PORTLAND!!

Hi all!

I know you already know I made it to Portland Saturday, so this post is really to catch up on some of the details and add some photos. Sorry it took so long to get up, but it was a busy Saturday evening and Sunday. I haven't seen Jesse in 3 months, so the blog was clearly not a priority.

Anyway, on Friday night I went out for drinks and dinner with Emily and Marc. When our food arrived at the table I realized we had 20 minutes until my train was scheduled to depart. Having checked Amtrack's website before arriving at the restaurant, I assumed it was on time, so we shoveled the food in our mouths, pounded the beers and ran out the door, only to check the schedule and see it was 35 minutes delayed. Oh well. We hung out at the Emeryville train station for a bit, it was fine. The train arrived, I said my goodbyes, got on the train, and sat. For 1.5 hours. Without moving. According to the sign in the station, we were delayed for a "passenger trespass situation". I later found out this was code for suicide by train. Yikes.

Fortunately, it was night time and I was tired. I got probably 3 hours of sleep at various points throughout the night. My neighbor smelled like chicken soup and snored pretty loudly. She did spend much of the night sleeping in the lounge car, though, which was nice.

Then the morning brought the most amazing scenery I'd seen yet. The Cascades beat out the Sierras and even the mighty Rockies in epic sweeping views. Plus there was snow! It was all quite incredible. Photos are below. I couldn't get great photos, sadly, because I was on the aisle and there were lots of trees blocking the view. What I did get does not really show the scenery, but you all probably guessed that.

After all that, we arrived in Portland just under 45 minutes late. Jesse was waiting for me at the station. It was sunny and also raining, which turned out well because we saw the most amazing double rainbow, where we saw the entire arc of both. It was a hell of a welcome to my new home.

I'll tell more about my last few days another time, the final Presidential debate starts in a few minutes. Must get ready!

 Cinder cone next to Mt. Shasta (Northern CA)

 Mt. Shasta's snow-covered north face

 Canyon in southern Oregon

More canyon

The Cascades

I'm currently traveling through snow in the Cascades! Makes bad photos, though. Here's one from earlier.

Coastal Starlight Express

2 hours after shoveling fish & chips, salad and beer down my throat to make my train on time, we're still sitting at the station. By the way, there's not 1, not 2, but 3 small children on my train in my car, none of whom are happy with the delay.

I just want to be in Portland!

San Francisco (day 2)

The weather did not turn out for me today. Oh well. My knee wasn't going to let me walk around too much today anyway. Plus there's that whole "work" thing. So I've been bouncing around from place to place today stealing wifi and power. The day started with a diner-like breakfast near the BART stop I selected at random. It was ok, but despite having "Coffee Shop" in the name, it was without wifi or anything beyond drip brews.

I consulted Yelp while eating my veggie omelette and found my next stop, Contraband Coffee Bar. It was an obvious choice with over 200 reviews on Yelp with a 4.5 star rating. The espresso was very tasty (though for my second cup the female barista made regular instead of decaf, so I've been crazy jittery all afternoon). It was also a lovely place to hang out. Good atmosphere and fun people. The music was pretty good for the first half of my stay, but graduated to metal for the second half. Near the end of my stay, the male barista (baristo? barister?) commented that a regular customer who had just left was "the guitar player in Almost Famous." As many of you know, this is one of my top 5 favorite films of all time. That said, Billy Crudup was definitely not in the coffee shop (he lives in NYC and is probably in some Broadway play right now). I decided not to correct him, but having not seen the person I could not tell you who it was. Oh well.

After that I had a brief lunch at Modern Thai. I was in the mood for some noodles. But there was still work to be done and the misty weather wasn't doing anything to help my willpower, so I moved across the street to Leland Tea Company for a non-caffeinated afternoon beverage. I haven't left yet. The proprietor is very friendly and talkative. We chatted for 5 minutes before tea even came up. I settled on his suggestion of blending the Rooibos Chai with some vanilla. He is also the baker and the other customers and I were part of the decision process of what treats were to be baked this afternoon. The answer was one batch of Earl Grey scones with caramel and one with dark chocolate. And guess what, he doesn't like chocolate either! Take that, everyone else! Oh, and the music has been old jazz/soul in the Nina Simone/Billie Holiday vein. So in short, if you're in San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood (or anywhere in the city really), definitely stop here!

My final train ride is at 10pm tonight. Emily is going to put her best effort to get home before then (she has not the last two nights... yay harvest time!) so we can actually catch up before I head out. Fingers crossed! Also, she promised me better cocktails than I had in Chicago. We'll see about that...

And at this time tomorrow my journey will be over! Portland in 23 hours! I'll keep the blog alive for a while, particularly until I find somewhere to live. That's all for now!

San Francisco (day 1)

It was a lovely day in the Bay Area today! I more than made up for my long train ride by walking around 12 miles with my monster work computer in tow. First there was work (boring!), then lunch at Fisherman's Wharf! Huge sourdough bread bowl filled with clam chowder. I love sourdough. A lot. After that was some more work (again, boring!), but then I had some time to walk along the bay out to the Presidio and back.

There were lovely vistas during all this, and of course the weather made it that much more pleasant. I was a little toasty wearing pants, but overall a successful day. My train tomorrow doesn't leave until 10pm, so I will have another equally lovely day wandering in other parts of the city. Golden Gate Park? Haight-Ashbury? Who knows!?

Lunch!

View of Fisherman's Wharf and surrounding area from the Public Pier

Did you guys know that I like bridges?

Well I totally like bridges!

California Zephyr (part II)

Yes, this is delayed, but I needed some time to look through the 75 photos I took during my ride through the Rockies, the dessert and the Sierra Nevadas to see which deserved to be displayed publicly. Here they are, unedited (because I'm lazy). This is the reason I took the train. It may have been 33 hours, but you don't get views like this on any other mode of transport.

The foothills outside of Denver

Snow-capped peaks of the Front Range 

 One of 48 tunnels in the Tunnel District

The Colorado River, which we followed for 250 miles

Change of rock type and namesake for Colorado itself 

 Sunrise in the Nevada desert

The only halfway decent photo from the Sierras (the sun was always shining on the window)

The California Zephyr at its final destination in Emeryville, CA!

Greetings from steamy San Francisco!

Hey all!

I survived the 33 hour train ride! I know there were some doubts that I could stay sane, but I did. My legs haven't recovered, but as soon as I rid myself of this work I will spend my day wandering around San Francisco. It's supposed to be in the mid 80s today! Crazy! Haven't decided where I'm going to go, but I think wandering Golden Gate Park is probably the best idea.

I'm on the wrong computer right now, so I can't upload photos from the mountains. Needless to say, there were some spectacular vistas, over 50 tunnels, 250 miles along the Colorado River and almost as long following the American River. I was fortunate that I got a row to myself for the overnight section so I could spread out, and even slept a whole 4 hours! Not at once, of course, but one of the sessions lasted a full hour! I'm still waking up at east coast times. I guess that won't last too much longer.

When I arrived yesterday I spent some time working at a coffee shop, then a pizza place. Marc then picked me up and we went to a bar for a quick drink before heading back and watching some Walking Dead waiting for Emily to come home. Everyone was tired, so we didn't stay up too late. Hopefully Emily will be able to leave work at a reasonable hour today so we can have a real evening.

Well, I was waiting around for people to send me stuff, but I'm tired of it, so I'm leaving this coffee shop. I'll try to post photos later tonight.