Living it up at the Hotel California!

Ok, cheesy I know but there had to be a Hotel California link in there somewhere, sorry but I couldn't resist!  And the hotels so far have been very comfortable for the sightseeing and chilling that we've been doing in equal measure!

So Dad actually arrived in LA on Thursday last week, had a night an airport hotel to acclimatise and as I said before was at the airport to meet me on Friday when I landed.  My flight was delayed by about 30 minutes leaving Vancouver but as I had already cleaered customs and immigration in Canada, getting out of the airport was fairly quick and very straight forward.   Picking up the hire car was as easy as it usualy is, given that once again we were told that the car we had been 'sold' was smaller than what we had expected and didn't come with GPS.  So after a little bit of discussion, we walked away with the car of our choice AND GPS for free so we were happy.  Chevy Impala loaded we headed out into the friday afternoon 'labour day getaway' traffic preparing ourselves for a long trip. 

Well having seen the conglomeration that is LA from the air, it reinforced my lack of desire to actually venture any further into the city itself!  One day and with a local guide I may be tempted, but given the time it took us to reach the 101 from the aiport I was happy to be leaving the city behind.  And as we drove at snails pace, we counted Mustangs (in admiration) and watched the 'arrival time' on the GPS notch up by the minute as our 2 hour journey quickly became an estimated 3 hours, but that was ok, we were on our way!

Santa Barbara was our first stop, and our GPS led us to our hotel in time for an aperatif and something to eat and then bed for the poor person who was still jet lagged, bless him! 

Santa Barbara itself is a really pretty little place with a lovely main street which has its fair share of expesive boutiques, then there is the sea front which led us to a hill drive along the coast passing lots and lots of lovely houses over looking the sea then ranch after ranch behind massive gates.  Very nice, from what we could see!

It was a sort of quiet day while Father got himself over his jet lag and since we had found a post office and dispatched a parcel of goodies for my friend Neil in Ohio, we had done our duty for the day.  Actually what was amusing was the full range of Californian hospitatlity and frienliness experienced in the post office.  Having expected to buy a fixed price box for Neil's goodies, the clerk advised us against that option and suggested normal parcel post would be best.  For that I would need a box so she went to find a used one for me which took a few minutes but she found one that was perfect, so I turned to start packing the box and she went to find me a roll of tape. I noticed a line had formed in the time it took her to find the box and the woman at the front of the line started laying into me about the fact that there were people waiting, as if I had asked the clerk to be so very helpful and to take her time about it.  I was so shocked at how blantantly rude she was that all I could do was statre at her, at which point she just said 'Whatever'.  And she wasn't a young woman either!  Shocking!  But I couldn't have asked for anything more from the post office clerk, lovely lady!  And I was pleased to get Neils treats off to him safely.

Then Dad sat in the sun while I made the most of the hotel pool and for the first time in a fortnight did some of my Aqua exercises 'A La Joy' and felt better about the very nice steak dinner I had that night!!  Yum-oh!!