Amtrak isn’t only Across America – it’s also down! The Coast Starlight runs from Seattle to Oakland (and then further south, but not with me on it this time). It’s so popular that the beds cost too much, and there weren’t many empty seats in coach – they assign seats for these long runs. Linda drove me to the train station; I got there early enough for a little stroll in the International District (it used to be Chinatown but there are many nationalities represented now!) and for coffee with Beryl. She wanted to see me one more time, and it was her 75th birthday!
The train departed at 9:45 and went through some spectacular scenery – what a good choice I made in doing this! It really is about the journey. We went along Puget Sound – so now I guess I’ve seen it end to end – to Tacoma. I saw the Tacoma Narrows Bridge! Not the one that fell apart in a high wind (another video I never tire of), but the replacement, which looks a lot like the old one! The Olympia/Lacey stop was just outside the state capital – okay, so does that count as a state capital visited? In Richmond, I identified three stages of visits – one, just going to or through the city. Two, seeing the capitol building. Three, touring the building (though not all of them have tours). I’ll count this as stage one… and I think if you go to Olympic National Park, you might have to go through Olympia, so maybe I’ll get a closer look someday.
From Seattle to Portland we had National Park Service Trails and Rails commentary, and I spent a lot of time in the bubble-windowed observation car; they tell you to give other people a chance, but as long as there were empty seats, I felt I wasn’t depriving anyone else. Crossing the Columbia River brought back memories of my Lewis and Clark trip. We had a few minutes in Portland, so I went outside – and felt a little bad about not seeing my friend Terry there; I did detour to see her on last year’s Drive Across America, at least.
Mt. Hood was out, and we had a nice view of it, and then we went through Salem, OR – with a view of the capitol building. And then we started to smell smoke – so we evacuated while the fire department investigated. Good thing we were near a town! They thought it was some electrical fire to the drinking-water pump in our car – no big deal - and on we went, making up the time somewhere during the night. We went down the Willamette Valley and through the Cascades – so many evergreen trees! Just gorgeous.
I’d love to see southern Oregon and far northern California – Crater Lake, Crescent City. Another time, and by another means – Amtrak in both directions goes through them in the dark. On this night, we had a slight sliver of moon (what I call the Ramadan moon – this time it actually was the beginning of Ramadan) and some bright stars. I had had lunch in the dining car but opted for dinner at the AmCafe – it was fine. Sleeping in the coach seat – that was okay. Not as nice as a bed, and not as nice as it might have been had the seat next to me been free, but I slept decently enough to make me feel I could get away without a bed for my New Orleans to New York train ride.
I arrived on time at 8:35 am in Oakland, and my friend Paul was waiting for me – he’d been out of town when I came through in February, so it was nice to catch him here (I saw him again in New York a couple of months ago, which was a bonus!). We went through the Oakland produce market – already packing up for the day – to a breakfast place. He always has interesting things going on and we have great conversations. Crab cake benedict – now that’s the way to end a long train ride and start a day!
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