24 Hours in California
When some people take a day trip, they typically drive somewhere not too far away and then return in the evening. A “day trip” is not flying across the country and then spending around 24 hours in a place they have never been. This past weekend I went on a little adventure to California for 24 hours in the
middle of finals season. (I would like to also clarify that I have been to CA many times, but I had never been to Santa Barbara before this trip.) There were lots of twists and turns but everything ended up working out in the end. This is that story. 
Hang it in the Louvre!
It’s Thursday and the town where my university is just got a tornado warning for later that afternoon. A set of storms were rolling across the country and were expected to bring some serious thunderstorms, and possibly tornados. This weather was concerning, yet at that point, it wasn't the main concern. “Ok so if I eat now and then head out by 11:50, I’ll be able to make it to Zachry [the engineering building] early enough to study a bit for my exam.” I thought to myself while staring around my dorm room and packing a duffel bag. Where was I going? Why was I going? My mother’s only brother was getting married in Santa Barbara, California and I managed to find a flight to squeeze in between my finals to be able to go. Why didn’t you travel with the rest of your family, Emilia? While my family flew in and settled into California, I was stuck at university with 2 finals, thirty minutes apart. That Thursday was Cinco De Mayo, and it was crazy for reasons not associated with alcohol. With my bag packed for California, ready for me to pick up from my dorm after my finals, I left for my first final for the day: Engineering. Two hours of physics, ethics, and statistics problems later, I was sprinting down a flight of stairs to get out of the busy engineering building.
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| DFW travel aesthetic |
I had thirty minutes before my next final, Chemistry, all the way across campus. The walk from my engineering building to the other building is almost 20 minutes, I made it in about 12. My shins were burning from walking as fast as I could, but also from trying to escape the thunderstorms looming on the horizon. With about 15 minutes before my chemistry final, I think if I were to have gotten there any minute later, I would’ve gotten rained on. Running on pure adrenaline, I powered through my chemistry final (I started to crash towards the end after several hours of little food and water). I felt a level of relief when I turned in the exam. Now that the academic tasks were completed for the day, the logistic tasks were next on the list. I stood at the glass door and watched the newly brought rain pour. Anticipating this bad weather, I switched my backpack to my front, put on my raincoat, and popped open my umbrella. I checked my phone for my flight status and saw that it was still On-Time, with no delays. “That is incredibly weird. It will probably get delayed.” I thought to myself, refreshing the page as I walked through the flooding puddles forming on the streets. Concerned if my flight would somehow majestically continue to take off in this weather, I rushed towards my dorm. My exam ended at 5 pm, and my flight was boarding at 5:55 pm, so you could imagine the “Go, Go, GO!” voice going off in my head.
With my legs soaked in water, I changed out of my sandals and into a new pair of shorts and tennis shoes that I wanted to travel in. My friend who would be driving me to the airport was walking to get her car from the garage and drive over to pick me up as I gathered all of my necessary chargers and bags for my trip. The moment I got into her car and we started driving to the airport, I checked my flight status. It got delayed by only 30 minutes, ok! Not bad! We will make it to the airport on time, and I will still be able to make my connecting flight to Los Angeles. All good! RIGHT?
The College Station airport is a tiny little thing about 15 minutes away from campus with only two gates. The only airline that flies out of there is American Airlines, and the only city it flies to is Dallas. My itinerary was as follows: 6:30 pm (now 7 due to the weather delay) leaving from College Station to Dallas. Then from Dallas at 9:35 pm, fly to Los Angeles and arrive there around 11 pm local time. I said goodbye to my friend who dropped me off at the airport and I sat on a bench before security drinking a Red Bull. I had one in my backpack to drink earlier in the day, yet I didn’t have the time in between the exams, and well, I wasn’t going to throw away a perfectly good Red Bull. I went through the tiny security section, and then walked over to the small “cafe” shop, which was just a concession stand, and bought a power bar. I was anticipating getting dinner in Dallas, where there were actual restaurants, yet I would soon be proved otherwise. “Ladies and Gentlemen in the terminal on the flight to Dallas, the flight has now been delayed until 8:30 pm due to the bad weather still in the area.” The staff member at the gate announced. Everyone all at once just stood up, grabbed their things, and went to the desk where the man had just announced the delay. I sat there like (0_o) assessing my options but I was honestly just trying to gather up my thoughts after my long day. Suddenly, my phone buzzed and I got an email from American Airlines. Because of the delay from College Station, I would not be able to make my connecting flight from Dallas to Los Angeles. The email stated that I was automatically put on the first flight to LAX from DFW in the morning, but that would mean I would be staying in Dallas overnight. The wedding was taking place in Santa Barbara, about a 2-hour drive from LA, so after some investigating, I found a flight directly from Dallas to Santa Baraba the next morning. I got up, gathered my backpack and duffel bag, and got to the end of the very slow line. This very nice man who worked for American Airlines took me, and these other two ladies from the end of the line to another desk with a computer so that he could help reschedule our flights.
