zebec The day we spent in France during our Catalan adventure was in Perpignan and Collioure. I have family connections in Perpignan so I wanted to spend some time there for family reasons, but otherwise Collioure is definitely more of the tourist attraction and worth the visit.

Ah I see. I recall ex-pat poster 'St. Cirq' once opining about both of those towns and which she preferred. If memory serves, someone else here did a Collioure TR a few years ago.
Did I miss it Mag----where to next?
Macdog, thank you for the clarifications. That two-plus hours is paired with the emotional distance as well - its been a long time and I was the only one to have ever reached out.

I am done. the travel talk

@zebec No solid plans for next travel, unless you count a cruise out of Florida I'm taking in February. It stops in Haiti, Jamaica, and Bahamas. No planning to do, just go where the cruiseline tells me to. I'm going to check out your request post for Santa Barbara.

Didja' hear about the loud bang sound experienced there just a few hours ago? Seems that the Lompoc area space launchings just had their single most powerful ever BOOOOOM tonight.
Apparently it scared a lot of SB residents.

Your cruise sounds almost identical to the one that a friend is taking right now. Fingers crossed that it goes well for my buddy. He is going with extended family, including a seriously-ill sibling plus some additional family drama(s).
Hoping that your cruise goes well too.
I am done. the noiz

Excellent TR with great photos! Brought back memories of our trip there a couple of years ago.
SB is on our list of places to return to on a spur of the moment getaway. There is/was a convenient direct flight from DEN.

Agree: Tondi Gelato was superb. We went there a few times.
Thanks for sharing.

[QUOTE=zebec;17610479]Didja' hear about the loud bang sound experienced there just a few hours ago? Seems that the Lompoc area space launchings just had their single most powerful ever BOOOOOM tonight.
Apparently it scared a lot of SB residents.

My god, we were going to bed last night with balcony doors open (our aged dog sleeps out there half the night regardless of the temp) and that loud boom went off. Thought it was thunder for a sec, but didn’t connect it with Vandeberg. Never a dull moment. We live right above the SB Bowl and have about 30 concerts a year bombarding us so I’ve become noise sensitive. Some are enjoyable some not so much…

Yes, there are flights into SB airport from SF, Denver, Salt Lake, Seattle, Portland, Dallas and Atlanta now. La has only two a day so hard to make that connection work.