Oso Flaco

We spent a lot of our weekend watching conference (we were lucky enough to watch Saturday morning's session at the theater), so by Sunday afternoon we were pretty stir crazy.  So we headed down the road to Oso Flaco Lake for a nice family walk.  

Oso Flaco is only about 3 miles from us, but you don't even know its there unless you go there.  From the road it just looks like broccoli fields, but when you drive to the end of the fields, you come to this little forest and about 100 yards (or less) down the trail theres' a fresh water lake.  What's awesome is only about a mile (or less) past the lake is the ocean!  There's a long boardwalk (bridge) that goes right through the lake and carries on down to the ocean.  It's a beautiful walk and there's lots of wild flowers and birds to be seen!

We were VERY proud of Jonah, because he walked the entire walk down and all but about 50 yards back without complaining once!  (That's about a 2 miles or more hike and for him that's pretty good without resting)  

When we got to the beach Jonah enjoyed finding dead crabs, shells, and chasing the snowy plovers (birds).  

Jaxon on the other hand had fun at first, but soon got VERY cold and tired, but was a good sport none the less.  

Just for fun, heres a few facts about how Oso Flaco (skinny bear) Lake got its name (according to Guadalupe's very own Dunes Center).  

"Why 'Skinny Bear' Lake?

The lake has been called Oso Flaco - which means "Skinny Bear" ever since 1769 when Portola's expedition passed through.  The reason for this can be attributed to a fateful meal shared by the explorers.  The group saw, shot and subsequently ate, a skinny bear they had seen on the shores of the lake.  When the men awoke in the morning - two of them didn't, they were dead!  The tale's bizarre ending seems to have been a result of the Chumash who had adopted a clever way of dealing with rogue wildlife.  Their practice was to hang tainted meat which when consumed would cause the animals to sicken enough for them to be unable to hunt.  With the inability to feed came the inevitable wasting that would have led to our 'skinny bear.'  It would appear though that the bear's flesh had enough residual toxins to have also dispatched our ill fated explorers to quicker demise."