On a glassy ocean, we glide over the surface of the Pacific on our way to Anacapa in the Channel Islands National Park. The ride is brief at only about 11 miles from shore to shore and is serene in the quiet of the fog.

We arrive at an island in bloom. These yellow flowers are from the giant coreopsis that only blooms for about two weeks a year. Anacapa is one of the best locations to see them in this state should you be so lucky to be out here at just the right time.

Anacapa is part of a series of small islets covering only about 700 acres of land. We are on East Island, and somewhere out in the fog are the West and Middle Islands.

West Island is obscured by the fog, but at the end of East Island here, well, where the trail ends, you can see Middle Island a bit better. The Anacapa chain stretches for a total of about five miles.

Sometimes called Tree Sunflowers, these coreopsis plants can be quite tall for what looks like shrubberies in the distance.

While the dominant wildlife by appearance is the nearly 70 species of birds that live here there is an abundance of insects, invasive rats, and surrounding us in the waters below everything from sharks and sea lions to anemones and sea stars.

There are no tours of the lighthouse available, but the foghorn sounds great.

It’s beautiful out here on this narrow strip of volcanic land, especially with everything so green and flowery.

After a few hours of wandering around, visiting the museum, and enjoying the solitude, we were about to board the boat for the trip back to the mainland.

With nearly 70 species of birds out here, there is poop everywhere, a lot of poop.

On the way back in, we were joined by a pod of dolphins that raced along with us and leaped out of the water from time to time. This was the first time Caroline and I had such a close encounter with dolphins that were playing with the craft we were on, as opposed to the smaller pods of porpoises that we saw up in Monterey back in January.

Back in Santa Barbara, we headed to the park to walk Sophie before Caroline and I headed back to the ocean for a walk before dinner.

Cloudy, sunny, foggy, we don’t care. We just love being next to the sea.