IT'S SUMMERTIME AND TRAVEL IS NOT EASY!

I live in Florida and in Florida we live by tourism.  Tourism generates jobs, generates commerce, gives us more of everything.  The more tourists that visit us, there is more of everything.  We have the "mouse house", we have the beaches, we have cultural destinations like Miami, and we also have the cruise industry with ships departing our ports every day.   Happily, I can report that tourism in Florida is up 28% from the same time last year.

When I got on my 6AM flight to California the other day, I can also can state that everyone seems to be traveling everywhere.  The airports were super crowded both in Atlanta and in San Diego when I landed.  Getting the bus to the rental car location was like trying to get into one of the shows at Sea World!  There was a mass of people all scrambling for spaces on the very crowded buses.

Finally arriving at La Costa Resort and Spa I was again surprised by the quantity of families in the hotel's restaurant, pools and shops.  I think that the generation with young kids have no less than 3 young ones and some families even had 5 kids under the age of 10.  It was an odd juxtoposition with the business types that were meeting here in their office attire, teens in bathing suits, little kids...well being little kids.... and guys playing golf at the world famous resort.

Oh well, I was here to play golf, enjoy the spa and relax for the weekend at this newly renovated and huge resort in Southern California.  More on those facilities tomorrow... but just want to share that things must be going well with  some people, because this place is not cheap.  Yes there are golf packages and family fun packages, and weddings going on and all kinds of things to do.  What surprised me more than anything was the amount of employees that are still here after so many years.  Our porter had been with the resort for 27 years, and many in the restaurant even longer.
I am not young, however the wait staff was twice as old as I am currently.  They have been working here forever.  So things must be good with KSL Resorts the company that owns it.  I guess with the number of guests, they need all the employees they can get.

Yes tourism here in California as in  Florida is good and lots of people are traveling again......and really making it a lot more un-enjoyable for those of us that do it for a living.

Well,not all is  bad...I am off to the spa for a Lomi Lomi Massage. Maybe it won't be crowded.
I plan on enjoying anyway!