close to our destination. After a few more minutes all the Dolphins were simply just gliding on the back of the boat with the waves. Almost all the way to Ventura they were directly behind the boat. When we were at Ventura they disappeared. I wanted to see Whales and Dolphins. I only got to see dolphins. Next time I hope hat I get to see blue Whales. Part 2 coming soon!