I was honored to accept an invitation to attend the University of Southern California (USC) Annual Real Estate Law and Business Forum as a guest of the USC Gould School of Law. My thought was to take in the conference and get ideas for the VA State Bar (VSB) annual real estate conferences. A side benefit was to meet the author of the text I use when teaching Real Estate Transactions at Regent University Law School. Happily, I experienced all of this and more.
The USC program in downtown LA offered so many excellent speakers and break-out sessions that it was difficult to choose which to attend. 
Rick Caruso, billionaire, Chair of the USC Board of Trustees, Pepperdine Law alumus, and CEO/founder of Caruso, an American real estate development company, was the keynote speaker. 
Listening to him talk about his experiences in mixed-use developments was fascinating. He highlighted the economic and aesthetic value of green space, trends in retail rentals, and trends in transportation that affect parking requirements. Some of the other important speakers addressed cannabis law sections, pro bono practice, 55+ housing trends, and commercially viable housing in high-dollar areas such as New York City. Virginia is well behind the curve in most of these areas but Northern Virginia is leading our state with the new Amazon complex. A fun fact is that the building plans had to be modified to remove all escalators because they aren’t dog-friendly.
With the work portion of the trip complete, I headed northward for the weekend with my three sons and one girlfriend. First stop, Pepperdine University to pick up Daniel. Situated on sprawling hills overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Ocean, no wonder Pepperdine is consistently voted one of the most beautiful campuses in the world. 
All along our drive, the hills were full of brightly-colored wildflowers!
I’m told they’re extra-abundant this year due to the wildfires that scorched the earth a few months earlier. 
Next stop, Santa Barbara! No surprise, but Santa Barbara is a very stylish city with the ocean on the West and mountains in the East. 
Honestly, it looks the way I expect a California town to look — full of beauty and money with lots of excellent restaurants and chic boutiques. Santa Barbara appears to be the home of the beautiful people, much more than Los Angeles with its pollution, congestion, and homelessness. 
The next day, we hopped around small towns in the Ynez Valley. Our time limitation only allowed us to stop at two of the many wineries. I could have spent much longer here playing corn hole on the lawn and soaking up the natural beauty of the countryside.
Next stop was the quaint town of Solvang. This is a funny, little town settled by Danish immigrants. It still holds much of the old culture. There were cafes and pastry shops galore but also a lot of other historic buildings. 
Heading back to LA for the night we hit a bit of the legendary traffic but nothing too horrible that a bit of patience couldn’t overcome. I caught an early morning flight out of LAX and was back at the office before anyone missed me. It’s never easy to say “goodbye” to loved ones but these short trips are terrific!
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” Anthony Bourdain
Kathryn Byler, blog 