Day on the Beach, Night on the Town

Sunday began with two Masses in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, the first in the extraordinary form, and the second in the ordinary form, accompanied by the Thomas Aquinas College Choir. Students then quickly ate some breakfast burritos and changed their clothes before gathering in the Commons and boarding three passenger buses for a day of adventure …

First stop: Ventura State Beach, about a 25-minute drive from campus, where students delighted in volleyball, swimming, and bountiful natural beauty. In shifts, groups took breaks for lunch at a nearby In-n-Out Burger, the iconic California burger chain. The highlight of the day, however, came when pods of dolphins delighted the group by swimming, playing, and diving close to the shoreline.

Next, students re-boarded the buses and made their way up the coast to Santa Barbara. There they enjoyed dinner at various spots of their choosing: family-style Italian at Palazzio’s, burgers at The Habit, a local Lebanese restaurant, and others. Prefects then led students down State Street for shopping and ice cream.

At the end of the trip, all met up at Stearns Wharf for a group photo. Students prayed the Rosary in the buses on the way back to campus, where many then gathered for a voluntary study hall in St. Bernardine of Siena Library. “They were excited, but also a little nervous,” reports a prefect, about Monday morning’s class — the first of five devoted to Euclid!