Home via San Francisco & more Train Rides

We arrived home on Monday, glad not to be mixed up in the hurricane where we were on the east coast of America just two weeks ago!

Walking the Golden Gate Bridge

Following from my last post: The late running AMTRAK California Zephyr got us to San Francisco at about 10pm, and a short taxi ride got us to our accommodation where the host had left a key for us to settle ourselves in. Another very pleasant and roomy apartment, where we quite enjoyed spending the next five nights. As has become our custom on this trip, we started our exploration of San Francisco by taking a 'hop on/off' bus tour to get a feel of the city, and later walked along the waterfront & took a cable car ride. On our second day we repeated the hop on/off bus tour, but alighted at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked the 3 km back across. Like a lot of the infrastructure in the US, it's not in brilliant condition with rust & paint peeling evident.

A Blimp over the Golden Gate Bridge

In Yosemite Valley

We had arranged for the next day to take a train & bus trip to Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, it rained on & off all day, but the trip was still quite enjoyable and worthwhile. Despite cloud, we were able to see the significant mountain scenery of the valley, and take a walk through the forest. The trip involved a taxi then a bus ride across the bay to Emeryville, a 2 hour train trip to Modesto, then a 2 hour coach ride into the valley. After 3 hours to explore the valley (saw several antlered deer & a coyote close up), we went through the reverse transport sequence back to our apartment about 11pm. A long day, but worthwhile.

Wildlife - A Deer in Yosemite Valley

'World's Crookedest' -  Lombard St with a
Cable Car on Hyde St crossing at the crest

On our final day in San Francisco we did a ferry trip to Alcatraz Island: interesting, but the place is rather shabby & poorly maintained – especially when you hear it gets a million visitors a year, and they charge $26 each (seniors rate) to visit! After lunch at the attractive Fisherman's Wharf area, we walked along the waterfront looking for another cable car ride. We found the cable car terminus with along queue for rides, so opted to walk up along the cable route and take some pictures. And I mean UP more than along. Hyde street is VERY steep. I'd seen photos of the cable car with Alcatraz in the background, (and wanted to get a similar photo), but was still amazed at the grade! Near the crest Hyde St crosses Lombard St, which has a section claimed to be the 'crookedest street in the world'. Not sure if that is true, but it did create a chaotic intersection- with cars turning to drive down the 'crookedest street', cable cars stopping in the middle of the intersection, locals trying to drive past, and tourists (like me) trying to photograph and video the whole scene from various angles!

Cable Car ascending Hyde St, San Francisco

California Street Cable Car, San Francisco

The next day was an early start as we got the bus across to Oakland to catch our final Amtrak ride – the Coastal Starlight, an all day trip to Los Angeles. Another excellent experience. If we are asked to name the highlights of our 9 weeks away, 'Amtrak' will be included. 

The Coast Starlight south of San Jose

'Coach Class' on AMTRAK's California Starlight - roomy!

As we were not on this train overnight, we traveled in the Coach Section but still had access to the Observation and Dining Cars (and more great meals!). Once again, great views of the countryside, (and seaside as we got further south), and comfortable and spacious seating in the upstairs of double deck carriages. (The lower deck has disabled access & seating, baggage room, 3 washrooms & toilets and staff areas.) 

Oil wells beside the railway north of Santa Barbara

The timetabling of this journey seemed pretty generous, as despite running 30 min late at Santa Barbara, we arrived at Los Angeles 30 minutes early. This resulted in us waiting on the front porch of our B&B in Hollywood, as our hosts were no at home on our (early) arrival. No problems however, as we had already stayed here at the start of our travels 9 weeks ago.

Los Angeles (distant, left) & Century City from the Getty Center

Los Angeles was a lot warmer than we experienced in San Francisco (or Chicago, New York etc), and we spent our final 3 days visiting the Getty Centre and Museum, revisiting Santa Monica, and a couple of hours at the La Brea Tap Pits – an palaeontological excavation in the Los Angeles suburbs, where the remains of many now extinct animals have been found, apparently trapped in oil seeps over the last ~40,000 years. 

Finally through the (rather dumpy) LAX Airport and onto Qantas QF12, a rather nice, new, quiet & reasonably comfortable A380 Airbus back to Sydney! After a Cityrail train ride (I won't make any comparisons to Amtrak here) home from Sydney Airport, there were some pretty impressive grandchildren-produced 'welcome home' banners on the garage door!

It's great to be home again and we're feeling very fortunate to have been able to make such an amazing trip! Now there's unpacking and 4500 photos to deal with, and lots of spring gardening to keep us busy!

...and end of the trail for us!