“There is one last seat on the flight to Santa Barbara tomorrow morning, do you want to take that flight versus the flight to LAX tomorrow?” The help desk man asked with a Texas country accent. “Yes please, and is there any room for Saturday from Santa Barbara to Dallas?” I asked, grateful that I was able to put on the first flight. “No, unfortunately, that one is all filled.” The man responded. That was okay, the main goal at this point was getting to California in time for the wedding. My mom had mentioned on the phone that there was a bus shuttle from Santa Barbara straight to LAX that I could come back on, so it was no worries if I had to keep my original returning flights. Grateful that the man was able to put me on the flight to Santa Barbara, I had to go back through security because he helped us at the front desk computer. I got my ticket printed out at the gate desk and it looked ANCIENT. An announcement in the terminal went off stating that the cafe was closing in the next thirty minutes, and because I now knew I was not eating dinner in Dallas, I walked over to see what I could get. I ordered a hot pretzel and “Philly cheesesteak”, both were in plastic packaging and reheated by the lady working there. The pretzel was great, but the Philly cheesesteak was sad. A bread bun with a piece of meat in it. It was the best I could do for dinner with the circumstances I was in, and I had already eaten little during the day. Anyways, after updating my parents on my new flights and that I was going to be spending the night at the DFW airport, I watched the weather outside improve. A rainbow appeared next to Kyle Field and the clouds changed colors from yellow to orange, to pink, and blue as the sun set over College Station. Our plane from Dallas finally arrived and deplaned, so we were able to board. The plane was a small express plane, where the whole aisle is 3 seats. Two on the left, and one on the right with a window. I scored a single-window seat and the clouds were so pretty as we were getting ready to leave. When we took off, it was interesting to take off over campus and see what it looks like above. Unfortunately, Kyle Field’s lights were off, but it would be cool to see what it looks like from up above in the middle of a football game.
The flight from College Station to Dallas is 30 minutes. Which is A) not that surprising, and B) confusing because the American Airlines itinerary says that it is an hour-long flight. When flying over Dallas, I reflected on how I think it was my second time ever there. I was surprised to see these huge bodies of water because I never knew that Dallas had so many lakes! We landed early at the airport and it was funny because we landed around the time my original flight to LA would be boarding. Due to landing early, we sat on the runway for a bit to wait for the plane at our gate to leave.
When I walked off of the plane and called my mom, I was fully prepared to just take a shuttle to the terminal I would be flying to Santa Barbara in the morning and find a corner to sleep in. While I was on my plane, my family was at the wedding rehearsal dinner and sharing the news that I was stuck in Dallas for the night. One of the bridesmaid’s parents lives in Dallas, not too far away from DFW. “Mila, listen to me, download Uber on your phone, and type in the address I am going to send to you.” My mom instructed me as I walked off of the plane. As I spoke with my mom, my plans changed once again, this time in a positive way. I was going to take a Uber to the bridesmaid’s parents’ house and stay with them in their guest room for the night. I was so caught off by the wonderful news, that I giddily walked through DFW, noticed a Whataburger INSIDE the airport (#closed):, and booked by Uber. Mind you, this was the first Uber I have ever booked and taken by myself so I was a tad nervous in making sure that I was selecting the correct terminal and location, as it was also my first time at DFW. Lots of firsts on this trip!
When I was in the Uber, I was a little lost on what to do. I’ve heard that some Uber drivers are talkative to ensure a high rating, and I have also heard that YOU should talk in the Uber so YOU can get a high passenger rating. With the contradictory advice I have heard about Ubers, I spoke politely to my driver, but the drive was mostly quiet in the beginning. We eventually had a conversation about the reason why I was traveling and found out that he was from California. When I got to the house, I thanked my Uber driver and called the daughter of the homeowners. She was nice and directed me on how to get into the house in case her parents were already asleep. When I got off the phone with her, I went down to the kitchen to get some water, and her parents came out of their room to meet me. I am incredibly grateful I was able to stay with them for the night. I was able to sleep in a bed, not on the airport floor, and I was able to take a shower. They were so nice and welcoming, and they drove me to the airport in the morning.
When boarding the plane for Santa Barbara, I was excited that I was finally getting onto the plane after an interesting past couple of hours. I got a window seat (yes!) and I sat behind these three gentlemen that I would describe as “tipsy cowboys”. All three of them had custom-fitted, white cowboy hats, and had thick Texas accents. I was wearing my A&M College of Engineering shirt that morning and one of them looked at me and said, “Gig ‘Em HUH?” with a disgusted look on his face. For those not aware, my school and another university in Texas have a pretty intense rivalry. “You betcha!” I replied, placing my duffel bag up above, and he began to tell me how he went to UT while his wife went to A&M, creating a divided house. We had a conversation about an April Fools prank he did on his wife and then returned to talk to his buddies. They were polite, with friendly vibes all around. They did not come onto the plane initially tipsy (at least I think so), but when the plane took off and we were in the sky, they had a 30-minute conversation with the flight attendant about where they were from and what kind of cocktail they’d like.
