The Adventures of Gene and JoAnn: 10/31/11 "Choo-Choo Ride to Santa Barbara"

About 2 weeks prior to our trip, we received such great news from Dr. Smith, Gene's radiation oncologist. Gene's brain tumor had shrunk to the size of a dime! Before his "cyber knife" treatment, the tumor was about 2 inches in diameter! Dr. Smith had told us to expect no more than a 10% shrinkage, if any at all. He was as surprised as we were!

To celebrate the great news, we decided to take a little train trip to Santa Barbara. Several years ago, Gene and I rode the train to Santa Barbara and stayed in a bed and breakfast just about a block away from the main drag in downtown Santa Barbara. For this trip, we booked a room near the beach/pier in a little "Inn" just steps from the beach. We left from Oceanside at about 10 am, parking our car for free in an adjacent lot near the train station. The train made many stops (only about 1 minute) along the coast and inland, stopping at the L.A. station & then up the coast to beautiful Santa Barbara. (It's been 36 1/2 years since giving birth to my precious daughter Riley Ann in Goleta, a town adjacent to Santa Barbara. Memories :-) It took us about 4 1/2 hours to reach the Santa Barbara station. We both enjoyed the scenery, the rest and a great opportunity to read our books.

The weather was lovely, cool in the morning with the typical fog until about 10 am. Afternoons were sunny. We had a relaxing time strolling the pier, eating a fish dinner, browsing the maritime museum, walking along the boardwalk & the beach, watching a movie at the local theatre ("Moneyball'- good movie) and of course, people watching which I love to do!