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I know we have at least one member on this forum who lives in Santa Barbara. I hope they and there house is making it through this terrible night. I hope the same for all the citizens of that beautiful city, members of this forum or not.
TBlack Member # 181
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Frank, aka SBALAX, is our Santa Barbara member. He's currently on a cruise, coming up the pacific coast. He's been following the fire news and reports that his property is on the edge of the evacuation area. Let's hope it all works out well for him.
RR4me Member # 6052
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All I can say, is "Good Luck", and hope for the best.
mr williams Member # 1928
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Indeed, all our thoughts are with Frank and his fellow residents. I made my first ever visit to Santa Barbara exactly seven years ago today and it's a wonderful place. As an aside, I flew out of San Francisco a few years ago during a time when there were wildfires and seeing the smoke plumes rising through the atmosphere was truly spectacular.
sbalax Member # 2801
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Thanks for the good thoughts. We will be disembarking from Radiance of the Seas this morning in San Diego (we arrived a day early yesterday after having to skip three Mexican ports). This is after five great days in Buenos Aires and a 29 day cruise around South America. We rode the old FEP in Costa Rica for an hour and also visited the railroad museum in BA. It's been the trip of a lifetime.
We are hoping to catch the 12:00PM Surfliner and should be in SBA at 5:30PM.
Our home was in the evacuation area (for the second time this year) but friends got important papers and both cars out. We will be able to return home tonight.
More later,
Frank in foggy SAN
sbalax Member # 2801
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We are back in town. We found the house and yard to be in surprisingly good shape. We are only now starting to hear stories from friends about the Hell that broke loose here. The fire is about 80% contained and still burning above Montecito. That could change at any time depending on the sundowner winds.
Our trip on the Surfliner (775) was fine. The Business Class car was about 90% occupied most of the way from San Diego to Santa Barbara. This car had the newly recovered seats (no video monitors) but in other ways was a bit shabby looking. Some of the window curtains were MIA. Both bathrooms smelled and needed a good cleaning.
Leaving SAN we were given the new (to me at least) snack pack which has a bag of potato chips, two raspberry short bread cookies, two hard candies and a larger bag of really good trail mix. The only wine available was a Stone Cellars Cabernet. When I asked about white wine the response was: "There's Cabernet." The attendant spent most of the trip after that seated talking with a passenger who he seemed to know.
I'm working my way through mail and laundry and will be looking for another adventure soon.
Frank in sunny and warm SBA
BTW This was our first experience with checking bags. One was over the 50 lb. limit by 5 pounds so we bought a $3.00 box and consolidated things. Pickup of bags at SBA was slow because the employee in charge didn't want people to identify their bags but was intent on hunting for numbers that matched. I understand about checking the numbers but wouldn't it be easier for everyone if people told him which bag went with which number?
DeeCT Member # 3241
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"I understand about checking the numbers but wouldn't it be easier for everyone if people told him which bag went with which number? "
There you go again Frank -- Applying such logical thinking appears to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. I would be willing to bet a "supervisor" told him/her not to take the customers word in claiming luggage. This is how he/she is carrying out their interpretation of the instructions.
train lady Member # 3920
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I am glad you are safely back,Frank and that your house wasn't reduced to ashes
sbalax Member # 2801
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Thanks, Connie. Vicki passed your message of concern along to us on the ship. We had tremendous support from people on board and at home and that really helped in a difficult situation.
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