The Beach & Santa Barbara

The students on the 2018 High School Summer Program no doubt slept well after an exciting and full Saturday night.

They awoke rested and refreshed Sunday morning, which they began by giving thanks to God at one of two Masses in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Early risers attended the first Mass, offered in the extraordinary form, while most others came to the second Mass, offered in the ordinary form. An impromptu student choir — which met for its first, and only, practice just 45 minutes beforehand — accompanied the latter Mass, delighting fellow students with beautifully sung hymns from the Chapel’s choir loft.  “For a lot of the students, it was their first time singing sacred music such as chant and polyphony,” reports prefect Joe Daly. “They were jumping into the deep end, and they did an excellent job!”

After changing their clothes, students loaded into three coach buses for a day of adventure. First stop: Carpinteria State Beach, which is about a 45-minute drive from campus. Highlights of the trip included a soccer match, volleyball, swimming, spikeball, and a picnic lunch of pizza, sandwiches, and chicken wings:

Next stop: Santa Barbara, where students enjoyed dinner at various spots of their choosing: family-style Italian, burgers, Mexican, seafood, and others. Prefects accompanied small groups down State Street for shopping, ice cream, and frozen yogurt; then all met up at Stearns Wharf for a group photo:

In the buses on the way back to campus, the group prayed the Rosary while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway, enjoying a spectacular ocean sunset to their right. Upon returning to campus, there was an optional, but well attended, study hall, where students prepared for today’s classes on Euclid and Boethius — details of which will be available this afternoon.