Although it has been a few months since our travel to the
Santa Barbara California during the Christmas holiday to see our daughter, many
of the activities still are fresh in thought.
Some
observations
ŸTraveling during the Christmas holidays has never been
fun. It still isn’t. We did try to eliminate some hassle by
driving to Midway Airport in Chicago to fly on Southwest Airlines non-stop to
Los Angeles, eliminating cramped commuter planes and running through airports
to make connections! It worked well.
ŸSouthwest has a unique way of loading their
plane. You are given a “place in line”
number based on when you book your flight and also if you are willing to pay
more to get on early. You pick your seat
once you get in the plane. Surprisingly,
it worked well, with little confusion.
ŸHave you ever noticed how beautiful the airport and
public decorations seem prior to Christmas?
They don’t look as great between Christmas and New Year’s. And they look down right bad and out of place
after New Year’s!
ŸWe thought we were quite smart and frugal not taking
a commuter flight from LAX to Santa Barbara, instead renting our car
there. NOT. The commute of just 15 miles up Interstate
405 took an hour and 45 minutes. But it
was the Friday before the Christmas weekend…and Fridays are always a “get out
of town” traffic event in Los Angeles. I
have an app on my “smart phone” called SigAlert, which shows traffic issues on
freeways and major roads in major cities across the US. If they are flowing well, the map shows them
as green. Orange means slow…and red is
backed up. But the time we got on our
way most of the LA freeways were red! Oh
well, we weren’t in a huge hurry. I have
used that app on our return trip in LA and Chicago and again a couple times in
Chicago. It is helpful.
Christmas
We spent a great time with Lauren, went to a nice
Christmas Eve party at nephew Steve’s.
On Christmas day we drove to Bakersfield and spent two days there
visiting with sister-in-law Jean and nephews Brad and Tom and families. Brad had everyone over and prepared a
FANTASTIC meal…with a little help from other family members.
Of major interest to blog readers was our visit to the
Ellwood Butterfly Grove near Santa Barbara. http://www.sblandtrust.org/coronado.html
As a Midwesterner, I just assumed all
Monarch butterflies migrated to Mexico for the winter. Not so. Monarchs in the western 1/4th
of the US migrate to the California coast.
The Ellwood site is one of the larger gathering places. The butterflies cling together to protect one
another from the cool nights. During the
day, many of them will fly around the area, coming back to their pod
frequently. It was quite a site to see
and is well worth the visit. The height
of the viewing period is December and January.
We also made a quick visit to the Santa Barbara
mission. Seeing the nativity scene in
front on Christmas Eve day gave great emphasis to the season!
One afternoon the three of us went our separate
ways. I spent some time in the Reagan
Ranch Museum at the south end of downtown Santa Barbara. The Reagan Ranch was purchased and is
maintained by the Young America Foundation.
The ranch itself is not available to the public, but is frequently used
for dignitaries and students of the YAF.
The museum is run by them and contains artifacts as well as quite
interesting videos about the ranch and President Reagan. It’s well worth the visit and is free! http://www.yaf.org/TheReaganRanch.aspx
Of course you can’t go to Santa Barbara without a walk on
the beach! Although Lauren is a long way
from us, we can’t feel too sorry for her, given the natural beauty of the area
and the more moderate climate!
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