Are We There Yet?

While my parents were here for my Dad’s 70th birthday earlier this month, we decided to take a train ride from LA to Sacramento to visit my mom’s sister. It would be my mom’s first train ride ever and she got as excited as I get at a CHANEL sale. Which is very.

So here they are at Union Station in downtown LA with my niece Z:


We take Amtrak’s Coast Starlight route, which actually would take you all the way to Seattle. Now I’ve had my fair share of train rides around this planet of ours, some with luxurious overnight compartments and others with livestock (please don’t ask; I’m still trying to repress those memories), and I’d have to rate this train pretty high up there for comfort. My favorite place on the whole train is the observation deck,

where you could plug in your gadgets (ahem, another gratuitous shot of a handbag)…

and where you’d have to claim your seat early on to enjoy these views as the train worms itself along the coastline:

These are dolphins that are way too fast for my camera when we stop near Santa Barbara:

But California is so much more than its beaches…

Unfortunately, once the sun calls it in around 4:30pm,

there’s not much left to do other than to raid the onboard dining cabins. My suggestion is to pack your own picnic basket with better food and a good movie or book on your tablet if you are taking one of these long train rides. And by long I mean 13 whopping hours to our final destination (it would take only 6 hours to drive from LA to Sacramento). So it’s 2am by the time we get picked up at the station by my aunt,

who’s the mom to this little guy named Mordechai and my new “lap” bff:

Trains are a great way see this huge country of ours if you have a lot of time and patience to spare. And if you don’t mind the person sitting next to you (moi) asking Are we there yet?

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *