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1-800-GOT-JUNK?

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Lunch at Chuy's - Camarillo

Chuy's is a fun place.  My co-workers and I went for a lunch today.  I had a 1/4 pound tri-tip plate

I like their chips and salsa bar.  I really like that seasoned salt they have.  I don't know why other (Mexican) restaurants don't carry that salt. 

Chuy's Camarillo

Tri tip Chuy's Camarillo

There are always some fun "Stories" going on at Chuy's. 

Chuy's Camarillo
311 Carmen Dr Camarillo, CA 93010
(805) 383-2705

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Gull from Camarillo

Not much story here.
It was sitting on the roof-top (sky-light)

gull camarillo

Point Mugu Beach, Coastline - Video

I had a quick photography sessioin at the beach in Point Mugu park. 

Rainy Day in Old Town Camarillo (Video)

Finally, we had a lot of rain.  Old Town Camarillo was empty around 2pm during the weekday.  

Conejo Valley Botanic Garden, North Parking Lot - Video

I had an engagement photography session at Conejo Valley Botanic Garden.  North side parking lot was very quiet. I shot a quick 360 degree shot. 

Conejo Valley Botanic Garden

Thousand Oaks Park

Carl's Jr in Camarillo - RIP Carl Karcher

Carl Karcher, the founder of Carl's Jr passed away on January 11, 2008. 

I haven't gone to Carl's Jr for a year or so. Today, as soon as I heard the new on Carl's passing, I went to Carl's Jr for dinner.  I thought I should pay proper respect. The man knew burgers.  God bless Carl Karcher.

I have a lot of high school memories at Carl's Jr.  Back then going to Carl's Jr was a big treat.  I only went to Carl's Jr. during the weekend with my girlfrien as a big treat.

Oxnard, 101 & Santa Clara / Rice Avenue - 1 year ago

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This photograph was taken April 1, 2006.  I often take snap shots like this as I drive around Ventura county.   I don't normally trash boring images, because they may become valuable material later on.  Below picture of old Oxnard strreet seems boring but there are interesting stories.

Oxnard 101 santa clara

This intersection is located 101 freeway (North Bound) off ramp at Santa Clara/Rice Avenue.  I get off freeway here to go to Costco & Fry's.

As of December 2007, this entire area is being cleared off so they can start building a brand new freeway interchange.  Soon, this area will go through a major makeover that we will not remember how it was before.

Le Town Market / Oxnard mini market is now demolished.  The market was fenced off for several months.  Then it was taken down.

Rice Avenue Oxnard

Next, about these palm trees.
These are historic markers.  These trees mark the spots where big houses were located.  If you drive through farmland between Oxnard and Saticoy, you will see palm trees standing in this pattern.  In fact there are number of places like this.  These trees outline driveway to a big antique house.  It doesn't show on below picture, but in most cases, there are big pine trees in front of those houses just like the one in front of the Camarillo Ranch House.

I know for fact that there was an old house at the end of these palm trees.  The house is not there anymore.

I think the City of Oxnard will cut down these threes.  The trees look very old and tired.  If these trees can talk...

Oxnard Freeway Interchange

Oxnard in Christmas Season - 2007

Oxnard Plaza Park: 5th Street and B Street Oxnard, California

Click here for photo-gallery

Ventura County's tallest Christmas Tree is located here in Oxnard Plaza Park.

This is Fifty-Seventh year to light Christmas Tree at Oxnard Plaza Park. 

Back by popular demand, the City of Oxnard presents "Winter Fantasy Music & Light Show".  The Plaza Park Pagoda is decorated with beautiful lights and decoration.  Every 15 minutes they display Christmas music and light show from the Pagoda.  This is their second annual event. 

Oxnard Christmas

Besides the Plaza Park, City of Oxnard has more Christmas events you might want to check out.

  • Oxnard Heritage Square Holiday Open House
    Sat. Dec 8, 15, 22; Sun. Dec. 9. 10am-2pm  7th & A st.
    Select houses will be open for viewing on tours led by costumed docents. Free Admission.  Light refreshments (805) 483-7960
  • Oxnard Tree Lane
    Sun. Dec. 9 - Wed. Dec. 26. 6-10pm
    Walk or drive "F" & "G" Streets between 5th & Palm in downtown Oxnard
  • Oxnard Holly Trolley
    Dec 12 & 19. Departs from Centennial Plaza hourly starting at 6pm. This 45 minutes tour includes a stop at Heritage Square plus a drive through Christmas Tree Lane and more.  Cost $10 or unwrapped toy ($10 value). Proceeds go to Gull Wings Children's Museum and Toys for Tots.  Call 385-2705 for reservation.
  • Oxnard Christmas Parade (past event)
    Saturday Dec 1, 10am

