Leaving San Francisco

The day:  Wednesday

Mission:  Get on train to take us to Los Angeles

San Francisco was lovely, the only oddity we found was trying to get a taxi to take us to the Amtrak Station in the morning. We had heard, from our hotel, that no taxi would come to the hotel to take us to the Amtrak Stn because it wasn't worth their while. We were told where we could go to get a taxi, so we proceeded to the taxi area about a block away.

The first taxi driver in line put our bags into his cab but when we told him where we were going, he said he didn't know where it was or how to get there and proceeded to take our bags out of his cab. The cab driver behind him tried to tell him where it was and told us that he knew but the driver insisted he didn't know how to get there and unloaded our bags. 

The second driver refused to take us well but didn't give us a reason. The third driver in line refused to open his window to talk to me but the the 2nd driver hailed down a passing cab and said that this driver would take us.   What we discovered was that the fare to the Amtrak Stn (which was $9) was not worth their time as they could miss out on a bigger fare to the airport. The driver that took us ended up getting an $11 tip on a $9 fare as I was so relieved to find someone that would take us. I imagine in a small way that this is what discrimination might feel like. 

We did arrive at the Amtrak Stn in plenty of time to begin the next leg of our journey. We were able to walk along the waterfront and take our last looks at the city, before boarding the bus that would take us to Oakland to catch our train. 

The next 12 hours were spent on the train watching the scenery go by. There were rolling green hills, fields of produce, oil fields and a large cattle ranch.  It was only about the last 4 hours of the trip that ended up being along the ocean but when we got there the views were spectacular.  Photos from a moving train are not that great but I will include a couple. 

We spent most of the trip in the parlor car in large comfortable seats, getting up to eat - breakfast, lunch, dinner. A person could gain weight doing this for many days in a row.  We arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles on time and so ends our trip on the Coast Starlight.

Tomorrow is another day. 

BLou.