Well this is it the last blog post. I had a lot of fun doing this blog and spending time with friends in the process. Anyways onto the actual blog post. Sunday May 6th which also happened to be my birthday I went to Francheschi park which has the home of Italian horticulturist Francesco Franceschi.I was dropped off at the parking lot of the park which immediately showcases a beautiful view of Santa Barbara. I admired the view for a bit then walked down into the park. I descended some steps and was taken into a garden with many flowering plants. I continued on and came upon a fallen tree which I walked on top of to once more admired the view of the park. 
I kept moving and found myself near a rock with a face carved into it and flowers everywhere on the hill behind it. I went up the hill to see if it lead anywhere but then went back after seeing that it might lead to someone else’s property. I went back to the parking lot and decided to check out the Francheschi house. The inside house was closed off to the public. The house was clearly falling apart and looked as if it had been a magnificent building before it started to fall apart. The glass on the windows was broken and a bridge that looked like it lead to the top of the house had been destroyed. There were also some engravings on the house of different people. 
The house’s garden was beautiful and had many animals running about. I went back to the parking lot to be picked and and decided to go to Stevens Park. Once I made it to Stevens park I went down a trail going around the main park leading towards the creek. I made my way down into the creek and walked for a bit until I started to approach a bridge that towered above the creek. I sat down on a rock to relax for a bit. While relaxing a butterfly came and started to fly in circles around me and even landed on me a couple times. I let it rest on my head and arm for a while and then decided it was time to go back. 
As I was heading back I ran into a little caterpillar dangling from a tree on a thread. I studied the little guy for a bit while before going back to the parking lot. I enjoyed exploring both of these locations learning about the Francheschi house and relaxing in a creek. That’s it for the last blog post thank you for coming maybe I’ll continue maybe I won’t time will tell. Thank you once again!
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This Sunday I went back to rattlesnake canyon with my friend Tara. We planned to find the place i went to last time with my other friends. We were dropped off next to skofield park and made our way over to the Rattlesnake Canyon Trail. There was quite a bit of rain this year so there was a lot of greenery along the sides of the trail. 
We kept going passing by the area where I had seen the garter snake. We kept pressing forward following the trails and also trying not to go on the trail that lead to the meadow. There were quite a few people on the trail with us for a while. We passed the creek that goes through the trail. There were a lot of fallen trees in the creek which were not there from the last time I went. At this point there were two trails that people were coming from and I could not remember which way we went before so first we went down the more unused looking trail which lead us to another area of the creek. We went back and followed the trail that went up uphill and this is when I started to remember the path I had taken before. I took a couple pictures of the scenery and then resumed walking. 
We continued on the path and started to notice that there were fewer people on the trail than there were at the beginning of the trail. We pressed on following the winding path until I started to wonder if we had passed the area we were looking for. 
We kept following the trail and to my relief we soon found the area that I found with my other group and made our way down. I forgot which way around the creek it was so we first went downstream to see if it was in that area however I quickly realized that it wasn’t and we turn around to go upstream. Soon we found the secluded area but it was slightly different from last time. Some rocks had been slightly moved and there wasn’t as much water as before but there was still a fair amount water. We relaxed here for a bit talking, laughing, and playing around. We even spotted a newt in one of the pools of water. Soon it was time for us to go so we headed back the way we came almost getting lost but luckily we didn’t. Now going back we were going down hill and had to be a little more careful for loose rocks. Going down we realized that there were a lot less people around than when we started hiking up. We continued down talking about pretty much a little bit of everything and soon we reached the place where we were dropped off. Our ride hadn’t yet arrived so we climbed a rock and waited for our pick up. I had lots of fun here at Rattlesnake and hope to go somewhere with Tara again soon to share some more adventures.
This Sunday I went to Skofield park alone. I was dropped off at the parking lot and made my way down towards the actual park. While walking I noticed a huge rock that had some strange holes in it so I took a picture. As I walked on a path through the park I could hear the creek running. I decided to go check out the creek to see if I could find anything interesting. I found an area going off the path that lead me to a tall grass area with a path to the creek. There was a big rock that I climbed into to see if there was enough water to have any creatures. There was a fair amount of water in the creek which seemed promising to me. I headed down to the creek going around the rock and carefully stepping on roots and rocks that lead downwards. Once I made my way into the creek I started taking pictures of the running water. 
