Ventura County Residents Treated to Full Double Rainbow on December 23, 2019

The double rainbow local residents were treated to on Monday afternoon was epic. Folks were in awe of this Christmas Eve Eve colorful sensation.

Beautiful, Beautiful Snow Seen From the Conejo Valley on White Friday 2019

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What a treat it has been to wake up to a blanket of fresh snow in the Los Padres National Forest, clearly visible from the Conejo Valley today. While folks are out seeking Black Friday bargains, all they need to do is look up to experience a rare White Friday!

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From Reino Road in Newbuury Park, near Newbury Park High School.

Santa Paula Hardware Company / Union Oil Company Building on the National Register of Historic Places

The California Oil Museum at 1001 E. Main Street, Santa Paula (corner of Main and 10th) is the birthplace of Union Oil Company (now part of Chevron). The building was completed on October 17, 1890 and originally was the Santa Paula Hardware Company Building, housing the headquarters of the Union Oil Company on the 2nd floor. Union Oil moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1900, but continued to operate a field office out of this building.

The Union Oil Museum was established in 1950. The building was restored to its original appearance for its centennial celebration in 1990. The building is also a California Historical Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Here’s the California Oil Museum building in April 2019.

A view of the building I believe prior to 1900.

Spencer Furniture store at the historic building in I believe the 1940s.

Views From the "Scenic Trail" in Sycamore Canyon, Point Mugu State Park

A moderate hike on the Scenic Trail in Sycamore Canyon gets you to views like this.

Sycamore Canyon in Point Mugu State Park has trails galore to explore, going all the way up, eight miles, to Newbury Park, if you so choose. Located just steps from the Sycamore Canyon Campground is the "Scenic Trail," a moderate trail with some steps that gets you to stunning views of Thornhill Broome Beach, Mugu Rock, the giant sand dune and the majestic Santa Monica Mountains.

The Scenic Trail connects with the Overlook Fire Road, which continues on and eventually connects with the top of the Ray Miller Trail, then on towards the La Jolla Valley. It is lush and stunning when green in late winter/early spring. It gets pretty brown and dry up here towards last spring, summer and fall months. But the great views towards the Pacific never change.

The wonderful scent of wildflowers off of the Scenic Trail, seen here near the junction of Overlook Fire Road, is well worth going out of your way for in the spring.

Newbury Park High School Boys Cross Country Team Wins Woodbridge Classic in Record Time, Led by Record-Shattering Nico Young

Record-setting Newbury Park High School Boys Cross Country Team receiving post-race accolades.

I had the good fortune to witness first-hand last night’s record shattering performance by the Newbury Park High School Boys Cross Country Team at the 39th Annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic at the Silverlakes Sports Complex in Corona.

Newbury Park, along with several other local area teams, was invited to participate in the Sweepstakes finale, featuring 32 top teams.

(Truth be told, I wouldn’t miss this event as I have a son that runs on this fantastic team!).

Nico’s Performance

Senior Nico Young obliterated the previous course record time of 13:58 with a time of 13:39.70, a time that MileSplit notes is the nation’s fastest high school 3 mile cross country effort of ALL TIME. Yes, you heard it right. He didn’t just break the record. He stomped all over it by over 15 seconds!

Nico is a certified rock star! I can certify that as I was witness to numerous fans requesting photos with this standout who also won the Woodbridge Invitational last year along with the California Division II cross country and 3200 meter track championships.

The Team’s Performance

The rest of the team last night included senior Jace Aschbrenner (2nd overall in 14:04.8), junior Nick Goldstein (7th in 14:25.6), sophomore Colin Sahlman (10th in 14:26.9), junior Daniel Appleford (24th in 14:36.7), freshman Lex Young (25th in 14:37.4) and junior Thomas McDonnell (33rd in 14:44.9). There were 240 participants in the race.

The top 5 scoring members of the team set a course record of 1:11:10.0, or an average of 14:14 per runner. This was not just the course record. It is the fastest high school 3 mile team time ever run on California soil!

This group of Newbury Park athletes has been training diligently all summer long for this season. And it shows. A second team of outstanding runners competed in the Rated race and finished in 4th place.

And let’s not forget the up and coming girls team, which competed in the 3 Mile Girls Sweepstakes event immediately preceding the boys event Saturday night. A fantastic showing by the girls resulted in 5th place, just 38 points away from the 1st place team. The top 5 scoring members of the girls team included junior Fiona Hawkins (18th overall in 16:53.7), senior Archana Mohandas (31st in 17:08.5), sophomore Sam McDonnell (35th in 17:12.3), freshman Ailish Hawkins (63rd in 17:39.8) and senior Gretchen Slattum (64th in 17:40.6).

