Traveling

[O Really]

We enjoyed our short visit through Solvang in the summer and decided to come again for (almost) Christmas. The Danish village goes all out for "JuleFest" for about a month https://californiathroughmylens.com/sol ... christmas/

The next town over, about 3 miles, is Buellton, primary location for the "Sideways" film. The restaurant/bar they hung out in is still here and cashing in on the movie, and they named what was a Motel 6 in the film to "Sideways Inn." We saw the ostriches, visited a horse farm and wineries, walked the shops, bakeries and sausage places, and enjoyed the lights. Today we're going hiking at Purisima State Park https://www.lapurisimamission.org/
and see some history about priests rounding up Indians.

[Vrede too]

We enjoyed our short visit through Solvang in the summer and decided to come again for (almost) Christmas. The Danish village goes all out for "JuleFest" for about a month https://californiathroughmylens.com/sol ... christmas/

I didn't know that the US has any Danish hot spots.

Solvang’s History

Solvang was founded in 1911 on almost 9,000 acres of the Rancho San Carlos de Jonata Mexican land grant, by a group of Danes who traveled west to establish a Danish colony far from the midwestern winters. The city is home to several bakeries, restaurants, and merchants offering a taste of Denmark in California. The architecture of many of the facades and buildings reflects traditional Danish style.

The next town over, about 3 miles, is Buellton, primary location for the "Sideways" film. The restaurant/bar they hung out in is still here and cashing in on the movie, and they named what was a Motel 6 in the film to "Sideways Inn." We saw the ostriches, visited a horse farm and wineries, walked the shops, bakeries and sausage places, and enjoyed the lights. Today we're going hiking at Purisima State Park https://www.lapurisimamission.org/ and see some history about priests rounding up Indians.

FSM didn't like that.

Original mission

Mission La Purísima was originally established at a site known to the Chumash people as Algsacpi and to the Spanish as the plain of Río Santa Rosa, one mile south of Lompoc.... The site was the location of the mission from its founding on December 8, 1787, by Fermín Lasuén till it was destroyed by the 1812 Ventura earthquake (7.2) on December 12, 1812....


Ruins of Mission La Purisima Concepcion, ca.1885-1904

No lessons were learned.

Chumash revolt of 1824

After Mexico won the Mexican War of Independence in 1823, Spanish funding ceased to the Santa Barbara Presidio. Many soldiers at the mission who were no longer being paid by the new Mexican government took out their frustrations on the local Chumash Indians. After a soldier apparently beat an Indian at nearby Mission Santa Inés, the Chumash revolt of 1824 began at that mission. It spread to La Purísima Mission, where the Chumash people took over the mission for one month until more soldiers arrived from Monterey Presidio....

The restoration and Park look nice. One of my favorite Montana sites:

St. Ignatius Mission



... Architecture

The mission church is a simplified, vernacular example of Gothic revival architecture constructed of bricks made from native clay. The most exceptional feature of the interior are the 58 murals painted by Brother Joseph Carignano, an untrained artist who worked as a cook in the mission. The murals include depictions of Christian imagery mixed with representations of the Salish belief system. The church is 120 by 60 feet (37 m × 18 m) in plan and its belfry is nearly 100 feet (30 m) high.

[Vrede too]

This does not inspire confidence in airline preflight safety inspections:

JetBlue stowaways’ bodies were badly decomposed raising possibility they were there for multiple flights: Report

[Vrede too]

Boeing, again :


Article

[Vrede too]

This won't end well:

Trump begins firings of FAA staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash

[GoCubsGo]

This won't end well:

Trump begins firings of FAA staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash

The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

They're not important.

A Transportation Department official told the AP earlier Monday that the agency has “retained employees who perform critical safety functions.” In a follow-up query the agency said they would have to look into whether the radar, landing and navigational aid workers affected were considered to handle critical safety functions.

Oh goodie.

Other FAA employees who were fired were working on an urgent and classified early warning radar system the Air Force had announced in 2023 for Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Defense Department. It's one of several programs that the FAA's National Airspace System Defense Program manages that involve radars providing longer-range detection around the country's borders.

IRON DOME across the US!

The Hawaii radar and the FAA defense program office working on it are “about protecting national security," Spitzer-Stadtlander said. “I don't think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.”

Sounds right.

The inmates are truly running the asylum.

[Vrede too]

The inmates are truly running the asylum.

Yep. Here we go again:

Trump administration plans new travel ban. Here's who could be affected.

... According to the reports, the draft identifies “red list” countries as Sudan, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Libya, Cuba and North Korea – which Trump previously banned or restricted – to be barred from traveling to the U.S. Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to be added to the list....

Will Americans respond with airport protests again?

How would the ban affect American travelers?

Americans could face an increased risk of harassment when traveling abroad to the countries the Trump administration is targeting, experts said.

American Society of Travel Advisors CEO Zane Kerby told Travel Weekly that "blanket 'entire country' travel bans constrain legitimate business and discourage friendly foreign visitors" and "risks retaliation from targeted countries and their allies."

This won't end well.

[Vrede too]

The FAA’s Troubles Are More Serious Than You Know

POTUS Musk and PINO are a literal plane wreck. DOUCHE has haphazardly reduced staffing, including in critical safety roles. Then, there's the self-dealing with POTUS Musk imposing the unvetted-for-security Starlink upon the FAA. It's a mess that will compound over time.

[O Really]

Air travel is getting like this:
Picture yourself driving in heavy traffic in a large city. Normally, the intersections have various warning and directional signs, traffic lights with protected turns, and in the busiest times a cop or so working the traffic. That was before. Now, take away the signs, have the lights work sporadically, send the cop off for doughnuts but when he's working he just points arbitrarily, and put large potholes in the intersection.