Enjoying the Coast Starlight Train from Los Angeles to San Francisco

 Previously, we’ve left from Union Station, which, while incredibly romantic and a beautifully historic station, is a trip through major traffic from our Encino home, and you have to pay for parking, once you arrive. Since the opening of the Van Nuys station, we’ve enjoyed a short ride to the train depot, parked our car for free and boarded hassle-free. For many of you that are used to crowded stressful airport security checks, crowded airline boarding lounges, and cattle herding into the plane, train travel is incredibly liberating and blissful. You show up at the station with your tickets, stand on the platform, get on the train and settle into your room; it’s easier, faster and more fun than checking into a luxury hotel! The staff at the station was helpful to the point where we started to look for hidden cameras.

The sleeping car attendant helped us load our luggage and settle in. She brought us a snack and someone from the dining car came by the room and made our lunch reservations. I knew that there were new personal entertainment players available, loaded with the latest movies, but I didn’t want my five-year-old to know about that yet. Part of the reason I like my family to travel by train taking twice the time it would take to drive, is that I enjoy the quality time we spend together, away from computers and televisions, watching incredible views of the California Coast wizzing by our sleeper car window, sharing a rolling meal in the dining car with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, playing games in the parlor car. Heck, my daughter has a blast just walking in the space between the jostling train cars.

Lunch came quickly, and I pressed the waiter to seat us on the ocean side. They weren’t very busy, sad for Amtrak, but wonderful for us, so we commandeered that table for several hours as we worked our way through cocktails, salad and entrée. I thought that there would be some incredible scenery going by, so I brought my camera to the table, and my suspicions were confirmed. I took literally over a hundred shots, many of which will be turned into paintings in the near future. Dessert kept my daughter interested in hanging out in the dining car longer and coffee extended our command of the strategically located table as more beautiful scenery delighted our eyes. We couldn’t stop ourselves from continually telling each other how fun it was to ride on the train.

San Luis Obispo station was coming up and it was announced that we were 40 minutes ahead of schedule, so we called a couple of friends there and asked if they could meet us at the station for a quick get together. Up for adventure, they said yes and met our arriving train. The conductor allowed them to board and take a tour of our sleeper. We hung out in the snack bar and caught up. They commented how civilized this mode of travel seemed, and we agreed wholeheartedly. 

After we said our goodbyes, we walked to the front of the train, looking for the kids’ car, an open car with some benches, toys, games and children’s movies, playing on a television. We didn’t find that car, but instead, accidentally found the luggage car, an open, cavernous car reminiscent of hobo movies. At this moment, I was glad that Amtrak had such a generous carry-on policy; I was happy to have my luggage with me in the same car as my room.

We walked the entire length of the train, back to our sleeper which was in the very last car, or should I say we trotted, trying to keep up with our 5-year-old’s excited pace. I finally let the cat out of the bag about the personal entertainment players, and our sleeping car attendant brought two to our room, one for the little girl to watch kid’s movies and one for the adults to watch “Music and Lyrics”. By the time we were finished with the credits, we were rolling into San Jose. How funny it is that time drags on during a flight but flies by when riding on a train.

Before my wife’s mom picked us up the next day, we splurged and stayed a night at the Fairmont, a couple of blocks from San Jose station, next door to the San Jose Museum of Art where we saw a fabulous exhibit of Camille Rose Garcia’s tragic, but beautiful, paintings. We spent the week doing a variety of relaxing activities - watching the sun go down in Pacifica, sharing a bottle of Cabernet with my sister-in-law on the patio of her beach shack; celebrating the fourth of July in Redwood City, enjoying their historic parade and massive festival and antique car show; but the highlight of the week was an extremely elegant dinner out at Acquerello, the best elegant Italian Restaurant in San Francisco. Owned by an old friend of my wife’s, it was a place of high style and adventurous, unbelievably delicious courses of elegantly prepared food.

We figured that there would be some imbibing during the meal, so we took the local CalTrain from Belmont into San Francisco and walked up Polk Street for about an hour to get to the restaurant. My five-year-old has been to my hometown, New Orleans, many times so she spotted the transvestites on Polk right away. At the restaurant we experienced the meal of a lifetime, 9 courses, each paired with fabulous wine selections, mostly from Italy. It’s one thing to go to an expensive, renowned restaurant and have incredible filet mignon or lobster; it’s another thing to go to a place like Acquerello where you see lamb tongue or octopus on your plate and think, “can I eat that?”, but once you take a bite, it’s the most incredible thing you’ve ever tasted. That is what I call an epicurean adventure, and ours lasted over five hours. It was an experience we will never forget. I’m glad my five-year-old has impeccable manners (we eat out a lot), and that we were able to take her on that gastronomic ride with us.

On our trip back to Los Angeles, I have to disclose that the train was 6 hours late. It was not an inconvenience for us, because we called the station the night before and checked on our boarding time. I feel sorry for those people that had been on it since Seattle and were inconvenienced by the tardiness, but it meant that we could sleep in and take our time packing on the day of our departure. We don’t use the train for utilitarian “point A to B” travel, rather it’s our mode of conveyance when we crave adventure, relaxation and an aesthetic, civilized experience.

Our sleeping car attendant was very empathetic when we finally got on. We missed lunch so he brought us some snacks and a bucket of ice to go with the bottle of Champagne that we brought with us. Dinner came and went quickly, and we settled into our room with full tummies and personal movies. We went to sleep about 10 and our attendant woke us about 30 minutes before we arrived at Van Nuys. Hey, at least there was no traffic at 2 in the morning when we drove home from the station!

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. Paintings from his travels can be viewed at KeatingArt.com. For more info, go to WarrenKeating.com.