It was, in fact, time for Floatopia, a traditional UCSB party dating all the way back to 2007! As big a fan as I am of drunken college parties in general, this one had me pretty impressed. The idea was for people to go down to the beach with any manner of raft or inflatable they could get their hands on. Mostly these were store-bought inflatables, though some more industrious types actually built their own floats. This is UCSB, after all, but they do have an engineering school.
You then are supposed to get out into the water (with as much beer as you can bring with you), make it past the breakers, and join the "flotilla" out in the open water.
What you end up with is basically a haphazard, floating party.
But this being a party school, and with saavy marketers knowing they can get some good promotion out of it, this event had evolved from a spontaneous act of reverly to an organized, overcrowded, sponsor-supported affair. Sadly, most of the party was happening on the beach.
Not to mention the houses overlooking the beach.
Still, it was fun to watch, if only for a little while.
Before leaving, I got to take a drive up into the hills above town for some scenic vistas.
While up there, we accidentally stumbled upon a historic site – a rock cave that featured a real Chumash Indian cave painting.
They believe this one is about 300-400 years old. It's lucky I had a camera with a flash, otherwise the cave was so dark that I would never have seen it.
After that we had to make a stop at The Habit, one of those real authentic California hamburger stands of the sort that, once upon a time, gave rise to McDonald's and the like. But The Habit is still good.
After a bite it was time to zip off to the Santa Barbara airport, one of those very small outfits that I tend to enjoy because of the lack of big crowds. As I would discover, this also has its drawbacks.
And I got there just in time to see my plane ...
... before it left without me. With the airline only having two employees – who are in charge of both the ticket counter and the gate – you can't get your ticket or get through security if you arrive only 30 minutes before the flight, which is what I did. Maybe if I had skipped the cave painting or the burger it would have worked out OK. But I think they were worth it.
I did manage to get a new flight out early the next morning, so while it ended up costing me a little extra I got my full vacation in and got back in time to return to work. As always, I'll miss the west coast. Maybe next time, it'll come to visit me for a change.
1 comment:
Still feel guilty about the missed flight, but I'm glad you got around to posting that final culture-filled day.
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