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| Leaving Seattle with a beautiful sunrise |
Usually January is when we take our 'get out of DC/Winter' vacation. This year because we knew we would be in Seattle for a longer time for Christmas and the 80th Birthday surprise we decided to tag on a few extra days and instead of flying somewhere far away, we stayed in country, but we still desired a little warmth and sun! (We got some warmth but left the sun in Seattle!)
The day after my mom's birthday, we caught the train from Seattle down to California. The train left about 9AM and arrived in Santa Barbara the following day around 6PM. We have taken long distance trains in Thailand/Malaysia as well as South Africa and we have wanted to take a slower journey like this in the US for some time. We also splurged (but not really much - it's really quite affordable to get a small compartment so we each had a bed to sleep in at night. This option also included all meals for the trip. The compartment was tight (there is a larger option) but from there we could look out the window and watch America go by.
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| Plane fuselages lined up on rail cars outside of Boeing Field |
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| It was interesting to pass through Tacoma, our former hometown. |
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| Tacoma Narrows Bridge |
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| Strawberry fields in Watsonville CA |
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| As we rolled through California, at one stop a very talkative passenger got on and immediately set her compartment up with Christmas lights and a full Christmas town set. |
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| Oil |
Our car attendant was great, but we were disappointed in the catering and dining crew which we found lacking (literally lacking food options from the moment we left Seattle - you're out of rolls? how are you out, we just left 3 hours ago?) and very unprofessional in their behavior. This put a damper on the hours we had on the train and left a bad taste in our mouths. BUT, long distance train travel is still a great thing - I would do it again!
We spent a couple days in Santa Barbara (staying at this fantastic little hotel,full review as always on tripadvisor here) before driving on to LA where we hung out with Andrea's brother for a couple days. It wasn't super sunny (as evident in photos below) or warm but it was not DC arctic blast and for this we were grateful.
On our way to where we were staying in LA proper, we took a slight detour to visit the original Moses homestead where my grandmother on my mother's side grew up in La Cañada. Someone from the Moses clan still lives there.
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| Palm Drive - aptly named |
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| Beach almost to ourselves on a drizzly cool day - but I still went swimming for 5 minutes! |
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| And finally a little plan spotting before heading back to much colder Washington DC. |
Duncan
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