Kudos to Coach Sean Brosnan, who is in his 4th year coaching at NPHS. He correctly predicted the strong team showing the day before the race in this runnerspace.com interview.

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Record-setting Nico Young joyful immediately after the race with Coach Sean Brosnan.

Other local top 25 showings in the Sweepstakes races included Thousand Oaks High School senior Michael Mireles (4th place overall in 14:17.6) and Moorpark High School senior Keith Murray (23rd in 14:35.9). Junior Jill Walker from Simi Valley High School finished 13th overall in 16:49.6.

Rankings

On August 23rd, DyeStat/RunnerSpace published pre-season national high school cross country team rankings. Newbury Park was ranked 4th on this list, behind Great Oak, CA (#1), Corner Canyon, UT (#2) and Loudoun Valley, VA (#3).

Well guess what…Newbury Park beat the #1 ranked Great Oak last night by a score of 36 to 69. Great Oak is a fantastic program and last year’s winner at this event as well as reigning 2018 Division 1 state champions.

This could be interesting.

Cross Country Scoring

For those unfamiliar with how cross country scoring works, teams are allowed up to 7 runners in the race, but only the top 5 are included in the scoring. First place receives 1 point, 55th place receives 55 points, and so on. The fastest 5 runners on each team are added together for the score.

So no matter how fast an individual runs, for the team, what counts the most is the placing. The lowest possible point total is 1+2+3+4+5 for 15 points. Newbury Park scored 38 last night.

The Future

Aside from setting personal records, Nico and his team are focused on winning the California Division 2 state championship for the 2nd year in a row. Then they want to compete in the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) and win the national title. Newbury Park finished 6th in last year’s NXN in its first appearance at that invitation-only event.

Congratulations, team! For updates, visit www.newburyparkcrosscountry.com.

Zuma Beach in Malibu, One of the Largest and Most Popular Beaches in Los Angeles County

Zuma Beach is located at 30000 Pacific Coast Highway.. At four miles long, Zuma is one of the largest and most popular beaches in Los Angeles County,

Zuma is known for its long, wide sands and excellent surf, as well as plenty of facilities, including several food stands, restrooms, showers and volleyball. The Zuma boardwalk is well over a mile and a great place to take a walk.

There are over 2,000 parking spaces in the massive parking lot. Parking varies but ranges from $8 to $15 (summer weekends).

Visit beaches.lacounty.gov/zuma-beach for more information.

NOTE: Fires, including BBQs, are not allowed on any beach in Malibu; the exception is that fires may be allowed in designated spots at some state beaches. Dogs are not allowed on state beaches.

Zuma Beach boardwalk is great for walking.

Seabirds like it here too.

Scenes Near the Corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Rancho Road in 1970

Conejo Valley Days Parade 1970 with auto promoting Sizzler.

Some of you may remember the Sizzler restaurant on Moorpark Road that is now a Hooter's. Well, before that, there was a Sizzler at 1259 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard, in a space that today (thanks to a generous donation from Thousand Oaks Storage) is the home of affordable housing non-profit Many Mansions.

Thousand Oaks Sizzler on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, just east of Rancho Road, in 1970

Many Mansions moved in Spring 2015 at the long ago former home of the first Sizzler restaurant in Thousand Oaks.

Sizzler was directly east of the Enco gas station at the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Rancho Road.

Enco was a short-lived brand name from the Humble Oil Company, which is now part of ExxonMobil. Apparently it translated into "stalled car" in Japanese.

Conejo Valley Days Parade 1970 at intersection of Thousand Oaks Blvd and Rancho Road.

Notice the Shell gas station across Rancho Road in the above photo. Today of course a different kind of fuel is served there at the first Thousand Oaks Drive-Thru Starbucks. I also notice the gas price at that time was 28 9/10th cents a gallon.

Today, there is a Chevron station located at this former home of Enco. It is the exact same building shown above! But instead of "Happy Motoring!" there's a sign on the building that says "Food Mart."

This Chevron station is the former home of the Enco station pictured above.

And this last photo shows a 23 North sign west of Rancho Road. Partially hidden behind that sign is a Chicken Delight that was located at 1165 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Today, the closest Chicken Delight is in Winnepeg, Canada.