Beverly Hills
We had rearranged our plans for the day after finally being able to get an information session and tour at UCLA. Becca wasn't interested in USC, so we decided not to head over there and instead drove to Beverly Hills after breakfast at our hotel. We walked along Rodeo Drive and then found a sushi place for lunch.
UCLA
After lunch, we went to UCLA for the information session and tour. This was our third time touring UCLA, so we were familiar with the campus already but Rebecca really wants to go there, so she wanted another tour. She walked away with UCLA still at the top of her list.
Holiday Inn Express Camarillo Sucks
Our plans for the evening were to drive to Camarillo and stay there to split up the drive to Santa Barbara. We stopped for dinner at a Cheesecake Factory in a mall in Thousand Oaks and then drove to Camarillo. Upon arrival at the Holiday Inn Express Camarillo, the front desk clerk handed us a letter telling us they did not have a room for us and that we had to drive to the Holiday Inn in Simi Valley, which was about an hour and half back towards L.A., near where we stopped for dinner. The front desk clerk refused to call his manager for us and refused to help us find another hotel. He also took off his nametag and took down the nameplate for the manager when we asked him for the manager's phone number. J. R. called IHG and they were less than helpful, telling us we had to deal with the hotel. After a second call and escalation, and after J. R. had called a Holiday Inn in Santa Barbara to confirm they had a room for the night, IHG contacted the hotel manager and got him to work out a deal with the hotel in Santa Barbara. So we ended up having to drive another hour and a half in the dark. The hotel in Santa Barbara was nice, albeit old. The next morning, they tried to charge us the full price, which we declined to do. They later tried to charge our credit card and it took two weeks of arguments with IHG to get them to reverse the attempt. The hotel manager in Camarillo was told to call us several times by IHG but never did.