On the plane, I watched Heartstopper on Netflix, typing my thoughts on each episode in my Notes App to send to my friend later. A little over halfway through the flight, I looked at our flight map and noticed we were flying over Arizona. Looking out the window, I noticed the mountains and dry patches of desert. It is weird to have attachments to a place you no longer have attachments to. I have lived in Texas longer now than I did when I was in Arizona, yet I see old photos of my family when we lived there and it makes me feel nostalgic. I wrote a blog post about it, but I honestly don’t know what to think about what Arizona means to me now. My mom always calls me and my brother her “desert babies” because we are the two out of the three of her kiddos born in AZ. While flying over it, I want to go back and visit. We have some family friends that I would want to visit, and I just miss some of the cities there.
I thought about the last time I came back out West and I think it was when I went to Poland 4 years ago. As a family, we did a road trip to Phoenix and Los Angeles to visit family, and then I flew out of LAX for PL. Gosh, that was so long ago. As we flew into Santa Barbara, our plane had to fly over the ocean and then circle back to land, which meant that I got to see all of the different islands off of the coast! Our landing was smooth and we deplaned pretty quickly. When I got off the plane, I went to a small shop to get a sticker to put on my bullet journal, and then booked my Uber to the hotel where my family was staying at.
You know I am from hot Texas when I walk out of the airport and think, “Oh it’s kinda chilly!” when in reality it was like 65 degrees. When I was waiting for my Uber, I was surprised at the number of cool cars. Not only nice ones such as Mercedes, Teslas, and BMWs but a lot of cool vintage cars that would be in a museum exhibit or car show. My Uber driver was nice, but he talked even less than the guy in Dallas. No worries, I just looked outside the whole time and surveyed the city. I guess I forget sometimes that California is a desert in certain parts of the state. It is definitely drier than Houston, but the aesthetic of beaches, palm trees, and golden sun allude to more of a tropical destination than an oasis destination. Enough rambling, it was dry, and I don’t know if they have been in a drought or it was the dry season, but the mountains were not lusciously green. Granted, as we drove through the city street, it was a lot more green and there were a lot of freshly bloomed flowers.
Intermission break as I review all of the FOUR AIRPORTS I went to in the span of 48 hours!!:
CLL (College Station): Small and cute. The staff was really nice and very helpful when we had the bad weather. I don’t if this is a common TSA practice around the country, but there were a couple of new recruits that were being trained at this airport with experienced staff. I guess working in small airports then prepares them for the big boy airports like DFW or LAX. Overall rating: ⅘ stars, need better stuff at the cafe.
SBA (Santa Barbara): This airport is pretty…but it feels like it is too small to support the number of people that fly in and out of it. It feels like an airport that was initially built for small express planes, private jets, and a place for small ocean planes to fly at. Now it has normal-sized passenger planes from a variety of airlines including United, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. When I walked through the airport, there were people standing and sitting around on the floor. I was surprised by how crowded it was. The outside of it is pretty! ⅗ I can’t really speak much on the check-in, security, or flying out part because I only flew into this airport.
LAX (Los Angeles): *sigh* LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world, so in a way, you have to respect the way how it functions at such a chaotic level. I have flown in and out of LAX a lot in the past, but I was mostly flying Southwest airlines, so this was my first time flying in the American Terminal. Security was squished in this weird basement area and it took a lot longer than it needed to. 3.5/5 because it is not the prettiest of airports, yet it works and has everything you need.
When I made it to the church, my uncle was so happy to see me, and I was so happy to have made it. It definitely took a village and took a lot longer than expected, yet I made it. The weather was cool, the sun was warm, and there was a slight breeze from the ocean. We didn’t show up directly right before the ceremony was going to start because my family members had roles in the wedding, so that gave me time to say hi to family friends that I had not seen in a long time.
I won’t go into too much detail, but the ceremony was lovely. I teared up a bit, my mom cried, and my grandmother cried. I am very happy for my uncle and my new aunt, welcome to the family, Ronda! When we exited the church, everyone congratulated the newlyweds and we reunited with my mom. I went over to one of the other bridesmaids, the one who arranged for me to stay with her parents and thanked her greatly. She was so kind, said it was no problem, and jokingly checked in if her parents behaved. As I talked to more people at the wedding party and other attendants, I kept getting the same question, "Oh! Are you the niece who got stuck in Dallas?" and as the night went on, the question just eventually meshed into, "You're Dallas girl, right?" I found this honestly hilarious because A) It was literally only my second time in Dallas. B) Houston and Dallas have a rivalry that has lasted years, so when they kept asking that I kinda wanted to say, "Yeah I got stuck in Dallas, but I'm a Houston girlie."