There was quite a lot of greenery which offered a nice background. I was fave with a choice to either follow the creek upstream or downstream. I chose to follow it upstream then go downstream. I made my way upstream hopping from rock to rock trying not to jump into a deep pool of water. I spotted a lizard that was soaking up sun on a rock. I attempted to make my way over to it quietly and slowly. Sadly it noticed me when I made a jump to get closer to it and it ran. I pressed on and saw another lizard. Just like the last time I moved towards it slowly and quietly. Also like last time I got noticed. While walking towards it I was spotted and the lizard grew wary. I made my way around to its backside and lied down on a rock and outstretched my hand to see if I could catch it but it ran before I could act. I decided to start going downstream now and made my way back to the area where I made my way into the creek. While walking downstream I noticed an odd shake resting on a plant and saw that it was a frog. I attempted to catch the frog but it proved to be a slippery one and kept escaping me. It hopped onto a stick which I picked up and was able to get a couple pictures of the frog.
Once I was done taking pictures of the frog I put the stick back down and the frog jumped into the water and swam off. I kept walking downstream making sure to lookout for any movement. I found a pool of water that had a small waterfall that kept it from overflowing. There was another frog in the water. I tried to catch this one as well and actually managed to get it in my hands but it slipped out and jumped into the water. It stayed still in the water where I just decided I would get a picture of it while if was underwater. After taking a picture of the frog I started heading back to where I came down into the creek. After s bit of walking I made my way up the slope of rocks and roots I came down. One I made it up the slope I went to the grassy area and saw another path going up so I decided to take it. There were a lot of beautiful plants on this short path. 
I kept walking until I heard a noise in a bush. I walked a little farther to see two quails run out and into another bush. I was surprised because I didn’t even think Quails were in California. I made several attempts to get close enough to take a picture but they both eventually flew away. I soon decided that it was time to head back to the parking lot and get picked up. I had lots of fun in Skofield and am hoping to go to rattlesnake canyon again soon.
This Sunday I went to Elings Park. I was dropped off at a street entrance. I made my way into a park and found two trails. I decided to go up the trail that was wider than the other. As I made my way up I thought that I wouldn’t be able to write about this stroll but I soon saw that I was wrong. The trail went up hill and lead to a flat hill top. As I reached the top of the hill I saw that there was so much more to explore. I moved over to a more narrow trail which I found a couple birds in a bush. I moved over to the birds slowly trying to see if I would be able to get a good picture but I was not able to. Luckily I looked down to see that there was a garter snake that was staying still trying to avoid getting my attention.
I was able to take a quick picture of the snake before it quickly slithered into a bush. I watched the snake go into hiding then I continued walking to see if I would be able to find any other animals or perhaps see the ocean. As I moved on I went off trail a lot to see if I would be able to find any life. I didn’t find any living things other than a cricket which almost escaped me. 
I decided to just see if I would be able to see the ocean. After a little bit of walking the ocean was in view but it was too foggy to actually take a picture of. Since I wasn’t able to get a picture of the ocean I tried to once again find some animals. My first attempt I went into some bushes however o didn’t realize something was near me and I jumped over a bush to just barely see a brown blur. My other attempts I couldn’t find any animals. I decided just to head back and get picked up.I made it to where the trail started to go down hill and I heard some rustling in some nearby bushes. 
I looked down to see two brown figures which I think were rabbits. The two figures ran when I peeked into the bush. I tried to look for them but I had ultimately lost track of them. I continued down the trail trying to get done pictures of birds but to no avail. I continued onto the street to get picked up and end my hunt and exploration. I had lots of fun here and was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a clear shot of many animals but that’s all the more reason to comeback and try again someday.
On Sunday I went to the botanical gardens by my lonesome. I was dropped off by the entrance and made by way inside. The Botanical Gardens that I was dropped off at grew plants that were native to California. I was given a map and decided to follow a path that was marked on the map as the most scenic. I started to follow the path which took me through the meadows part of the garden the walk through the meadows was fairly short and a little more populated due to it being close to the entrance. 
I moved on to the redwood forest part of the gardens where I went off of the marked path and made my way into the forest. I strolled through the redwood bit for a while until I came upon a bridge that was above a running creek I crossed the bridge and reconnected with the path that was marked on the map. I was now walking through the Canyon Trail walking by the old aqueduct and Mission creek. 
