So I've been really bad at keeping an online journal whilst traveling, but I have been writing in my paper journal so I'm putting up some stuff for you all.

Sadly I suck at working out how to get my pictures up without my own hard drive. So it seems that will have to wait until I get home. For now it will have to be word pictures. Supposed to be my forte after all.

March 6th dawned for me at 4 am. Dark and cold and full of possibilities.

Flight from Heathrow left at noon, so I got the coach to London from Cambridge at 6 am. Flying to LA via Vancouver (which seems counterintuitive but actually wasn't). Arrived in Vancouver to a beautiful clear spring day with the mountains clearly visible from the terminal. met up with Sue, my traveling companion and fellow conventioneer at the gate for the flight to LA and arrived there at 8 pm local time.

We rented a car to drive up to Ventura, and also rented a satnav thingamajig to guide us on our merry way since my, 'we can take the Pacific Coast Highway all the way up' was fine as far as it went but getting us to the PCH was not within the bounds of my knowledge.

Sat Nav systems may have much to recommend them, but they need to be a touch more sophisticated in my view. Telling people to go east or west when it's dark outside so you have no point of reference via where the sunlight is coming from is not great. Nor is telling you 'there is a better route available', but failing to expound on said better route.

Then there was the famous turn left here (finally a direction we could take) only to find we couldn't run left because the highway has been re routed since the navigation system was updated last! It must have been at least 5 years out of date since that was the last time I took this route and they were still in the process of works on the road at that point.

Our visual aid on the sat nav showed us in the middle of a large dark area of space with no roads at all, and not even a grumpy 'recalculating' voice over to reassure us that it was still working at all.

We worked with old impressions from me and a little intuition and one helpful passer-by to get on track again. Discovering we were in fact in Oxnard was reassuring - and when the sat nav finally came back on line and instructed us to turn into the parking lot of the hotel it thanked us for using its services, this had us in fits of hysterical laughter since by that point we were both exhausted - I had been up for nearly 27 hours by then and couldn't have told you how to spell my name let alone given directions.

However we arrived at the Crowne Plaza Ventura and hit the hay.

Next morning we awoke to the sound of the surf on the beach below our window and glorious sunshine. We had the most fabulous view of the bay from our balcony - if the pictures come out you will see.

We got ourselves registered at the convention and picked up our schedules - spent a good half hour picking what we would attend and got ourselves to the first of many thought provoking panels. Topics such as characterisation, plotlines, believable story arcs; plus various media oriented panels on such things as graphics and video production and one on archiving. We had a wonderful time.

In between talking and catching up with old pals we went shopping in Ventura itself which is a beautiful town. Lots of artisan type shops and a farmers market which we somehow missed. We thought we might manage to get to one at Ojai on Sunday, but Sunday morning was full of final panels and a group breakfast so we didn't make it there.

We did take a moonlit walk along the beach on Friday night which was glorious.

All too soon it was time to return to LA for me to get the Train to Vancouver and Sue to fly back.

Mindful of the sat nav's limitations we printed out maps from the internet to get us to Union station and one from there back to the airport. Then it was a 3. 30 am start - you know I really am more of a night owl than an early bird, but beggars can't be choosers.

The trip to Union Station was almost trouble free, finding Alameda Street after we exited the highway involved a couple of circuits of streets and some more helpful passers by, but we made it.

I had four hours to kill before my train was due to leave which afforded me much writing and people watching time. Some of which might even prove useful.

I adore Union station. I have pictures that I hope will show why. I also adore train travel. It gives you time to watch the world go by and thinking and writing time too. Again this journey was to provide many excellent prompts. However 36 hours is a long time to sit on a train or as it was to turn out a combination of train and bus. It puts a bit of strain on your body. Nonetheless I think it was worth it. More of that in my next post.

Keep on smiling
Sharon