(Originally posted on Shook-isms on November 14, 2009)
I had a short, but enjoyable visit on Tuesday morning in Portland, between trains (the Empire Builder between Chicago and Portland and the Coast Starlight between Portland and LA). I had four hours, so I bought a one day city train pass and traveled west out of the downtown area to a close suburb, then turned around and took another train back into downtown. I walked through an area called the Pearl District then headed back to the Amtrak station.
The train to LA was longer and more crowded than the Empire Builder. Whereas the Empire Builder was filled with a lot of riders organized by a travel club, mostly from Oregon and Washington, the Coast Starlight was FULL of young people from all over. Both experiences have been interesting. On the most recent leg of my travels, it’s been fun to watch the young folks, generally traveling by themselves, link up over coffee or cards. One fellow I’ve met is named Elliot. He goes to college in Toledo, Ohio and is taking a three week self crafted trip around the country on Amtrak. It is a class project and he is blogging as he travels. Here is the URL for his blog (amtrekkin2.mvstudents.org). Two others were cousins from Browning, Montana who were heading to LA to play in what sounds like an AAU basketball tournament. I also spent time with a husband and wife and their two young kids from Anchorage heading to Anaheim for Disneyland. It seemed like everybody had a story to tell and took the train to make the journey as much a part of the experience as the destination (which I guess was my story).
We saw a lot of Oregon scenery yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), but missed seeing most of the mountains after the sun set. When I woke up this morning (Wednesday), we were at an hour stop in downtown Sacramento. It was very early, but it still gave me a chance to walk around the area surrounding the train station. As the day progressed, I spent all my time in the lounge car. As I said earlier, it’s an easier place to visit with people. We traveled through Oakland/San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey and San Luis Obispo. We are currently approaching the coast and I’m told we will travel along the shore for about 100 miles until we reach Santa Barbara. It’s about 5:00 p.m., so we will lose daylight pretty quickly and miss much of the coastline.
I will arrive in LA around 9:00 this evening (Wednesday) and San Diego around 1:00 tomorrow morning (Thursday). My hotel is a short walk from the train station. If all goes as planned, I’ll be at the NAR convention tomorrow afternoon (Thursday).
I had a short, but enjoyable visit on Tuesday morning in Portland, between trains (the Empire Builder between Chicago and Portland and the Coast Starlight between Portland and LA). I had four hours, so I bought a one day city train pass and traveled west out of the downtown area to a close suburb, then turned around and took another train back into downtown. I walked through an area called the Pearl District then headed back to the Amtrak station.
The train to LA was longer and more crowded than the Empire Builder. Whereas the Empire Builder was filled with a lot of riders organized by a travel club, mostly from Oregon and Washington, the Coast Starlight was FULL of young people from all over. Both experiences have been interesting. On the most recent leg of my travels, it’s been fun to watch the young folks, generally traveling by themselves, link up over coffee or cards. One fellow I’ve met is named Elliot. He goes to college in Toledo, Ohio and is taking a three week self crafted trip around the country on Amtrak. It is a class project and he is blogging as he travels. Here is the URL for his blog (amtrekkin2.mvstudents.org). Two others were cousins from Browning, Montana who were heading to LA to play in what sounds like an AAU basketball tournament. I also spent time with a husband and wife and their two young kids from Anchorage heading to Anaheim for Disneyland. It seemed like everybody had a story to tell and took the train to make the journey as much a part of the experience as the destination (which I guess was my story).
We saw a lot of Oregon scenery yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), but missed seeing most of the mountains after the sun set. When I woke up this morning (Wednesday), we were at an hour stop in downtown Sacramento. It was very early, but it still gave me a chance to walk around the area surrounding the train station. As the day progressed, I spent all my time in the lounge car. As I said earlier, it’s an easier place to visit with people. We traveled through Oakland/San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey and San Luis Obispo. We are currently approaching the coast and I’m told we will travel along the shore for about 100 miles until we reach Santa Barbara. It’s about 5:00 p.m., so we will lose daylight pretty quickly and miss much of the coastline.
I will arrive in LA around 9:00 this evening (Wednesday) and San Diego around 1:00 tomorrow morning (Thursday). My hotel is a short walk from the train station. If all goes as planned, I’ll be at the NAR convention tomorrow afternoon (Thursday).
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