The trail was pretty straight forward as there were not really many places to go off trail. I kept walking and soon I had reach Campbell Bridge which i would have to cross if I were to continue following the marked path on the map. I decided that I would keep walking to the end of the trail where i would find a smooth rock bridge to cross the creek and come out by the manzanita area. It didn’t take me long to reach the river crossing which was easy to cross since they were smooth there also was not too much water flowing through the creek.
After a couple more minutes from crossing the bridge I was already walking through the manzanita area which wasn’t as big as the other areas. I sat down to relax for a bit and admire the plants. The manzanita trees had fruits on them but they were not quite ripe as they still were mostly green. After a couple minutes of relaxing I got back up and walked over to the desert section. The desert section was the smallest out of all of them but there were still quite a few plants in there. After strolling through the desert area I linked up with the marked path at the courtyard and continued on the the Island view which was across the street. I made my way across the street to see if I would be able to see the Channel islands. Sadly when i made it across the street I wasn’t able to see the islands because of too much fog and clouds. I made my way back down to the parking lot where I waited to get picked up and end my relaxing exploration. I hope to come to this beautiful place again some day and bring some friends along.
This weekend my friends Kameron Mireya and I went to Mesa Lane beach. We were dropped off at the top of the stairs which leading down to the beach. We made our way down the steps and were able to see the channel islands and the clouds coming in from the sea. Once we reached the bottom the of the stairs we explored that area took a couple pictures of the ocean and pattens on the rocks. We had a choice to either explore the right or left part of the beach first. We decided to explore the right part of the beach and then come back and explore the left part. We made our way down the left part of the beach and walked for a couple minutes until we could see two fallen large trees that had fallen over and went from the sand to the hillside. We took a couple pictures of the ocean in this area and then continued walking to where I remembered there would be a small cave. After a couple minutes we made it to the cave which is where we stayed for a little while joking with each other.
We continued on after a little while and then decided that it was time to go explore the left side of the beach. We made our way back to the stairs passing by the cave and fallen trees. Now on the right side of the beach we explored and found a couple tide pools near the water. There wasn’t anything in the tide pools other than some sea anemones. We kept walking and passed by a random Elmo stuffed animal on the hill side and found a little sand castles by it. We kept walking occasionally stopping to skip some rocks and admire the ocean. We kept walking for a couple more minutes and decided to head back to the stairs and end our exploration. We made our way back to the stairs passing by the stuffed Elmo. At one point we stopped and I gave Kameron a piggyback ride for couple minutes. 
We soon made it back to the stairs and made our way up and took some more pictures. Soon we were all at the top waiting to be picked up and end our beach exploration. I had lots of fun here with Mireya and Kameron and hope to go again with some more friends soon.
Last year my friends Mireya, Cuyler, Bella, Emily, Paola, Kameron, and I went on a hike to Rattlesnake Canyon planning to find a small area with water where we could hang out for a bit. We were dropped off at the trail head and had 3 hours before we needed to get picked up again. We started walking on the trail crossing some water which gave us confidence that we would find a nice place to hang out. We started going a little up hill all of us were talking and joking around meanwhile being surrounded by beautiful plants. After walking for a bit we had come upon a nice place to sit down and take a small break. While the rest of our group was resting I went to go explore a little. A couple minutes later the group caught up to me and we were going to start following the trail again but I spotted a snake that was crossing right in front of us. We backed up and waited for the snake to cross the trail watching it carefully as we had not yet identified what kind of snake it was. After a couple minutes we identified it as a garter snake and because it was taking a while to cross the trail we started walking towards it which caused it to speed up and finally cross. We continued walking stopping to take a couple pictures of the scenery. We pressed on soon crossing another stream and going up hill. After a bit of walking we spotted a way down to the stream which we made our way down being careful not to fall or touch any poison oak. Soon we were at the water and even found a small grey frog. We decided to split up Mireya, Cuyler, and I would go down stream to find any areas where we could settle down while the others would go upstream to do the same. Our group made its way down stream from rock to rock avoiding jumping straight into the water. Soon we ran out of rocks to jump to so we went back and were glad to hear that the others had found a good place to hang out. The other group had found a place with rocks where we could set our stuff down and relax. There was a small pool of water and a small waterfall where we could mess around. 
We spent about an hour in this spot until we realized that we didn’t have much time to get back to the trailhead. We had about 40 minutes to get back to the trailhead. We rushed to get our stuff together and dry ourselves off. Soon we were making our way back which was much easier due to it being downhill. About 10 minutes later we were passing by the area we had seen the garter snake and a couple minutes after that we were already crossing the stream that was next to the area we were dropped off. 
