Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Train Trip to Santa Barbara


On Monday Mr. Tennis and I took the train from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.  As if that wasn't exciting enough, the beautiful Union Station in downton LA was worth a trip to see in itself.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves:












We boarded this very special Amtrak train and were so pleasantly surprised by how clean, spacious and comfortable it was,  A great way to travel,






We arrived in Santa Barbara in about 2 hours.





Checked into our lovely hotel, The Franciscan.










Took a tourist shot on the beach, complete with out-take - timer error - hey, I never said I was perfect!









Went for a nice dinner at a local joint where we felt some homesickness when spying this sweet painting.






A nice day indeed.

I have some video from the train trip that hopefully gives an essence of the wonderful coastal views we had from our train window.  My internet connection at the hotel is very slow to upload pictures so I'm not sure how many posts I will do from Santa Barbara, but I will do my best!  I'm also including a video we shot of Mr. Stanley at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park.  He is usually such a mild-mannered gentleman, but really got into the fracas, much to our amusement. 

So, first some train ride footage:





And then some Stanley footage for the truly amusement-starved amongst you:




We look forward to enjoying the zoo, a sunset sailboat ride and a whale watching tour in the next couple of days.  Then we head back on the train to LA and drive down to Seal Beach to meet up with all the kids and Mr. Stan.  Also looking forward to visiting my blogosphere friend Sue, she and her family run a wonderful store that I so want to visit.  You can take a look at her blog here.  She posts almost everyday even though she is an extremely busy business woman running Country Roads Antiques.  Hope to see you soon Sue!






7 comments:

Sue said...

Hey, thanks for your nice comments. I'm so jealous of you. I live locally and never get up to LA. It's been years since I've been to Santa Barbara but it is beautiful up there. Actually I spent some time today with my little Riley down at the beach. We walked down the Seal Beach pier to Ruby's for lunch. It was beautiful out! Have a fun vacation and hope you have time to stop by and see us at Country Roads!!

Take care, Sue

eggzachary said...

That looks fantastic. Glad you're enjoying the trip so far. I look forward to reuniting on Friday.

Wendy Weissmueller said...

Wow it looks like a lot of fun. If I am not mistaken the Union station was used in the lifehouse music video "you and me" one of my favorite songs. Looks like fun though i like the blooper shot that made me laugh =)

Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces said...

Looks like such a fun trip~ the train station is really amazing!

Mr. Connor said...

This is great ! Almost like really being there in person.
Glad you are all having sooooo much fun !

Orlando Grandma said...

Traveling by train is somewhat unique.Great view,enjoy the beach even is it may be too cold for a Florida body. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. The three legged tow headed picture is unique too.

Unknown said...

Wow that looks like a wonderful trip! did you see the pink church when you were there?
http://www.capturinghappiness.com/santa-barbara-mission/