My favorite thing about Santa Barbara is not the beach. It isn't the weather (which isn't actually that nice, fyi). It isn't even the small town walk-everywhere culture. My favorite thing about Santa Barbara has got to be the airport.
The airport consists of a couple of "gates" which are pretty much just empty rooms. No bathrooms, no snacks, no water, so don't go through security too early! When you get off the airplane and head to "baggage claim" to claim your luggage, you arrive in a tarp covered area with a long shelf where an airport employee will eventually drive up to and unload the luggage, one bag at a time. No moving parts here!
Today I had a classic encounter with the Santa Barbara airport. I went to pick up Dan (hooray!) around noon. Because US Airways is the worse airline on the planet (I won't go into details of all the trials and tribulations I've had with them), their estimated arrival time on the internet was 12:28 but Dan's flight didn't actually land until 12:45. So there I was, sitting idly in my car in the absolutely no stopping, active load/unload only zone, getting nervous about the lone police officer who kept looking my way. He finally approached the car, only to point me toward a better parking spot in the active load/unload only zone. For 15 minutes I sat there watching the police officer grab carts for old ladies and help people carrying their luggage. After 15 minutes, he approached my car again. Sure he was finally going to send me on my way, I started getting ready to drive away. Instead, he asked me what flight I was waiting for, and then went inside the airport to check on Dan's flight for me! Leaving the SBA curbside totally unprotected in the meantime. A few minutes later he came out, carrying an old lady's bag for her, and shouted to me, "It just landed! He'll be right there!"
I'm sure we were both breaking dozens of federal laws and regulations, but I personally hope that particular police officer gets a special place in heaven reserved for him, for making air travel in this day and age pleasurable.
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