Soon we were all being picked up and ended our hike. I had lots of fun with my friends and plan on coming back another day with my friends.
This sunday I went on a hike with my friend Kameron and his dog Birdie. We decided to go to Elwood Mesa and to meet up at a parking lot near a golf club. We both arrived at the parking lot around the same time and once we met up we went over to the start of the trail. This is where we decided to not follow the trail but instead go off trail. So we started heading towards the trees. Within the first couple minutes we had found a flat platform in the middle of the trees. We kept walking made some jokes and then made some videos of us fooling around in the forest. Soon we had reached a fence which separated the forest and some homes. We then started to go in a random direction and for a while we thought we were lost.
We kept walking until we came upon a trail that led to an opening in the forest. We rested in the trail for a bit so we could let Birdie drink some water. We were now heading in the right direction which was towards the bluffs. After a couple minutes of resting we were getting ready to move. Before we left Kameron was getting a drink of water when he spilled it on himself. When Kameron spilled his water Birdie also managed to magically get out of her collar. Both of these events stalled us for a couple more minutes. Once we had sorted everything out we started walking again. We followed a path that would lead us to another forest know for all the butterflies that are there in spring. We made it to the forest when we saw a sign that said the trail was closed due to falling trees. We then saw a way around d which was through a creek bed. We went through the creek bed and tried to go straight out the other side but we were blocked by spiny bushes. We then walked around the edge of the creek bed until we found a space between some bushes that we could squeeze through. Once we squeezed through we found a path and followed it until we reached open plain.We kept following the path until we made it to the buffs and could see the channel islands in the background.
We walked around the bluffs for a while and tools some pictures. While walking we spotted a heron in the plain. We stopped walking after about 10 minutes and decided to go back. In an attempt to save time we cut through the plain and got seeds stuck in our socks and slightly lost. We ended up by the golf course which was way off from the parking lot. We stopped and sat down for a while by a tree. I looked on my phone to check where we were and we had completely missed our turn. We rested for a little bit longer then stood up to get ready to start walking down another path. Birdie was energetic so I grabbed her leash and took her on a short run. The run tired me out but Birdie still had a lot of energy in her. Kameron caught up to us a couple minutes later and we all headed down the path and eventually we found ourselves in view of the parking lot. We had some time to spare before our parents came to pick us up so we decided to hang out on a fallen tree. After pending some time on the tree we headed to the parking lot to get picked up. I had lots of fun at the Elwood Mesa and hope to go to the butterfly area soon.
This weekend I went paint balling with my friends Kameron, Bryan, and Bryan’s dad Mike. We drove 2 hours to go to Paintball USA in Santa Clarita. Usually we went to the paintball USA in Oxnard but we didn’t know that it had closed recently and moved to Santa Clarita. We had 4 paint ball guns and our mask all we needed now was to buy paint balls and then we could play Once we got to the paintball place we signed the waives to get in and bought a box of paint balls which had 4 bags of 2000 balls. When we entered we were given light blue wristbands to signify that we were self equipped.
The first map we would play on was Hyper ball. The hyper ball map has big black tubes for cover most going vertically and some going horizontally. We started on the side closest to the staging area which had lots of cover to the left. On the left was also the path to reach the other paint ball maps. I decided I was going to stick to the left side so I would be able to move up slowly. Mike and Bryan also decided that they wanted to go to the left and Kameron was going to go down the middle but closer to the left side as well. I test fired my gun that I borrowed from Mike which was an A-5 it was very accurate and felt great. Soon the whistle was blown and everyone started to shoot their guns while they ran to cover. I ran to a black tube in front of me and pushed up to another where I could see up the middle and the right side of the map. Kameron was to my right also taking cover behind some black tubes. Mike was ahead of me and Bryan ran up to my cover so he could cover the right. The tubes had ridges on that that made little spaces that we could shoot through but that would also leave us an area to get shot from. I tried to shoot a couple people through the space but they all missed. I gave up on the idea of shooting people through the spaces the ridges made and backed up to see if I could shoot anyone who was open on the right side. There were not any people that I was able to shoot but there were people that I could call out to my teammates who then were able to shoot them. We all held our positions for a bit and that made one person from the enemy team try to rush Mike. I was going to shoot the attacker but Mike had peeked around and shot him first. The rest of the round I stayed put and the other half of our team that was on the right side of the map took out the rest of the enemy team giving us the round 1 win. The next round did not go so well we started on the other side where I decided I would go down the middle. After the whistle blew I sprinted straight down the middle to my cover and barely made it. I was pinned down as I was being shot from my right. Soon my whole team was pinned and the other team was slowly advancing on our side. Before I knew it it was just me and Kameron left we both ended up being shot Kameron in the back and I got hit on the arm from my right. Sadly we got out but then realized that neither of the paintballs that hit us had popped which meant we could have kept playing. After that match we went back to the staging area to rest up for the next game.
