This has been the longest we've spent out of the tiny beach town just south of Santa Barbara. As the days grow longer and warmer, we usually start making trips up the coast once or twice a month. However, due to an awfully long Winter coupled with the natural disasters that hit the area. We've been sort of stuck in a holding pattern as Summer approaches.
I'm sure that you've heard about the devastating fire that hit the region. Well that was followed by an extremely heavy rain which was responsible for the deadly mudslides that swept down the mountain, closed off highway 101 for three weeks and created havoc for the area for a month.
The things you may have not heard about which followed these catastrphies are the cleanup efforts. First came the 101 cleanup which crews attacked from both the North and Southbound sides of the freeway. The mud was trucked and dumped on the beach at two locations. In the North they drove up to Goleta and in the South they trucked millions of pounds of mud past my mother's house and dumped it at the city beach in Carpinteria. This effectively created unsanitary water conditions for the Carpinteria city and State beaches. That finally cleared around February.
Then they decided that they needed to dredge the marsh just north of Carpinteria and pump all of that mud into the ocean as well. That way when the next rainfall hits the marsh has space to accommodate the flow of debris and water which will come down the mountains. Thus creating hazardous water conditions once again.
Now finally as the weather warms, and the days become longer we're starting to itch for those Summer trips to Grandma's house in the tiny beach town on California's central coast. I've been calling the water quality hotline to check in on the water safety at the beaches in the Santa Barbara region. The only one closed now is Goleta beach. The rest seem to have cleared up making plenty of space for the throws of tourists which will descend on this area during the Summer months.
We can't wait.
