Day #2 in California

November 14, 2013 - Thursday

On Thursday morning, Laura and I woke up and left Sarah's apartment in LA. We walked to the bus stop and took a bus to downtown LA. We then took another bus to Union Station, which is where we were going to take the train at 10am to Santa Barbara! Before we took the second bus, though, we decided that we would save money and walk but after walking in the heat with our suitcases for fifteen minutes, we checked our map to see that we were only 1/4 of the way there and we immediately got on another bus. So we arrived at Union Station an hour before our train so we had some breakfast and sat in the sun for a little while. It is so warm here! We were both wearing tank tops and shorts and it was so hot just sitting in the sun.

At 10, we made our way over to the train tracks and got on the one to Santa Barbara. Once again, I'm still impressed that Laura and I made it this far because of our past travel fails. The train was pretty spacious and comfortable. Laura and I sat next to each other and the seats reclined but I couldn’t really fall asleep – Laura fell asleep though because she sleeps anywhere when we travel. The train went right along the ocean which was so beautiful and even though the ride was two and a half hours, it was nice to look out the window and see the ocean the whole time! We were about twenty minutes away from Santa Barbara when there was construction on the train tracks or something like that. We were so close! After about half an hour of sitting there on the train, we started to move again and soon we were in Santa Barbara. Laura and I ran off the plane (well, tried to run with our backpacks and carry-on suitcases) and frantically looked around for Sara. She was running through the cloud with her cute little beach hat and sundress on, of course. We had a dramatic reunion that included me accidently punch Laura in the teeth when I tried to hug Sarah. It was funny and great and weird to finally see Sara again! If you want to read about the MOST DRAMATIC DAY aka the last day in Orvieto, that’s the last time we saw her. We got into Sara’s car and drove to Westmont College. Laura and I were both staved though so we got breakfast/lunch at this place that makes smoothies in bowls with a bunch of toppings (granola, honey, fruit). It was so good and I can’t believe they don’t have that on the East Coast. Although I guess it’s a pretty cold thing to eat so maybe that’s why it exists only in places that are always warm? I don’t know. It was delicious.

Then, we went to the house that Sara lives in with 5 other girls. She has a huge deck that overlooks the ocean and it’s like a cute little beach house. Definitely a step up from my on-campus apartment that I live in now (we have like… two windows. It’s so dark). Sara then gave us a tour of Westmont and it seemed similar to Gordon in size although Westmont had palm trees, fountains, and gardens. Gordon has a pond and some really annoying geese. It was cool to finally see what Westmont was like and of course Sara seemed to know everyone on campus and would introduce us as her “friends from Italy. Well, they’re not Italian. They’re from Gordon.” 

We then went straight to the beach – Butterfly Beach, I think. I’d never seen the Pacific Ocean before so I went into full tourist mode and took a thousand pictures. We asked this man to take a picture of the three of us and he told us he has his own photography business so I guess we asked the right person. That’s why we have all these romantic pictures of us running through the water together.

After spending a few hours at the beach (it was pretty warm, like 75 degrees, but at 6pm it started to get a little colder), we went back to Sara’s house to get ready for dinner. Sara took us to this Mexican restaurant that was really small and cheap but the food was so good. I ate soooooooo much guacamole I was surprised I even got out of my chair after. I love guacamole so much. Anyways, after the guacamole-fest, we went back to Sara’s house again and sat in her living room and talked. Laura and Sara wanted me to read my first blog post in Orvieto (here) and my last blog post. I haven’t really gone back to read my blog but it was funny to read it out loud with them and I realized I had a few spelling errors that I never changed… oops. Laura and I were falling asleep at 9:30pm (12:30am in Boston) so we went to bed soon after that!

Me and Sara!

One of the running pictures...

Setting up our towels