July 4th travel

Mixed messages are in store during the holiday weekend. Overall, fewer folks from Socal will be getting away, according to the Auto Club, with travel by car expected to drop 3.2 percent from last year. That's a pretty sharp drop, considering that the price of gasoline is $1.50 a gallon cheaper this year than last. However, air travel will be up almost 2 percent from 2008 - mostly because the airlines had summer sales a few months back and because leisure travel does seem to be picking up a bit. Travel destinations are the usual suspects:

1) San Diego
2) Las Vegas
3) Arizona (primarily Grand Canyon)
4) San Francisco
5) Central Coast (Santa Barbara to Monterey)