Quick Weekend Getaway: Part 1

I'm really starting to get into riding the train. So when my friend invited me down to Dana Point for a weekend visit, I chose Amtrak over hoofing it 70 miles down south in my car. With Southern California traffic (and roadwork!) as unpredictable as it is, you never know when a 2-hour car trip will turn into half a day's worth of driving.

A round trip Amtrak Business Class ticket from Union Station to San Juan Capistrano station (about 4 miles from Dana Point) and back is a mere $50, so I figured that was my best bet. Business class offers much roomier seating, plus complimentary wine, coffee, juice and snacks. Even though it's only 1 hour and 15 minutes to San Juan, I thought I'd treat myself.

Union Station signage

The Surfliner was my train and I was pleasantly surprised by the clean and roomy interior of the business class cabin. I leaned the seat back, put on my headphones and let the iPod blare away as I prepared to soak in the beautiful scenery that would surely soon reveal itself through my window.

Was I ever wrong. The entire trip from LA to San Juan was like riding through the stinky armpit of SoCal. Nothing but train graveyards, trash heaps, cement parking structures, abandoned buildings and miles of brown, dead grass. "This is where serial killers go to dump their victims," I thought, morbidly, as I stared out in disbelief. Amtrak should rename this train the Trashliner, as it would be more appropriate.

Beautiful sights along the way

Thankfully my iPod provided a colorful soundtrack to the urban decay, so it wasn't so bad. Props to Mika, Dan Spreewald, Rachael Yamagata, Aimee Mann and the other musicians who live in my digital music device for their inspired (and inspiring) sounds.

The other view from my comfy seat

Sorry there's not much food in this post, but I promise more with the next posts about my trip. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of the snack pack: Tortilla chips and salsa, spreadable cheese with some rosemary crackers, dried fruit and some French sugar cookies. I didn't eat anything except the sugar cookies, which were decent. I gave the rest to my friend when I arrived in San Juan Capistrano. More on that tomorrow...

Snack attack pack rat