Traveling is never easy these days. No matter the precautions that are taken, the plans that are made, the mental list of things to avoid. That being said, we arrived in California relatively unscathed.
One of the benefits of all of this flying back and forth to Ottawa that I've been doing (44 flights since January) is that I earn e-upgrade credits. I don't earn many miles for these flights - in fact I'd need to travel back and forth 300 times before I'd earn enough points for a trip to Europe! Nonetheless, those precious e-upgrades allowed us to upgrade to first class.
This had many benefits - a shorter wait to check in. Whisking through security. Followed by plenty of time to relax in the lounge. In fact we had so much time to relax that we looked at out watches in shock - it was time to board!
We raced to our gate and didn't have to line up - we got to just walk on the plane.
No sooner had we sat down when we were offered water or OJ.
As the plane boarded we noticed the maintenance workers working feverishly with something in the ceiling. This was offputting.
Then I noticed the guy sitting across the aisle from us - it was Jorge Garcia who starred as Hurley in LOST. This got us thinking - something wrong with the plane, an actor on board who starred in a TV show about a plane crash. Hmmmm - if we were ever going down in a plane crash this would be the trip!
As soon as the family was seated behind us I realized that I didn't care for them. One child insisted on cawing like a crow. The other, whom I called 'kicky', insisted on kicking my seat. NON. STOP. The mother was one of those fussy people who had a need to work everything through by over-talking it. It was not long until I wanted to rip open the curtain separating we first class folks from the unwashed and give them a 'look'.
Happily I was soon distracted by take off.
Once we were airborne we were advised that the in-flight entertainment system was not working - this solving the mystery of the maintenance workers. We would have to entertain ourselves.
I didn't have long to worry about it however because our flight attendant - yes, there was one flight attendant JUST for the 16 people in first class - started to bring around hot towels and booze. Conscious of the fact I'd need to drive once we got to LA I behaved. Paul on the other hand happily drank red wine until he looked over at me with a loopy smile and said 'I hve never been drunk on plane before'.
Our lunch was good. A three course meal with real cutlery that actually tasted of food. We started with a quinoa and roasted vegetable salad. Paul had the beef tenderloin with smashed red skin potatoes and veggies for his main, I had a Thai Green Curry Chicken. Dessert was a giant, warm chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream. Of course this served to prove that airlines CAN manage decent food service.
After lunch we slept and tried to ignore annoying family behind us.
It wasn't long before we were flying over California. We were shocked at how dry it was from the air. I knew there was a drought but I was unprepared for how brown and burnt out the state would be. You could really tell the golf courses - SIGH In the face of crippling drought I guess some folks are exempt.
Once we had landed we made our way to the luggage carousel where our luggage was among the first to spit out of the chute - another perk of first class.
We walked to where the rental car shuttles pick folks up and waited forever for a shuttle to take us to the Budget lot. Then we discovered a new type of chaos when we arrived at the rental car lot. I have never seen so many folks, bags in tow, lining up to get a car. We had rented through Costco and got a GREAT deal but honestly, I was regretting every minute of it as I waited in that line.
45 minutes later we had our car loaded up and we were on our way.
It had been almost 3 hours from the time of landing to departing the airport area!
I had hoped that a 1 PM arrival time meant we'd avoid the worst of the LA traffic. I guess we did avoid the worst of it but it was still pretty gross.
Our plan was to head north to Santa Barbara and spend the night there.
The hotel was a newish Marriott in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara. When I checked in I was given an upgrade to a suite which was lovely. The hotel was built around a beautiful courtyard with a putting green, pool, hot tub, and numerous areas to sit and unwind.
After we got settled we debated where to go for dinner. In the end we went to a local brew pub where we could try samples of beers and eat yummy food (according to Yelp).
Yes indeed, the beers and the food was all amazing! Yelp came through for us.
There was a Costco and BevMo nearby so we checked them out after dinner and stocked up on 'provisions' . . . OK . . . booze for our trip. One of the finds was the amazing limoncello from Ventura. We bought a bottle and afterwards wished we had bought 3.
We sat in the courtyard, sipping our limoncello and relaxed before bed - a great finish to our first day in California.
Oh, I just love it when you travel and I get to read all about it!! Your plane experience was a fun read...always something interesting going on with you. Your beer flight after the flight looks relaxing and fun! :-) Can't wait for the next installment!
Posted by: Kayte | June 27, 2015 at 07:21 PM
After the lengthy wait for our car I sure needed that beer flight to cool down. LOL
Posted by: JDeQ | July 20, 2015 at 05:01 PM