Oxnard Christmas Tree
The tallest Christmas tree in Ventura County is in Oxnard

Oxnard Pagoda Badstand Decoration
Oxnard Plaza Park Pagoda (AKA Bandstand)
Click here for History of Plaza Pagoda

Oxnard Plaza Cinema Christmas

Plaza Cinemas Oxnard

Camarillo Christmas Parade 2007

46th annual Camarillo Christmas Parade 2007 (Dec 8)

There is what appears to be an official Camarillo Christmas Parade website but that website is totally not updated. It's still accepting application for 2006 parade (www.camarillochristmasparade.com).  If you have any old and new pictures of Camarillo Christmas Parade please let me know. 


Below images are courtesy of www.e-vlad.net where you can find travel pictures & tips. Thank you very much. Smile

Camarillo Christmas Parade
Mayor of Camarillo, Charlotte Craven


Camarillo

Parade, Camarillo

Christmas Parade 2007

Christmas Camarillo 2007

2007 Christmas Parade

2007 Parade Camarillo

Nutcracker Flyer - Oxnard Performing Arts Center, flyer, postcard

Oxnard Performance

Click below for backside of postcard

Chumash Indians

Category:
Chumash Indians

Chumash Indian History
Rafael, a Chumash who shared cultural knowledge with Anthropologists in the 1800s


The Chumash are a Native American tribe who historically inhabit mainly the southern coastal regions of California, in the vicinity of what is now Santa Barbara and Ventura, extending as far south as Malibu. They also occupied three of the Channel Islands Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel, the smaller island of Anacapa was unihabited. Modern place names with Chumash origins include Malibu, Lompoc, Ojai, Point Mugu, Piru, Lake Castaic, and Simi Valley.

Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber thought that the 1770 population of the Chumash might have been about 10,000. Alan K. Brown concluded that the population was not over 15,000. Sherburne F. Cook at various times estimated the aboriginal Chumash as 8,000, 13,650, 20,400, and 18,500.

By 1900, their numbers had declined to just 200. According to some reports, there are now some 5,000 people who identify themselves as Chumash.

Lifestyle

The Chumash were hunter-gatherers and were adept at fishing. They are one of the relatively few New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean (the other was the Tongva, a neighboring tribe located to the South). Some settlements built plank boats called tomols, which facilitated the distribution of goods, and could even be used for whaling. Remains of a developed Chumash culture, including rock paintings (petroglyphs) apparently depicting the Chumash cosmology, can still be seen.

Artifacts

Anthropologists eagerly sought Chumash baskets as prime examples of the craft, and two of the finest collections are at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Mankind) in Paris, France. The Museum of Natural History at Santa Barbara is believed to have the largest collection of Chumash baskets.

Possible pre-Columbian contact with Polynesians

The maritime orientation of the Chumash has long fueled speculations about a relationship between them and the prehistoric Polynesians. The idea has recently been revived by archaeologist Terry L. Jones and linguist Kathryn A. Klar (2005, 2006; Klar and Jones 2005). They argue that the characteristics of Chumash sewn-plank canoes, curved compound fish hooks, and possible items of borrowed vocabulary all point to a trans-Pacific connection sometime between A.D. 400 and 800. Critics have countered that the traits of shared technology are not sufficiently distinctive and that the chronology of Polynesian settlement and seacraft make the hypothesis implausible (Anderson 2006).

Languages

The Chumash spoke approximately six closely related Chumashan languages which can not be connected to any other language family. For a while, it was assumed the Chumash family was part of the Hokan language phylum, but this was based solely on a few easily borrowed words, such as that for shell-bead money.

The Chumashan languages are divided into two subgroups, Northern Chumash and Southern Chumash. Northern Chumash consists solely of Obispeño, spoken around what is now San Luis Obispo, and the most divergent Chumashan language. Southern Chumash in turn consists of Central and Island Chumash. Island Chumash, sometimes called Ysleño, consisted of two dialects: Cruzeño, spoken on Santa Cruz Island, and the poorly-documented Roseño, spoken on Santa Rosa Island. Central Chumash consists of all the remaining languages, including Purisimeño, spoken around the Purisima mission, Ineseño, centered around the Santa Ynez mission, Barbareño, spoken in coastal Santa Barbara County, and Ventureño, spoken in Ventura County.

Ineseño and Barbareño were very similar, and may have been dialects; Ventureño contained several different subdialects; Purisimeño is very poorly documented, and it is not clear how different it was from neighboring Central Chumashan languages. Mention is sometimes made of a possible Cuyama Chumash dialect, spoken in the interior mountains of Santa Barbara County, but no documentation of any such dialect has survived, and its existence is basically hypothetical.

