Travel Diary: Three national parks and the Santa Barbara Museum
by Dorothy Ferrington
LW contributor
“You had to be there!” This old cliché perfectly describes this vacation story I’m about to tell you. Since it was Friday, May 13, I’m calling it Freaky Friday. I like the sound of that. It will make sense to you as I tell you our experience.
Ray and I had just returned from a 4,000-mile road trip, visiting three national parks in Texas and Utah, with a few days stopover in Waxahachie, Texas, visiting family. We were happy travelers, but exhausted when we returned home after two weeks of travel. After ending that trip, I was in no mood for additional mileage. But our travel wasn’t done yet. Something beckoned me.
The Santa Barbara Museum had an exhibit that was advertised in the Los Angeles Times. Beginning Feb. 27 and running through May 22, the museum was displaying “Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and his Sources.”
My commitment to see this exhibit included a three-hour drive from Seal Beach to Santa Barbara. We had no set time to arrive and managed to miss the morning traffic. After Ventura, the south side of the freeway opens to the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. There is nothing like the California coastline to make your day better. It turned out to be in the mid-70s and, weather wise, a perfect day to travel.
When we arrived at the box office around noontime, it seemed everyone had gone to lunch. We were able to gain easy access to the exhibit rooms, without the ever-present large crowds.
My museum exhibit behavior is to go from painting to painting, description to description, backing away from each painting for a wide view and stepping closer to see a detailed view, trying not to miss anything.
In this painstaking manner, I am guessing it took me two hours to view over 100 works from 25 museums. Only later after returning home would I savor the exhibit from memory. I think now is the time to tell you that my use of the word painstaking takes on another meaning. Within a few months, I would be diagnosed with bone-on-bone osteoarthritis in my right hip and scheduled for replacement surgery.
As I finished up the exhibit, let me make a point. I am not doing senior belly aching here. I was in real pain. Ray was in the same shape, but I think he called his sciatica. Okay! Whatever! We kept the snarling associated with our pain at a minimum level as we traversed this exhibit.
Ray was waiting for me at the exit, looking relieved when he saw me walking towards him. “Let’s go home!” Ray said.
A quick trip to our car was the only thing we were thinking about, as we experienced a state of sympatico, hobbling toward the parking structure at the rear of the museum. As we rounded the corner, where the elevator to our Level 3 parking appeared, we saw four people approach the door, which had just opened. Ray, with desperation in his voice, yelled “Hold That Elevator.” This command left nothing to anyone’s imagination.
In the elevator, a tall, tanned and dapper looking man in a Panama hat, wearing a summer beige linen suit stepped into the middle front. There was not one wrinkle on his suit. Abruptly, my attention was drawn away from the man. A tall, well-tanned, beautiful woman stepped in. Her very short hair, a highlighted blondish color, was perfectly cut.
She was wearing a white linen jacket, also without wrinkles. I recognized this actress immediately without any introduction. I had now adopted an ear to ear, open mouth smile that never left my face. The actress could tell I knew who she was.
When we exited the elevator, she walked ahead of us maybe 10 feet. As we were heading down the row where our cars were parked, we saw her husband. As she walked toward her husband, a big black SUV with darkly tinted windows rolled by us and stopped. A man leaned out the car window, “Hey, Jaimie Lee!” We continued past Christopher Guest and passed over to our car.
This may not have been one of her “Halloween” movies but it was “Perfect.” And that’s how I met Jaimie Lee Curtis.
Dorothy Ferrington (l) and Ray Geierman visited Arches National Park.
