A nice day for a ranch visit...and seals!

Last night, my pit stop was a retro hotel called Safari Inn located in Burbank.  I wanted a hotel that was close to Warner Brothers Studios.  After attending the Conan show taping, the last thing I wanted was to brave rush hour traffic.  The hotel is a historical landmark...built in 1955...and has been featured in a number of movies and TV shows, like True Romance and CSI.  I think the neon sign is SO COOL!

Even though I left Los Angeles to continue on my road trip today, I didn't get too far.  I decided to check out Paramount Ranch Western Town in Agoura Hills.  Located in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, this movie ranch was used for many of the old westerns, as well as newer productions like The Mentalist TV series and Sandra Bullock's The Lake House.  I did a quick walkthrough of the town, then hiked the one mile loop trail to the overlook.

As usual, while I was walking the trail, I had my eye out for wildlife.  My attentiveness was rewarded...two kinds of butterflies and a lizard!  The black one is called a California Sister Butterfly.

Haven't I seen that type of lizard before?  Probably.  I continued driving north, stopping in Carpenteria to do a little more walking through their Carpenteria Bluff Nature Preserve.  The highlight of the park is the seal sanctuary.  I guess harbor seals like to hang out on one particular beach and when I got there...yep, seals!

I stood there for awhile just watching the seals.  They all looked so relaxed, not a care in the world.  A few of the younger ones were playing with each other, and I thought this one looked like it was posing for us!

It was interesting that the seals appeared to have different color variations.  I've never noticed that before.  I was excited to see the brown pelicans.  In the past, I had seen such pelicans, but they were always flying and I could never get a decent photo.  No problem here!

All that walking made me famished.  On a past road trip, I had a smorgasbord lunch at The Red Viking Restaurant in Solvang.  Since the town was not too out of the way, I decided to revisit the place.  I thought it was a good decision.

Tomorrow, I continue my journey north and will partake of more outdoor activities.  Being in Los Angeles for several days, I really missed hiking around.  There will be much more of that before my road trip is done.