putting the knit in shizknitz

Planning
As always, I had a difficult time coming up with the right surprise for T. This year, my random google searches turned into something a little more interesting. We’ve talked about traveling by Amtrak before, but had never seriously looked into it. Being a novice rail traveler, it was a little unnerving (not knowing the routine of checking in, train etiquette, not having a car, scheduling etc) but the process of experiencing it all was tons of fun. The whole weekend was a surprise, and T kept thinking that we were taking a boat ride to Catalina.

A colleague suggested a book called Riding the Bus with My Sister based on some of our discussions about life and family. It is written from the author’s point of view, as she travels the buses with her mentally retarded sister, with frequent flashbacks to her childhood. Although I’m still only halfway through, I can understand why he recommended it - there is much truth to be said in the underlining words, whether it be my own interpretation or the story of the author. There was a point at which she mentions that she’s worked so hard all her life for “the BIG job, the BIG house, the BIG…” and in the midst of it all, has lost sight of all else that means so much in her life. She found herself single, workaholic, and lonely. This was a fitting story to read on our weekend journey. Traveling by train forces one to give up control - of schedule, of company and of even room temperature. It also gave us both some time to do the things we normally don’t have the time to do - read and knit. But I digress…

Sat 5/14
Nancy picked us up at 9 AM. Amtrak suggests you be at your station 30 min prior to your departure time. We had enough time for a Starbucks stop - and I knew we were in for a great day when the latte tasted so damn good. The Alvarado exit for Union Station was closed, so thankfully she knew where we were going. She dropped us off for our 10:15 AM departure, and we ventured into the mass exodus in the station. Apparently, the Oxnard Strawberry Festival has brought in hundreds of other train riders going in the same direction we were headed. Union Station really is gorgeous, with tall ceilings and this old 1920’s feel architecture. There were gardens and fountains outside for smokers and photo opportunists alike. Since I had already made reservations online, we were told by Amtrak Information to stand in line for the Amtrak Quik Trak ticketing machine - there must have been a dozen people in line for each machine. Once it was our turn, it was fast - pop in the credit card you made reservations with, check your info, and out comes your tickets. We then learned that we needed to get a boarding pass (this actually is not typical at the other stations), which turned out to be another very long line. The train was then delayed by 1 hr 30 min, very typical of the Coast Starlight Express. There was a line for the sleeper cars, and a line for the regular coach seats. The “boarding pass” consisted of a little strip of colored paper with the location you were heading and the number of persons in your party. They also indicated which number train car to get on. We then continued to wait until they called us to board closer to noon.

Upon entering the train car, the conductor (?) told us which seats to actually occupy. The seats were surprisingly roomy, even in coach and I was relieved to get an ocean view seat. The seat reclines, a thing pops up to support your legs and other than being a little cold, it wasn’t that bad. Soon after departure, they announced the opening of the dining cart, snack bar, and the movies they will be showing in the kid’s play area… it was like being in a plane with more mobility. However, unlike the plane, we were riding with some Amish people. I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen Amish before, and I would have taken pictures of them if it weren’t so obvious….they were cute, with their aprons and bonnets and head thingys. We made our way to the dining car closer to closing, and was seated with another lady on her way to Oakland. They had a pretty good sized menu .. T had a chicken sandwich and I had a salad. We arrived in San Luis Obispo around 5 PM and our hotel sent a taxi to pick us up.

The Hotel
We were a short distance away, and we learned from the taxi driver that SLO has a little trolly that drives around town and only costs .25 cents. We checked in and were greeted by another cute room. I’m really starting to like these cute rooms, similar to the one we stayed at for Valentines Day. However, I don’t know if it was because we had such a great experience then, or because this was *my* surprise, but I started to find little details that were amiss. Take towels for example - there was only one big one. Also, there was a little gift and card sitting on the table at the entrance of the suite, but it turned out to be addressed for another couple’s anniversary. The main windows also looked into their parking lot. Let me stop there, because I’m starting to sound negative, and the place really was cute. They have all sorts of gift shops on the premises and great apple dumplings.

SLO
We did lots of walking - it was about a 45 minute walk to the downtown area full of shops, and so we made this round trip Sat evening and Sun morning. San Luis is a cute coastal town - Santa Barbara-ish, but even SLOwer… there was an animal adoption fair going on near the Mission where I saw where my Alpaca yarn comes from (please don’t ask why I thought Alpaca were another type of Sheep) as well as the nastiest gum wall!

Sun 5/15
Taxi to the SLO Amtrak at 2:30 PM (same driver!) for our 3:15 PM departure. Although we already had our tickets, we consulted the people at the counter for any pre-board info. Well, turns out the Coastal Starlight is running 2.5 hrs behind. At a 9:05 arrival in LA, that means we’re looking at closer to midnight. Our other option? A 3 hour bus ride to Santa Barbara, and then a free upgrade to Business Class travel back to LA onboard the Pacific Surfliner. In fact, it was so much cheaper to take the bus route that they refunded one of my tickets. We had picked up some boxed lunches from the Apple Farm Restaurant (again, we were missing cookies!) that we had something yummy to eat before boarding the buses around 3:15 PM. I obviously hadn’t been on a bus in a long time, or I’ve gotten larger - the seats were smaller than I remembered, even knitting was hard. We stopped at all the smaller cities in between SLO and SB - Solano Beach, Solvang, one stop was at the local IHOP Restaurant parking lot. Getting off the bus was certainly a relief, around 6:30 PM.

We had a short stop in Santa Barbara before we boarded. The train was pretty packed, and the story was that it would be absolutely full at Oxnard as all the people were returning to LA from the Strawberry Festival. We boarded Business Class, except this time there was no assigned seating. We went upstairs to find rows of even roomier seats going in both directions, some with a table so 4 can face each other. There were TV’s on the back of the seats as well as free drinks (water, soda, wine) and snacks (pre-packaged). The ride home was fan-tastic - wine, crackers and cheese with beautiful sunset ocean views as we sped by the 101 freeway traffic back to LA. We arrived home around 9:35 PM, just in time to crash for another busy week ahead of us. It was a wonderful quickie weekend getaway, and would recommend this to anyone. Next time, perhaps we’ll try Seattle?

P.S. I fell in love with the Rosemary Crackers and a little searching on their website found me a box of 100 cracker packs for $13.50. Can’t wait!