Photos took place after the ceremony and I noticed that they actually had a school bus transformed into a black party bus. On the side, it said, "Roman and Ronda got married!". Honestly a genius idea, they were able to store stuff on the bus and also bring a lot of people with plenty of space on the bus. After pictures, we went to the Airbnb where members of the wedding party were staying, including the newlyweds, and recooperated before the reception. After traveling for many hours, not a lot of good sleep, and little food, I was dehydrated and hungry. I had some left over pizza (god bless) and just sat in the warm sun. This then caused my mother to then take one of the best pictures of me where I am surrounded by flowers, eating cold leftover pizza, propping my feet up, and just basking in the warm Californian sun. We laughed about it and she later posted it on facebook with the caption, "Dallas girl", yeah ok. (it is the first photo of this blog post)
The reception took place in downtown Santa Barbara at a restaurant that was decorated with all sorts of flowers and lights. The evening was filled with wonderful speeches, fun music, good food, and dancing. I had a good time with my family and I was so happy to have made it, even if it was only for a short time. One thing that I really loved was how my aunt did the flowers. At Thanksgiving, she expressed her shock in how much flowers for weddings cost. They just decided to go to a local farmers market the day of the rehearsal wedding and just buy a ton of cheaper fresh flowers. They put together all of the bouquets and table settings, and it looked colorful and beautiful. We took the bus back to the hotel when it was over and passed out for the night, especially because I had to travel back in the morning.
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| LAX |
Traveling back was bittersweet. I was in a beautiful city with my family and they were enjoying a beach day after I left. There was a shuttle service from Santa Barbara directly to LAX that I took so my family could enjoy the rest of their weekend. The bus was honestly great, it reminded me of the buses that drive around Poland that I would take to visit family, and it had a great view of the ocean and the mountains. When my dad was dropping me off at the bus station, he gave me a big hug and provided some motivating words to study and finish up my last final in Calculus 3. I cried on the bus a little bit because I wanted to spend more time with my family in a beautiful and fun place, especially since my grandparents were flying back to Poland after the wedding. Alas, that is adulthood, you have to do with what your schedule permits.
LAX was busy when I arrived, yet I was surprised to see all of the development that had occurred in the area surrounding it. As stated in my airport review, this was my first time in the American Airlines terminal and it was busy. Security took so much longer than it should've and I had a weird time finding it because it was squished into this dark corner. When I went through the terminal, I picked up some more California stickers to put on my waterbottle, and I tried to find food. I wished LAX had more "easy food" in their terminals. Meaning that food that I could order and pick up because I went to a Lemonades (its a restaurant chain in LA) and legit only ordered a muffin and a sugar free redbull because the line for the entrees was so long.
I got stuck with the middle seat when flying to Dallas, and I got stuck with a lady who slept in the aisle seat, so I wasn't able to go to the bathroom, and the lady who had the window didn't lift it the whole flight, so I wasn't able to see the ocean when we took off. During that flight I kinda just listened to music and reflected on a lot of things. My traveling experience, my freshman year of college, the wedding, my approaching calculus 3 final, and I wrote a lot of my thoughts in my bullet journal. The sun was setting when we were arriving in Dallas, and we honestly had a... unpleasant? landing. I don't want to say it was incredibly rough, but it was not a great landing. It just got progressively louder and bumpier when we touched down. It was almost like the universe was telling me, "Ah that was fun! Welcome back to reality." 
DFW
I called my parents to let them know I landed in Dallas, and I got Subway for dinner. Jeez, I did so much walking in that airport because I was trying to see what food options they had, and then my gate got changed twice. Our flight into College Station got a tad delayed because the plane we were flying on arrived late, yet I wasn't super concerned because I knew the flight took only 30 mins. When we were descending to land in CSTAT I could tell we were coming in way too fast. I honestly braced myself for landing. There is something magical about the slow descent and a smooth landing when on a plane, yet this pilot somehow did not fly the small express plane that well. There were some people asleep on the flight and they woke up by the jolt of the landing and yelped a bit. It was far worse than my landing into Dallas from LA. No one got hurt, nothing got damaged, just a rough landing.
I had some of my friends pick me up from the airport, and I nearly passed out in their car. It felt so weird to walk back into my dorm when I had been in a different state just hours before. With a final to study for in the morning, I got ready for bed and slept thinking about the Californian shores and mountains.
Well. That was my little 48 hour adventure, where I spent only 24 hours in California. Thank you so much for reading! I did not realize how long this post was going to be, LMAO. I really appreciate it and I hope you all have a fabulous summer!
love,
yo girl emilia
follow me on Instagram: @yogirlemilia
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