On Saturday, 2.27.2021, my partner and I did a day trip to Ojai, a town we hadn't been to in many years, and only once before. And the last time we were there, it seemed really sleepy. This time around, though, it was kind of crowded with people doing the weekend thing as well.
Located about 80-something miles northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, Ojai is the quintessential, almost laughably stereotypical, small California town that people go to for a long weekend or a day trip. It checks off all the boxes; it has meditation retreats, wellness centers, herbal medicine shops, New Age-y kind of stores with the crystals (which seem to be dwindling, but they still exist), aging hippies, farm-to-table and vegan eateries, spa resorts, bridle paths/horse trails, a "cute" walkable downtown village, cute historic inns, protected historic native California oak trees...
Anyway, I took some pictures... some of which I'm not happy with at all. There were so many cars on the main drag, driving on as well as parked on; makes me wish we had gone there at sunrise before it started getting really crowded so I could have taken pictures with deserted streets, minus automobile clutter. Oh well.
Ojai, CA
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Lunchtime. I made a reservation for this place two days prior.
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This was a yummy cocktail. It was a concoction of tequila, sage, blackberry puree, and lime juice.
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A very good stuffed pasilla.
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I guess some locals resent people from LA coming here... yeah, we must crowd their town on weekends, but hey, we contribute to their economy. Wouldn't it be a ghost town otherwise?
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A New Age-type store. We just had to go inside.
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Yup, they sell crystals. Among other things.
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I ended up getting 2 new strands of mala to go with the one I've been wearing. I'm not into New Age stuff, but for some reason, these types of stores sell Buddhist paraphernalia; I never understood the connection between New Age-ism and Buddhism. And people not in the know seem to equate the two.
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A B&B called The Lavender Inn.
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This is a cool bookstore, called Bart's Books. It's an outdoor bookstore.
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I ended up buying this book.
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Then we went hiking. Just north of Ojai is the Los Padres National Forest; and if you drive 30 minutes north of the town, you can hike up to a waterfall, which we did.
Los Padres National Forest
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You can see damage from previous fires; but already there's new growth. Nature seems to always find a way, and to heal itself.
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It's only a half-mile hike or so...
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And worth it. Rose Valley Falls.
mg]
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A bit of a trickle, but at least it's running. I'm sure after a good heavy rainy season, it's a bigger waterfall.
mg]
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