Vacation Blogs Day 1

I am back from vacation and I am sifting through notes and recollections for the six days of possibly the most frustrating, in many ways, vacation I have ever known.  There were good parts-  hanging out with my husband and my mother in law, which was mostly the point of this vacation.  Almost NOTHING went as anticipated.   Maybe I should not expect anything next time and I will be surprised.

DAY ON on Amtrak

My "romance" with train travel  pretty much dies on Thursday.  I've been on trains before and I was sure I would love this trip from Van Nuys to Oakland.  People who have taken the train said I would love it too.  We upgraded to Business class, which gave you free WiFi two bottles of water and $6 off the food.  The seats were larger, which was a good thing, because Chris is a large man,   This experience does not have me hungering for more and as I write this in the hotel, I am not looking forward to the trip home.  When I was on the train before, we had wonderful service.  This time, although it was a long haul train ( this is the Coast Starlight, Northbound I am talking about), we might just as well have been riding an MTA bus.  I had to hunt down a conductor to ask my questions and I am Still not sure I got the right answers. We will see. ( The answer was yes and no, but it worked out ok)

AS I suspected, the best seats on the observation car were staked out early and were not relinquished until the beach scenery was gone.  On the plus side, we did get seats on the beach side of the train in Business class.  Those seats were nicer and roomier than coach.

We snagged seats upstairs on the Beach side and that was very nice until the aging Valley Girl sat down behind us and got on her phone and began yapping.  She complained- LOUDLY_ that she had to buy an upgrade to Business Class to get WiFi  and that she was PISSED that she could not sit in the observation car and do her work. I did not realize just how far it is from Van Nuys to San Luis Obispo, HER final destination. Maybe it just seemed longer.  She was very loud on her multiple business calls.

The scenery was lovely and Chris and I took turns taking photos.  There are places I just want to visit, by car this time, to get some nice photos.

The food on the train deserves it's own page.  Go to my restaurant review page www.stuffyoucanstomach.com  to see the gory details!

The trip was long, but we did get to Oakland on time, which was nice.  The snafu of missing my Mother-in law, who had a new phone number and thought we had it was a bit disconcerting and began the  series of WTF moments that made up this vacation.

AS she has just adopted a few cats and I am allergic, we spent the night at a local hotel which will be covered in the next blog