The next game took place on a map with big wooden spools for cover and trenches on each sides. We started on the left hand side and had a height advantage. Our squad had planned to fire a volley of shots at the other team once the whistle blew to take advantage of our higher ground. Once the whistle was blown we started to shoot and then so did the rest of our team. I was able to hit 1 person in the volley. The whole team was able to take out 4 others. There was a spool close to the top of the hill which I decided to move to so i could have the height advantage . The whole round went by quickly and soon it was most of our team versus two players. The two players were in the middle of the map and were in a trench and using a spool as cover. We all started to move on their position I occasionally taking shots at them to suppress them. Soon they were surrounded by my team and we won the round. The next round we were on the other side which we had the disadvantage to height. We all decided to immediately take cover to avoid the volley of paintballs. Once the whistle blew everyone ran to spools to take cover. Luckily non of us were hit and we started to moved up. I stayed back to suppress the other team and was able to hit one person on the far right. After that we all stayed in place and soon we were told that we had a minute left. We all started to rush the other team but sadly we did not move fast enough and there was no winner thus making the round a draw.
I still had tons of paintballs left so the ref said that we could go use them on the shooting range. I walked over to the shooting range which was surrounded in black nets to stop paintballs from flying outside. I started lighting up the targets and thought that this would be a great place to take a picture so I had Kameron take a couple pictures of me. Soon I had used all the paintballs in my hopper and went back to the staging area to get ready to head home. I had lots of fun paint balling with my friends and absolutely love the maps that are set up at Painball USA.
This weekend I had made plans to go paintballing with my friends but we found out last minute that the paintball place was closed. My friends Emily, Paola, and Mireya wanted to go to the Douglas Preserve so I agreed to go. We all met up at Henry’s beach and Emily and Paola brought their dogs. Emily’s dog is a pug named Borona while Paola’s dog is a Maltese named Bailey both are no more than 6 months old. We made our way over to the start of the trail where the bridge marks the start of the walk uphill. After making it to the bridge Emily and Paola decided to start taking a pictures of their dogs. We were at the bridge for about 5 minutes before they finished taking pictures. 
We then continued onward making our way up to the top of the mountain. Once we made it to the top we took a break to give the dogs water then went on the rightmost path. We continued along the right path until we made it to the side path I had taken with Mireya. Instead of going straight we decided to go right. We ended up at the rightmost path again and came out by a bunch of fallen trees where Emily and Paola decided to take more pictures of their dogs on the stumps of the fallen trees. They spent about 10 minutes taking pictures and putting their dogs in different positions. Paola and Emily wanted Bailey and Borona to be friends but Bailey is very shy so most of the time Borona just ended up chasing Bailey trying to play whenever we had stopped to take a break. After Emily and Paola finished taking their pictures we started walking again. I was in front leading our little group. After a bit of walking we came upon the bluffs and just in time for the sunset. 
The view was beautiful with the orange horizon and blue shimmering water. We admired the view for a bit and took lots of different pictures. After a while we moved on to another spot where there was another spot to look out at the ocean. We made our way to a couple different spots admiring the view and taking pictures a couple times being right on the edge of the bluffs.
Soon it started to get dark on us and kind of cold. We kept walking along the bluffs until we found ourselves at the end of the preserve and at the gate out to the street. We then decided it was time to head back to the beach to get picked up. We had someone take a group picture of us by the gate and then we started to walk on a path hoping it would be the right one going back. For a while walking down the path we had no idea where we were going. We had never been to this side of the preserve and saw that there were more paths going to different areas. We kept walking on the same path until we made it back to the clearing just next to the trail going down the mountain. As the girls were walking down the mountain I started to run down and after a minute found myself at the bottom of the mountain waiting for my friends. After they had caught up with me we walked over the bridge and made our way over to the beach parking lot and got picked up. I had lots of fun revisiting the preserve and was glad to have come at sunset to be able to catch the view.
Adventures of Pablo 
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