Day 8 of the trip was one of my favorites despite us being on the train basically the entire day. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over California with palm trees in sight. We quickly got to the Los Angeles station almost a half hour early. We only had to wait in the station until 10 am to take the Coast Starlight up to Emeryville.
We boarded the train and after being assigned seats that didn’t exist we settled in. The only really bad thing about the ride was this one man who was in our train car who stunk. You cannot fathom the stench of this man. We quickly ran to the viewing cart where we spent the entire time until it got dark and then we were forced back into the stinky cart. I’m not over exaggerating the smell, people were literally asking to upgrade to business class to escape this man’s stench and most of our cart followed us and also spent the entire time in the viewing cart. Even the conductor assigned to our cart would spray febreze several times an hour and it didn’t even slightly help the smell.
Anyways I did say that this was one of the best days despite this awful man, and that reason is because of the view. About an hour or so after we were out of Los Angeles we began going along the coast against the Pacific Ocean. And when I say going along the coast I mean that we were right there, the rail was next to the beaches, nothing separating the two. There were times where I thought the waves would lap up and hit the train. It was a stunning view. The sun was shinning and there were barely any clouds. I ended up napping in the sun, falling asleep to the view of the ocean and awaking to the same sight.
I fell absolutely head over heels with this part of California. I even made up my mind that I want to one day live on the beach in Santa Barbara. There were lots of people who brought their campers and parked in the parking lot next to the beach and looked like they lived there all year long. Even living in a shack on the beach there would be incredible. Coming from the east coast I can tell you I have never witnessed a place around us that took my breath way as much as this section did.
I didn’t want the ride to end because it was such an incredible sight and made me feel all warm and cozy inside. However sadly it did come to an end, before the sun even set. After a few hours on the coast we went back inland and saw more of desert and fields and even some giant mountains. On the way we saw lots of deer and cows to keep us occupied.
Emeryville wasn’t too terrible a station. It was confusing at first on how to get across the train tracks since our hotel the Marriott was across the way, but once we found out it was only a slightly rough walk dragging our luggage for 10 minutes to the room. After the yucky Rodeway it was definitely nice to stay in a classy place with a clean fresh room. It still wasn’t as great as our first place in Santa Fe but it was definitely nice enough, plus we were finally in California, we’d made it coast to coast.
Brookside Photography 