I am the only travel agent in the world that has been aboard a train and never left the station, and roamed the decks of a huge cruise ship but never left port. Until now that is.
I decided on a spur of the moment trip to Santa Barbara with hubby for his birthday, but did not relish the drive through city traffic. Instead I wanted our mini vacation to start as soon as we left the house. So, we opted for the train up the coast. Since this was my first adventure by train I was like a kid in a candy store. We traveled in the middle of the week so the train was practically empty and very quiet. We sat on the top deck so we could see everything there was to see.
We departed from the Oceanside, CA terminal and therefore began our journey with the ocean at our window. We zoomed up the coast speeding past all the cars on the road and watching the surfers ride the waves. I figured we would be there in no time flat at the rate we were traveling.
Well that fun lasted approximately 20 minutes. We slowed down to a crawl upon arriving at the first stop along our route which was San Clemente. We were only there long enough to hurry people on and off which only took a few minutes. At this point I was still pretty excited because I had never visited the San Clemente train station before and it was very old and quaint with lots of flowers. It was a nice first stop.
Unfortunately, the next stop was San Juan Capistrano which you could hit with a stone from San Clemente so needless to say we barely got above a crawl for the next 5 minutes. After that we stopped in Irvine, which was about 13 minutes away, Santa Ana, about 10 more minutes up the track and then Anaheim. This little stretch of travel took almost an hour. I am not sure how, except that we travel very slowly in this area since it is so congested and residential. At one point I thought if I got out and pushed (or at least walked) we might get there sooner.
After Anaheim came Fullerton and then the longest stretch thus far...to Los Angeles Union Station. Let me tell you a little bit about what lives near the tracks between these 3 destinations. This is where many commercial storage yards are located including where old school buses and porta-potties go to die. There are junk yards and scrap yards and lumber yards and storage facilities that appear to be lived in. Let me just say this was not in any way a glamorous journey through the city. I am glad we didn't actually stop at any of these places, but I would have been happier if we had been going faster.
I was so excited about arriving into Union Station that I insisted on getting out to take pictures. I expected to see some really cool architecture and things like you only see in the movies. I had exactly 13 minutes I believe the conductor said. So, I ran off the train and down the corridor into the station with
my camera. I didn't really know where I was going, I was just part of the herd. Well, when the herd arrived at an intersection they all split up and went their separate ways, leaving me to wonder which yellow brick road I should take. I couldn't see anything relevant except endless pathways to somewhere and I didn't know how long it would take me to get to where I could take some cool pictures so I just kind of froze and took in the scenery. Everyone seemed to know where they were going except me. I decided that Union Station was no big deal and I made my way back to Platform 9 3/4 and got back on the train. It really was the best decision for all involved.
Leaving Los Angeles I figured it wouldn't be long now. It takes less than an hour by car from here. Wrong again. Next stop was Glendale, about 5 minutes away, then a hop, skip and crawl to Burbank, then Van Nuys, then Chatsworth, then Simi Valley, then Moorpark.
These little towns were actually located in the hills that reminded me of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We even got to go through a tunnel or 2 or 3. I kind of felt like one of the settlers coming across country by train. Coming out of the mountains we stopped in Camarillo and then finally hit Oxnard which put us back on the coast. Did you know Oxnard was the strawberry capital of the world? Well, now you do! Any boy were they busy pickin' strawberries!!
After Oxnard, we did finally gain a little speed on our way to Ventura. At least now we were looking at the beautiful Pacific Ocean once again and could even smell that welcoming rotten kelp odor. Yum! (at least it is to a girl raised near the ocean). After Ventura we had what seemed like a never ending 25 minute ride to our next stop which was Carpenteria. I started
wondering just how many towns they could possibly cram in between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, when finally...just a mere 4 hours and 45 minutes since we left Oceanside, we arrived in Santa Barbara.
I have to say there was no stress from driving, no high gas prices, no getting lost, no parking to pay for and we could eat and drink to our heart's content. Those are some pretty good benefits as long as you have nothing else to do for that long. If you want to get there in a hurry, you better drive.
I still haven't actually cruised on a ship...do they go faster than a train? And do they make as many stops?
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