Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites - Travel Adventures

Ordinarily, I am traveling from my home airport SBA to LAX to connect to another flight taking me to far away places, but this week I experienced for the first time a direct round trip flight to Portland, one of the new destinations added to the Alaska Airlines direct flight list.

It was very dark in the morning when I arrived at SBA, but inside I found happy Alaska Airlines employees who took care of everything and made me feel so confident it would be an amazing flight. The check-in/security process was seamless, I had time for a coffee and great pastry, checked my messages and quick as a wink it was time to board.

A charming young guy pushed me up the ramp for boarding with my two small take-on’s and carried them to my seat for storage above and below my feet. Bam, everyone was boarded and we were on our way in the dark toward Oregon. The flight was very smooth, with coffee and delicious little biscuits to enjoy with our own reading materials. Our arrival in Portland, Oregon was smooth as glass, I was helped with my bags and really hated to leave all these adorable up-beat employees!

The return flight from Portland Airport, which is gorgeous with beautiful live trees everywhere, went just as smoothly. I was the only person flying who had an empty seat next to them and so enjoyed it!

Congratulations Alaska Airlines, who are adding new direct flights from Santa Barbara Airport often now, and it is making us all so happy to know we do not have to go to LAX, the hated destination to make so many of our trips to date! Thank you for your great employees who make all the wheels turn for your customers, like me! Can hardly wait to do it with you again.

Amtrak's pride and joy, this 52-hour journey may be the country's best rail trip, thanks to a combination of timing and scenery, with daytime travel through the Colorado Rockies and California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The westward trip leaves Chicago in the evening, and passengers awake in the morning just east of Denver. And that's when the thrills start, with the route winding through deep canyons inaccessible to cars, through the red rock country of Utah; by Reno, Nevada; and finally rolling in to the Bay Area near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Price: Fares vary by season and time of booking. Expect prices to start at about $470 for a single roomette, $690 for a double, with meals included; and coach seats to start at about $140, meals not included; senior discounts aren’t available on the lowest-priced coach-seat fares.

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Scheduling of sessions, is based on track availability. Sessions 1 – 3 are available from Tuesday through Saturday. Session 4 is available from Tuesday through Friday. Each session time break down is below:

Session 1 & 2 – 2hrs (90 Minutes of driving)
Session 3 – 2.5hrs (90 Minutes of driving)
Session 4 – 4hrs (2.5 hours of driving)