Planes, Trains and Orthotics: A Middle-Age Woman's Guide to Travel

 I don’t know what California I had previously been to, but the one I visited this past weekend was a whole lot greener than I ever remembered.  I know my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be, but I remember miles and miles of brown terrain and over the last few days, it was just not the case! Our visit brought us to a wedding in Southern California and then immediately afterwards, I headed further south to visit a dear friend in San Clemente.  All green.  In fact, lush green. Where had I been? Where was I now?  I felt somewhat vindicated when my friend said, “Isn’t everything so beautifully green now?  Everything is usually so brown but we have had so much rain lately, it was worth it!  Problem solved.  My memory isn’t as bad as I thought.   I’m an east coast gal but there was one thing that I felt perfectly at-home with while on the west coast: understanding and conquering congested and fickle traffic patterns.  Whether I was with fellow wedding guests or my friend in San Clemente,

 Bob, Hope and I are headed to Southern California for a wedding.  To be honest, I have never been a big fan of the Golden Gate State.  I hesitate in saying this because I hate to make such a blanket statement about an entire state, particularly since I am a resident of a state that always seems to be judged in its totality by the oil refineries off of Exit 13A of the New Jersey Turnpike. I have seen first-hand, some lovely parts of California—San Francisco, Sausalito, Montecino, Yosemite and San Diego. But I also remember areas of a lot of brown in between. I haven’t traveled to California in a while, so I am anxious to see if my memory of the landscape still holds   We have a 10:15 AM flight, and we were our usual 2 1/2 hours early—as anyone living in the NYC area completely understands, you have to get to the airport early because you never know about the traffic. We were able to spend an hour in the United lounge and were absolutely floored at the number of people who were drinking