Trip Report: January 22, 2003
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Klamath Falls to Santa Barbara
"Why don't you join me at the Opera Pacific on Friday, January 24th?" This invitation is in a Christmas letter from our friend Ellen, a retired travel agency owner from Palo Alto, California. We had never heard of the Opera Pacific, but learned on their web site that its home is the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts, in Costa Mesa, California. They will be performing Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio", an opera which we had never seen. Nor had we seen The Center for Performing Arts, a magnificent structure in the heart of burgeoning Orange County. We accepted, and proceeded to make our arrangements with Amtrak.
We rarely take a working tour without including several events. (Travel agents always try to put nonstop activities into a trip; we want to experience everything possible so we can advise our clients on as many aspects of a destination as we can.) The LA Philharmonic will be performing The Music of Mexico at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Center the very next evening. Serendipitiously, the first birthday party of our grand-niece Lila Lee is going to be celebrated in Huntington Beach that afternoon. We decide to make a week of it.
Monday evening, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, we check the Amtrak web site and learn that the Coast Starlight is expected to arrive in Klamath Falls one hour late at 1045pm. This is verified by agent Byron at the station, and we arrive at 1015 to learn that train 11 has lost another half hour and won't be in until 1115. Great, we have time to exercise by walking up and down the platform until our train rumbles in behind two Genesis locomotives pulling a shortened winter consist of two sleepers and four coaches, plus the amenety cars, the Lounge Café, the diner, and the Pacific Parlour.
Deluxe bedroom D in the 1130 car (right next to the Parlour Car of course) has been made up by our efficient attendant, who moves so swiftly, I never catch his name. We are retiring under a full-moon sky as we begin to roll through the BNSF junction just south of town, and don't awaken until we reach Sacramento at about 730am, only one hour behind schedule. As we leave Davis, it is announced that the dining car is still serving breakfast and there are tables available.
Although the two sleepers are sold out, the coaches are lightly patronized, so the diner is pleasantly uncrowded. Service is swift and we soon have our juice, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and bacon. As our table is cleared, we are slowing for the new Martinez Station, a dazzling brick and glass improvement over the century-old wooden structure originally put up by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Train 712, the San Joaquin service, with double-deck California cars, is waiting on the adjacent track for the Coast Starlight's connecting passengers heading for points in the Central Valley.
This is the train to change to if you were wanting to make a connection with the Southwest Chief. The San Joaquin is a comfortable and fast train, but terminates in Bakersfield. Going on to LA entails a connecting two hour and twenty minute Amtrak Thruway bus ride along some of California's busiest freeways.
We personally do not try to make connections unless absolutely necessary. In fact, we prefer not to connect to Santa Ana from the Coast Starlight, as we would arrive at our hotel in Costa Mesa close to midnight, even if the Starlight arrived in LA on time . Instead we plan an overnight stay at the the El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara. When I mention this proposal to Sylvia, she says, "Why only one night? Let's enjoy Santa Barbara and stay two nights."
After breakfast, we return to our room, which has been made up by our ubiquitous attendant, and settle down with a San Francisco Chronicle. The Starlight is moving purposefully today. We are actually making up time rather than losing more. The heavy rain and overcast of Sacramento changes to patchy clouds and sunshine by the time we reach Oakland, where we have a few minutes to exercise on the platform. Rolling south of Oakland, the skies clear to reveal the brilliant springtime green East Bay hills, including 2600 foot Mission Peak, which we had walked up many times when we lived and worked in Menlo Park, California.
We are glad to be going beyond the Bay Area today, as we are ready to enjoy a long ride, including two more meals in the diner, and a wine tasting in the Parlour Car. Our table mate at lunch is an executive with the Warner Brothers Studio. He is returning to his home in Glendale after spending a weekend at his old Victorian second home in Ashland, Oregon. After descending the scenic Cuesta Grade into San Luis Obispo, we walk back along the platform to photograph the private car Silver Lariat, a former dome coach from the original California Zephyr, which is attached to the rear of #11.
We are gradually making up more time, and when the dining car steward comes around to offer 4:30 or 5:45pm dinner reservations, we tell him that 430 is too early, but we are getting off in Santa Barbara. He advises that we show up in the diner at about 5:15 in order to be finished with our meal by the time we reach our destination. We enjoy a prepared to order filet mignon with baked potato and vegetables. Our entrée is as good as we have ever had on the Starlight, but the desserts have been downscaled since our last trip on Amtrak in December. President Gunn is making every attempt to pinch pennies as our wise Congress debates whether or not to starve Amtrak into oblivion this year.
Arrival into Santa Barbara is two minutes ahead of schedule. Our car attendent carries our luggage down to the platform, asks if we need a taxi, then whistles a Town Car over to us, even helping to carry our luggage to curbside and loading it into the trunk. He receives a nice gratuity, as he has been helpful during the entire trip.
Our destination, the El Encanto Hotel, is a 15 minute ride from Amtrak, which in Santa Barbara is a $22 trip including tip, something to think about if one is planning some trips downtown.