The name Chumash is loosely taken from the Santa Barbara dialect of the Chumash language and refers to The Chumash people from Limu (Santa Cruz Island). Chumash is said to mean "makers of shell bead money". When outsiders came, this name came to be applied to all people within the "Chumash" language family. The Chumash people (including Liz Dominguez, desendant of Maria Solares, who was a Chumash informant to John Peabody Harrington) are working to resuscitate the languages, and have developed a fixed orthography as of November 15, 2005.

Modern times

The first modern Tomol was launched in 1976 as a result of a joint venture between Chumash descendants from The Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The Tomol was named Helek, the Chumash word for Falcon. The descendants reformed The Brotherhood of the Tomol, paddled around the Santa Barbara Channel Islands on a ten day journey, stopping on each island. The second Tomol the Elye'wun ("swordfish") was launched in 1997. On September 9, 2001 by The Chumash Maritime Association. Several Chumash bands and decendants came together to paddle from the mainland to Santa Cruz Island in the Elye'wun. The Elye'wun was reported to have been circled by a pod of at least 30 dolphins during part of their voyage.

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash run a casino on their reservation in Santa Ynez, California.

External links

Thomas Bard, Father of Port Hueneme

Category:
Thomas R. Bard

Thomas R. Bard is knows as Father of Port Hueneme. He was a California Senator. He was a wealthy businessman. There was a rumor about him having psychic experiences. His house is located in Naval base in Port Hueneme. His house is now a officers' club house and a popular wedding spot. Bard Mansion is also known to have ghost activities.

Biography

Thomas Bard's ancestors emigrated from Ireland's in 1741 and settled in Pennsylvania. He was born on December 8, 1841 in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He studied law then worked for Pennsylvania Railroad Company under Thomas Scott. Thomas Scott was one of the first Americans to own a big portion of Ventura County. It is my guess that Thomas Scott and Tomas Bard got along very well. One reason is that they had a same name. I can only guess how they might have joked about their name.

During the Civil War, he was a volunteer Union scout for the Confederates. He transported supplies to Union troops. After the Civil War, people from East started come to California. In 1865 Thomas Bard was sent to Ventura to take care of Thomas Scott's property.

He was a member of the board of supervisors of Santa Barbara county between 1868-1872. He got married on April 23, 1876 to Mary 'Mollie' Beatrice Gerberding at San Francisco. He had total eight children. Thomas Bard was a California Senator (Republican) from Feb 7, 1900 to March 3, 1905. To put this in perspective, Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat) comes in as his 12th successor. He was a successful businessman. Thomas Bard was one of the creators of the Union Oil company and was a president.

Thomas R. Bard
A July 4, 1874 celebration in Ventura, California.
Marshall of the parade was Thomas R. Bard.

Thomas Bard was a key figure during the reformation of California in the early 1900s. Since the Civil War, Southern Pacific Railroad became so big, they were running the entire state of California. Bard was the key figure to revolt against Southern Pacific. At that time Southern Pacific was pushing Colonel Daniel M. Burns to become a Senator. Thomas Bard, with enough support, took the seat at Unite States Senate.

He campaigned to expend the city of Port Hueneme. Afterwards, Bard's children would put his plan to work. Because of Thomas Bard, Port Hueneme has the only deep water port in this area. He died on March 5, 1915. He died in his home in Berylwood, Hueneme.

His son Archibald Philip Bard was a physiologist, a part of the team who came up with "Cannon-Bard theory" ("people feel emotions first, and then act upon them")

Bard Mansion - Ghost Story

Constructed in 1912, the mansion is known as "Berylwood" to the family. The house is located inside the Naval Base. The house has the area of 4,717 square feet. It has 7 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. Bard Mansion officially became a historic place by National Register on September 17, 1977.

I went to Bard Mansion twice to photograph weddings. You must show your ID to armed guards in order to enter the base. They randomly search your car for security. The house was beautiful. There were a lot of photographs and memorabilia on the wall. The second story had a Sun-room where you can sip coffee and read books. There was a big ballroom in the first floor where they can hold parties. On the side of Bard Mansion, there was a big grassy area with gazebo in the far side. This was a main area for weddings.

There is a ghost story related to this house. Even a daytime TV talk show Maury Povich covered Bard Mansion. They showed a ghostly image of the Senator's wife. They said the house was build on the site where a clinic used be be. There are reported ghost encounters of Senator Bard, his wife, servants, and soldiers. And there are stories about persisting whispering sounds.

Bard Mansion
Thomas R. Bard's House - AKA Bard Mansion

Personal research by John Park, VenturaWeekly.com
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