A day after we flew to California for our Central Coast home exchange, one of the 10 worst snow storms on record hit the East Coast. I lived in Northern California for 13 years before moving back home to New York City. I suddenly remembered the "deep concern" with which I used to ask relatives how they were coping with winter weather. I may have blushed at this shameful recollection, but I can't be sure, since it may just have been the warm Los Angeles sun on my cheek.
This house swap is exactly the sort that makes home exchange intriguing to adventurous travelers. The house is smack dab in the middle of the California Coast, exactly half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is the kind of place you would never find in a guide book. Home exchangers live in real places, and they may offer you a home someplace fascinating you would never have heard of otherwise.
California is a big state. It takes four hours to drive from LA to this swap home. That's pretty far, but it means we can visit with friends in both LA and Northern California on the same trip. Driving that distance after a cross-country flight was out of the question, and we didn't want to put out friends by barging into their home at midnight.
We booked an airport hotel for our first night. It is a well-known high-end chain hotel with a four-star rating. I was surprised at the sophisticated boutique-style decor since this hotel is not known for innovation. It was nice for a hotel but, say it with me, crummy compared with an exchange home. I don't care how many threads the sheets have, if I am crammed into one room with two small children.
There was another obnoxious draw-back to this hotel -- a $25 per night charge to park a car. You'd never find that at a home exchange. And the swap came with something else most hotels don't offer -- free use of a luxury car for two weeks. But a problem arose that I had never experienced when we picked up the swappers' car. More on that next time.
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