California, here we come, episode 6. In which we dropped the top.

When I was a kid playing with my Hot Wheels cars (toy of choice unless you count books), I fantasized about having a (red) sports car some day and, better yet, a convertible. Of course, growing up in New York didn't exactly make owning a convertible a practical dream, but it was a dream. A dream which eventually followed me to the sunny and impossibly warm ("hotter than the mouth of hell" to quote my dad's first impression) heart of South Texas.

My 30th birthday present to myself (which pooped out last April at barely 86K miles and almost 20 years if you are keeping up) was a convertible, of course. One of my happiest memories is driving the car to Florida for the 1996 Christmas holidays (trusty copilot Mari safely ensconced in the passenger seat for two thrillingly long days) and surprising my dad, who was a bit of a car enthusiast himself, but who always thought a convertible was an impractical (stupid) car to own.

Driving my parents to the beach with the top down the day after Christmas that trip is one of my happiest memories. Eventually, Mari and I enjoyed a long drive all the way to Key West, stopping halfway for the best key lime pie ever. Maybe it was the South Florida sun, or driving a few hundred miles with the top down, or maybe it was simply singing along with Mari and The B-52s, but that was damn good pie.

While I was planning our LA trip, I decided it was a good time to revisit my childhood fantasy, if only for the (five-day) weekend.  I'm also the prince (not quite king yet) of online coupons, so the convertible was actually cheaper than a standard car thanks to a coupon-code-favored-customer-discount combination that will likely not repeat until I turn 60.

I want to indulge in a moment to highly recommend The Channel Road Inn, a 5-minute walk to Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica.  We were treated better than family at this beautiful B&B and made to feel as special as a 50th birthday celebration warranted.  I was actually welcomed with a birthday card and warm chocolate chip cookies!

Much to Mari's disappointment, she learned long ago that a vacation for me is about being out and about checking one landmark, museum, church, concert, Broadway show, restaurant and/or hot dog (and/or meatloaf) off my travel list (don't forget fleamarkets!) and not about lounging around in a hotel no matter how cozy.  You can sleep and relax when you get on the plane and return home.  I must admit, though, that The Channel Road Inn did certainly invite rest and relaxation and I would love to return some day just for that.

Visit the inviting site to be sufficiently tempted.

channelroadinn.com

Sorry, must be present for warm cookies (and smiles) and evening wine & cheese.

I discovered this especially charming and comfortable place to sleep and stash our luggage by searching the hotels.com site and ticking the "Bed and Breakfast" box under "Accommodation type." Hotels.com is one of my go-to searches when planning a trip, but I don't always book directly through them.  Sometimes, contacting an inn or hotel directly and explaining how special your upcoming stay will be goes a long way to snagging a correspondingly special discount or a remarkably resplendent room.

I'll tell you about our 20th anniversary room upgrade at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in a future series, but (fair warning) a lot of smiling was involved.

Ask me about the 734 square foot luxury suite at the Austin Renaissance Hotel for all of $1.34 last month if you are wondering about hotels.com rewards, too.

Anyway, we didn't need to drop the top (or anything else, thank you very much) to get ourselves down to the beach on Tuesday morning. What a great way to spend a work day!  Naturally, the morning at the beach was actually on our itinerary, but that's because we had a few other to-dos to do Tuesday including rendezvous with James Dean, 2 Broke Girls, and a couple of "Pink" hot dogs.

Not surprisingly, as you can see, not too many people on the beach on a Tuesday morning to admire my 50-year-old beach bod.

Their loss.

A few hours, a few dips in a very refreshing Pacific Ocean, and a few snapshots of our well-rested tootsies, and we were off to not spend our day relaxing at the inn.

Channeling my inner rebel next time.