Hello to you all from Sunny Santa Barbara! We have been here for two days and I absolutely love it!! This is what you expect California to be like! Palm trees, long beaches, gorgeous blue sea, dolphins!! It is gorgeous here!!! Yesterday we had our long train journey which was suprisingly ok, much better than the flight across the country. The train was really nice, alot better than British Rail anyway. We had loads of room, nice reclining seats, beautiful views of the coast and a dining car with beer! What more could we ask for? So the journey went quite well and we arrived on time which is always nice. The only problem was that when we got off the train and had to retrieve our bags (we checked them in) there were only 2 instead of the 3 we put on!! Charlie's huge backpack didn't come off the train. As you can imagine she was pretty gutted and after much deliberating we had to leave the train station without it. We left our phone number with the baggage people and hoped we would hear from them. It wasn't too bad as Charlie could borrow clothes, we went to a party with Amy last night and had lots of fun. We joined in the American tradition of Beer Pong which I found I have quite a talent for... he he! We stayed in the student housing with one of Amy's friends. Their college is amazing!! If they looked like that in England I may have had a different outlook on going to Uni! Anyway, Charlie got a call to say her bag had just got left on the train and we could go back to the station and pick it up today which was a big relief. She coped really well despite losing her bag, I think I would've been in tears if it was me!! Today we have spent all day on the beach which was really nice. I would absolutely recommend everyone to come here. It's such a nice place, really beautiful. Me and Charlie have checked into a hostel for our second night here, it's really nice and right next to the main street in downtown Santa Barbara. So tonight we are heading out, meeting up with Amy and her friends again, to have a nice meal. Apparently the Mexican food in California is better than in Mexico!? So we have to try some. Having an earlyish one tonight as we have an early start tomorrow. Amy & Lilly are driving us down to LA where we will part with them and head down to Anaheim ready for our day in Disney on Monday. This last couple of weeks of travelling have been so much fun, I really don't want it to end!! I'll definately be coming back to California! Make sure the sun is shining for me when I get back!! See you all soon, Love Laura xxx