First, I've posted a lot of pictures, which is the real reason for this post.

But I'll throw in some comments on the trip.

I flew SBA-SEA on Horizon Air, which was fine other than spending entirely too long on a cramped CR7 and being delayed about an hour and a half on the way out by a problem with some ground equipment. It was okay, though, since my friend arrived from JFK about the same time I did, and I ended up getting a lot of work done in the terminal at SBA as we waited for the problem to be fixed. For the service, the soft pretzel they gave us was much better than the typical bag of munchies, and we also got a nasty Atkins protein bar - some kind of weird mixed messages going on there.

I rented a car from National, since I have an Emerald Club membership through work. This was by far my worst experience with National ever - they were understaffed, had poorly marked directions to the cars and keys, and no way to pick a car in the emerald aisle and drive off. After finally finding the desk I was looking for after tramping all over the garage (no bus, everything is attached to the airport, which could be a timesaver if things worked out), I had to wait in the long line with many other people so the one employee on duty could take care of us, and got no choice of cars like I'm used to. This was much harder and less enjoyable than any other experience I've had with National - maybe every company is like that at SEA, but I'll certainly try a different one if I ever go back to SEA. Okay, I'll stop complaining now. At least the return was easy, late Monday night.

We went to Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Parks, saw a concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre, and saw a lot of different things in Seattle. We could have used more time, as always, but it was a nice trip.

The flight back to SBA Tuesday morning was easy. They had stacks of newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, at the gate, which was a nice touch.