Flight Report: SBA-SEA

After my interview, it was time to pack up and head out. I was pressed for time, but at least getting through security at the airport is trivial at SBA. The main challenge at this airport seems to be somewhat frequent cancellations. I wasn't hit by that time time, but the small connections to LAX, SFO, and BUR do run into mechanical issues and delays on these small flights can add up to missed connections if you get unlucky.

Alaska Airlines offers some attractive connections to and from SBA. They offer direct flights to PDX and SEA on slightly larger regional aircraft than you get when you are headed to a destination inside California.

The Santa Ynez valley from the air. This is where Santa Barbara county is expanding housing significantly. It's less expensive to built up here, but the jobs in the county are still centered around Santa Barbara by the coastline. It's an interesting dynamic. Santa Barbara has limited options for growth physically. The options are all slightly less than ideal. Expanding outward means changing the ecosystem of the coastline, removing agriculture, and changing the way of life for many in the community, all of which will cause people to come out and oppose it. Growing upward changes the look and feel of the city and blocks views, which means that another powerful group will also come out and oppose that. Building in the valley means inducing travel demand between the two areas of the county, which creates pollution and strains the transportation network. That prompts calls for wider roads that will never really keep up with demand, since the new easy access granted by new roads spurs yet more development further out. It's a heck of a problem.

 Crater Lake in Oregon and Mt. Rainier below.

This building above is the Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters. It is designed to blend into the natural environment. From the distance, it looks like a hill.

Food Fridays: Crushcakes & Cafe in Santa Barbara

The purpose of my trip this time around was for an actual interview, which went rather well. The interviewers all seemed to really like my background, story, and experience. I left feeling really good about the interview and the opportunities that they were highlighting. That also means that I may be in California by the end of the year, which would be a huge change.

Before the interview, I stopped off to get some coffee and behold what happens to be less than three blocks from where my new office would be: Crush Cakes Cupcakery. I had to try it.

I eventually settled on the strawberry cupcake, which was pretty good. The cupcakes itself wasn't too sweet and the frosting was fairly light, but I do have to subtract some points for there being too much frosting on my particular cupcake. I was worried that I would end up with pink frosting on my fingers that would somehow transfer to my suit. In the warm weather, the frosting is also very soft which increased the risk of it being a messy cupcake. Fortunately, I managed to avoid that while also enjoying my cupcake.

And yes, a grown man in a suit, drinking a proper doppio machiatto out of a tiny cup, and eating a pink cupcake. If you gotta a problem with that, then you know what you can do...

Santa Barbara - Again: SEA-PDX-SBA

This weekend came with a surprise trip to Santa Barbara. I was invited to interview for a new position there and that prompted a very quick trip in and out. I arrived Saturday night and left midday Monday. If I get the job, what does that make me? SantaBarbaraFlyerGuy? Ex-SeattleFlyerGuy? SeattleExpatFlyerGuy? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the mean time, here what the flights were like!

Flying down to Santa Barbara from Seattle is a bit expensive, but I ended up using miles to make this trip happen. 40,000 frequently flyer miles and $7.50 gave me near direct flights on Alaska Air. They have flights direct to Santa Barbara from both Portland and Seattle, which is exactly what I flew this time around. These are on smaller planes, a combination of the Dash-8 turboprops and CRJs. I tried to get timelapses on these flights using a new technique, but this proved... difficult. I was using my new Nexus 4 to capture the timelapse, which I hoped would be better than my current technique, but a couple things were off: The phone unexpectedly quit and the angle of the window basically means that you are mainly aimed at sky. It didn't work, but at least I got some good photos.

The first leg is quick, but low. It's only about 30 minutes in the air, which is no time at all. On the way, we had some good views of Seattle and of the Olympic mountains. I love the view of the water, mountains, and ferry from the air. After that, I had a two hour layover and then a second flight direct to SBA. Night time flights don't offer too much in the way of scenery, but at least there was the sunset...

Santa Barbara!

Recently, I was down in Santa Barbara for a few days on business and while I didn't get into the city very much (it's very nice. I've been here before), I did make it a point to try out one the local ice creamery. McConnell's Ice Cream has been around Santa Barbara since 1950, but it looks like the brand has new owners and these owners have a sense about what the current sugar boom is all about. The ice cream joint on State street right downtown has all the feel of the current trendy sugar fix shop. And the ice cream itself is pretty dang good.

I eventually settled on a split scoop of churros con leche and an off menu chocolate toffee flavor. In Seattle, we don't have very many churros available, so get those flavors in ice cream format sounded like a good idea. Overall, it was an excellent combination between the two and the ice cream here was especially rich and creamy.