My wife and I will be travelling from our home in Nashville, TN to Oxnard, California next week to attend a wedding there. We will be there for 5 days and will have a rental car. I am wondering if anybody could offer any suggestions for anything exciting/interesting/worthwhile to see while we are there. My wife is actually in the wedding party, so I’m not sure how much free time we’ll have; its possible that I will be left to entertain myself, as I don’t really know any of the other people involved. I’ve been to Los Angeles a few times and have seen Universal Studios, Disneyland, etc., but was looking for something a little less touristy, more exciting. I’m 30, with a pretty broad range of interests…any suggestions?
Inland from there a bit is the small town of Ojai. It’s a beautiful little place, tucked into the hills, there’s great restaurants, there’s a world-class spa at the Ojai Valley Inn, and a great golf course at the Inn as well.
And always remember – Oxnard is Drano spelled backwards without the X.
twicks, UCSB, class of '76
It’s a bit tricky from Oxnard–much more so than you’d think from looking at the map–but you could find PCH and work your way to Malibu driving along the coast. It’s a beautiful drive.
You could also follow Rufus advice and go to Ojai; once there you could take a short drive up State Highway 33 into the Los Padres National Forest. You don’t need to stop anywhere in particular, it’s just a nice drive, and with all the recent rain it should be nice and green.
I lived in the Oxnard area for several years and can tell you that there’s not much. Best bet is to get out of town and drive up to Ventura, Santa Barbara or Ojai (pronounced oh-hi, by the way) or down the coast past Pt. Mugu. Oxnard is so boring it has an annual radish festival.
It is, however the self-proclaimed ‘Gateway to The Channel Islands’. You could rent a charter boat to go out and see the park.
Thank you all for the advice…I looked up Ojai on the internet and it seemed like a really nice place to visit. I also happened to see a few news stories though that made it sound like the area was pretty hard hit by the recent storms and that some of the highways in/out had been closed. Does anyone know if this is still a problem? The report that I read was written last week I think.
I’ll put in another plug for Ojai, which happens to be my home town (well, not anymore, but I grew up there). Some of the cool things to do there include:
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Bart’s Books: an open-air used book store with all sorts of nifty nooks and crannies housing all kinds of weird and wonderful books. They also have racks of paperbacks along the outside of the place, and if they’re closed and you want one, you just toss the money over the wall into the courtyard.
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The Ranch House : a world-famous restaurant (at least it used to be–I haven’t been back there in years).
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I’ve heard the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa is a very nice place, though I’ve never actually been there myself.
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If you head through town and up in the mountains, you can visit the site where they filmed part of the movie “Lost Horizon” many years ago (Ojai subbed for Shangri-La).
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The Arcade: a beautiful little downtown shopping area with lots of art galleries and other interesting shops to explore.
It’s funny–when I was growing up in Ojai I thought it was hopelessly boring, but now that I’ve moved away and lived other places, I realize how good I had it as a kid.
BTW, I don’t think the roads are closed anymore. Ojai isn’t that close to the town where the mudslide hit (I’d never heard of it before it started popping up on the news) and I’m sure they would have made getting the main road into Ojai from Ventura open, since a lot of folks commute on it every day.
I wouldn’t call this exciting, but Oxnard isn’t too far from the Reagan Library. It’s actually somewhat more interesting than it sounds.
eh, it’s something to do. 
If it’s still there, you should try to get lunch at a hamburger stand called “The Spot” in Carpenteria (which is just along the coast from Santa Barbara). They sell the Spotburger, which is the World’s Safest Hamburger. They really are remarkably good.
You can check for current California highway conditions
here.
Oxnard is loaded with outlet malls, if you like shopping.
You could also go to one of the Ventura County beaches. They are a lot cleaner and a lot less crowded than the ones closer to LA.