Locales for Love

Six romantic spots, selected unscientifically, ordered unalphabetically, offered with no guarantees:

The Ojai Valley Overlook, on California 150 approaching Ojai from Santa Paula

A scenic panorama. “That would definitely be the spot” for a roadside rendezvous, said Bonnie Dohrn, dispatcher in the Ojai sheriff’s station. Dohrn said, however, that deputies have found that some younger couples favor Creek Road, south of town. “I think they come across quite a few there, because it’s pretty isolated. . . . Of course, I’m 50. I don’t know about those things.”

Pier, Ventura

It’s on the water, and it’s the longest wooden pier in the state. “You do see a lot of couples out here, especially on the weekends,” said Steve Bixler, general manager of the Pier Fish House. Weekends, the pier’s bait and tackle shop opens, making it possible to take a stroll and pick up a pound bag of frozen anchovies for $2. “If you’re inclined to do that,” Bixler said, “yeah.”

The Red Onion, Thousand Oaks

Every relationship has to begin somewhere. “Let’s say 1,000 people come in on a Friday and Saturday night,” marketing director Amber Schwab said. How many embark upon relationships? “I’d say 500. I don’t know how long they last. . . . But I see women come in here single and walk out with people.”

Inspiration Point on Anacapa Island, at the island’s eastern tip, half a mile’s hike from the boat landing

“You’re about 200 feet above the ocean there, and you have a coastal view--the shoreline of the islands and the cliffs,” Cherryl Connally, assistant manager of Island Packer Cruises, said. “You can see the sea lions playing in the water. . . . And on a quiet day, you can hear the spout of the gray whales.”

The Olivas Adobe, on Olivas Park Drive in Ventura

By the count of city public service assistant Pat Burkhart, 29 couples said their wedding vows at the adobe in 1990, making it the city’s most popular matrimonial landmark. (Twenty-three couples held weddings in Grant Park, by the hilltop cross that overlooks the city, and a handful of ceremonies were performed at City Hall.)

Outatown

Eighty percent of my customers here go out of Ventura County,” said Swede Lindell, co-owner of Eva’s Limousine Service of Thousand Oaks and Ventura. “When you go out, you don’t want to go to a restaurant you drive by every day.”