Long Winded Tales of Our Summer Vacation to California - Part 1

Disclaimer: Marci did a great job summarizing the highlights of the first half of our summer vacation to California. I'm going to spend a "few" words talking about some of the other stuff we saw and experienced that didn't make the "highlight reel" (essentially, show off some of the other pictures I took). If you haven't read her account of the trip, I'd suggest reading it first.

This summer, Marci and I headed out to California for a summer vacation. We flew to Los Angeles, took a train up the coast to San Francisco, hung out there for a day, then drove further up the coast to do some exploring in the Redwood National and State Parks.

Day 1: Fly from Austin to Los Angeles and crash at a hotel near the LAX airport
Nothing too interesting here. Although, it was pretty awesome hearing 10+ different languages spoken just in the hotel lobby and elevator. Also, the unique individual who got on our elevator will be hard to forget.

Day 2: Shuttle from the LAX Airport to the Amtrack Union Station, then travel by rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco
The Flyaway shuttle was a very clean, cheap, and safe way to get from LAX (airport) to LAX (Amtrack Union Station). Now, lest you not be confused as I was, keep in mind that even though they use the same abbreviation, they are 20 miles apart from each other.

Our Shuttle (Super Exciting, I know..)

The Amtrack union station was a beautiful building. Below you can see the view from the moment you step foot in it's doors.

Union Station Lobby

From there, we made our way though the station to the waiting area. Unlike an airport with different waiting area's per terminal. The station had one mass waiting area (seen below) that had to be pretty old based on the ornate nature of architecture and the distinct lack of any climate control.

Union Station Waiting Room

Ceiling of Waiting Room

As Marci mentioned, the train ride was very relaxing. However, not the ideal mode of transportation if you are in a hurry or an impatient person. The train ride was 11 hours long, but you could have driven from point A to point B in 5.5 hours. The coach area of the train was organized just like an airplane, but with at least 200% more space, very comfy for a tall-ish guy like myself. We spent most of the daylight hours in the observation car (seen below) watching the ocean and other various scenery go by, it was mesmerizing and time flew by.

View from the Train

The people on trains are a different bunch than those on airplanes. Everybody was friendly and smiling. More than one person started up conversations with us! At first it was strange: then enjoyable. Most notably was the elderly woman who sat next to use for a few hours (dozing in and out of sleep) who was on her way to visit her grandchildren for the umpteenth time.

Observation Car

Eventually we went to the dinning car for dinner. Earlier, I managed to sneak into the dining car before it opened for business and got this picture (seen below).  To make sure they could seat and feed everybody the dinning car was seated "community style". This meant we were seated with another random couple, and their small child, to fill up the four person booth.  On the train, this felt completely normal. Had a standard restaurant done this, I'm not sure how everybody would have reacted. Could be a fun idea for a new restaurant though!

Dining Car

Finally, we made it to the Amtrack Station at Jack London Square in Oakland, CA; which was to be our home base for our quick visit to the Bay Area (San Francisco). We waited for the taxi we arraigned to pick us up, but they never showed. After many calls to the driver, he recommended that I just take one of the taxis (from another company) that was most likely waiting nearby the station. We did just that and were at our hotel within minutes.

Jack London Square at night

Next Post... Days 3 and 4: San Francisco and the California Coast!