California Dreamin'

TheBetterHalf
11 minutes ago
2 min read

A short trip with the shortest blog I (Cutest) have probably ever written.

Cute and I wanted to leave the heat and humidity for a while so we flew to California and drove from San Diego to Santa Barbara. We did succeed in losing the humidity, but California was (is) in the midst of a heat wave and the temps were in the upper 80s up to 90 something. Nonetheless, we managed to see many interesting sights - flora, history vignettes, ocean views, but no fauna.

We learned that Austin, Texas's airport is more interesting than Las Vegas’ (layovers), Santa Barbara’s is a step back in time, and Southwest is a most accommodating airline even if you’re in Group 7.

We also learned that Californians drive really fast and are not at all accommodating or nice to any car but their own, even worse than New Yorkers and BMW drivers.

Sites: Probably the most interesting were Chicano Park in San Diego and the Getty Villa Museum in Pacific Palisades. Chicano Park was both art and message; the first everywhere and dating from the 1970s and the message was about saving San Diego (and the world) from overdevelopment as well as respecting other cultures.

The Getty Villa Museum is a replica of a (very fancy and rich) Greek country home, a description that does not do it justice, and hundreds of sculptures, artworks, jewelry and pottery from ancient Greece. Like the museum, we will not go into how these items were acquired and the numerous lawsuits in the past. The main Getty museum is even grander and much more eclectic but closer to Los Angeles, which we were trying to avoid.

Flora: It is amazing what a year-round growing season can do for flora, and if it is watered, unlike the desert tundra surrounding it. Stunning contrasts. Standouts in my mind were bougainvillea, cacti, giant trees.

Finally, the Other Kind of Sights: One of our chief pleasures is a simple one – being on a beach, walking on a beach, eating in a restaurant with a view of a beach, seeing the sun set from a beach (which we never fully captured due to land masses and angles).