I'm finally home!

Hey everyone!

So, after Napa on Sunday, Rachel and I went to see  Much Ado About Nothing. I loved it. I highly suggest it. Monday, I slept in one last time and packed up all my stuff. I sat at Rachel's pool for just long enough to burn my legs and my arms, and then we went to Food Truck Monday and headed out to the airport. My plane was scheduled for 10:10 PM, but I got there around 7:45. I was through security and at my gate by 8:02. The flight itself was long and uncomfortable, as flights tend to be, and it was even worse after having traveled in such comfort on the trains. Seriously, if you ever have a choice, go with the train. It's a little longer, but it is so much more comfortable. The seats are bigger, the aisles are bigger, the food is better, it's generally less expensive.

I got into Philadelphia International around 6:40 AM on Tuesday. I was exhausted, as I only slept for about an hour or two on the plane, and it felt like it was 3:40 AM. I was going to take the SEPTA train to the Philadelphia Amtrak station, but the Amtrak didn't leave until 12:40. I eventually found a little lounge to sit in, and I ended up sleeping there for about another hour. The airport people were planning for a literacy event in one of the connector wings (that made no sense) but I got to listen to a constant loop of songs about literacy, like the Reading Rainbow theme. I left around 10:00, because I felt like a vagrant sleeping on a corner.

I got to the train station around 10:30. It was a beautiful station, and they had a lot of options for food and whatnot if I got hungry. My kindle died twice, my phone was at about half battery, and I was feeling pretty tired, so I just kind of sat and stared. Around noon, my train was delayed. When I went to ask, the woman at the counter told me that the train was delayed because of a fire. After some quick phone searches, I found an article about rail cars catching fire somewhere between Lancaster and Harrisburg, so all PA trains were delayed until they figured out what to do. I started coming up with contingency plans: I could go down to Wilmington and beg a couch off a friend, I could try to get a train to Washington DC and then go up to Pittsburgh from there, I could maybe make it all the way back home to Dover.

Luckily, as I was making plans and kind-hearted souls were calling to say they'd come get me (Thanks, Marg!), Amtrak was making their own plans. When I went to the front desk to ask about a train to DC, the very cranky woman told me that they were going to train us over to Lancaster and then bus us to Harrisburg, at which point we would get back on a train and continue our journey. There were some people who were really angry about the delay, there were many who had no idea why there was a delay, and then there were a few of us (me and two other my-age girls I met) who were just kind of going with it. We got off from Philadelphia barely delayed at all, and I was able to sleep for about an hour on the train--really sleep, as opposed to what I had been doing on the plane and in the airport. The people on the train didn't know why we were getting off, so I let them know what was happening. Once again, there were some grumbles.

At the Lancaster station, we were told that it would be about a half-hour wait for the buses. We all spread out, and I saw the local news show up and get video of us all standing around and then leave. Two buses showed up about 20 minutes after we got to the station, full of people from Harrisburg. Most of the people swarmed toward the buses, and of course there wasn't enough room. In the end, we needed four buses to get to Harrisburg. I got on the 3rd, so I only had to wait about forty-five minutes. While I was waiting, I met two other young girls; one was headed for Johnstown, and the other was headed for Ohio. I had seen the first at the Philly station, asking questions when I was. The other girl and I got into talking, and I found out that she was an English Ed major at Kent state, coming home from New York. We all joked about how the people were swarming the buses when it was clear there wasn't enough room for everyone.

There was a guy next to me on the bus who was talking nonstop to his seat mate. He was a younger guy, and he had just turned pro in golf, and he was training over to Pittsburgh to pick up his girlfriend. He talked constantly, but he and his seat mate were very friendly with each other, unlike everyone else. We all said hello to each other when we sat down, but that was pretty much it. When we were almost to the Harrisburg station, the driver asked if anyone had a smartphone and could look up directions, because his GPS took us to the wrong place. I had been following along with my Google maps, so I was already to go, and yelled out directions for the last few miles or so. The old lady next to me wanted to know how I had gotten the directions so fast, and another wanted to know if I had used "an app" or something else. They were cute.

We finally got to the station, and finally got on our train. I grabbed a window seat, texted the 'rents that we were leaving soon, and went to sleep. This train didn't have wifi, so I wasn't able to watch Avengers on my computer when I woke up. Man, what an inconvenience.

I got home around 10:30 on Tuesday night. Sadie jumped all over the place, and ran around in circles, and then jumped in my lap and licked my face, and then did it all again. I couldn't fall asleep until about 2:00 AM, so I spent most of Wednesday sleeping, not getting up until noon thirty! Last night was more of the same, although this morning I got up around 8:45 and dozed on the couch while we all watched Wimbledon. Tonight, I go to see the Blumers.

So I'm home! It wouldn't have been a trip without some sort of crazy happenings on the train, and while it ended up being a long travel day (just a little over 24 hours of actually traveling) I am very glad to be home.

Thanks for following me, guys! I'll see you all soon!
:) Bethie

Bye bye California!

And so begins my 21 hour trip home. Bye California, it's been great!

Pictures!

Napa and Santa Barbara
https://plus.google.com/photos/105171197567394309177/albums/5895147109820058913?banner=pwa


Santa Barbara, no matter what the album is called online...
https://plus.google.com/photos/105171197567394309177/albums/5894636694644598289?banner=pwa

Napa Valley Wine Train

Well folks, here it is: the thing I have been most waiting for. Today, Rachel and I drove up to Napa for the Wine train, with food and drink and a tour and tasting at Napa Valley's own Grgich Hills Winery. I highly suggest their Zinfandel. But I get ahead of myself.

We got there around 10:15 and signed in. Turns out that our tickets were pins that we got to wear that said "Grgich Hill Winery" with a picture of the train on them. I thought that was really cool. We checked out the wines they had for sale, and looked into shipping some home. The woman in the gift shop told us that Pennsylvania was a "bad state" and that they wouldn't ship any for us, but that we could buy shipping boxes from them--for a nominal fee, of course--and either ship it ourselves or check it when it flew. Neither of us was planning to do either of those things, but it was nice to know.

They started the tour off with a whole bunch of information about the train that we would be getting on. It was hard to hear, because a lot of the people were just talking and talking and wouldn't shut up to listen. They finally called us, and we went out to get on the train. They had a lot of opportunities to get our pictures taken in "set up" places, and the first was right as we got on the train. Rachel and I opted to skip all of these. It seemed silly and expensive.

Once on board, they sat us at a really exquisite table (see the pictures) and brought us a complimentary half glass of the train house wine. We had both gotten vouchers for two drinks each, so it was nice to not have to use them on this first drink; we got to see if it was a wine we would like, and we chose the Sauvignon Blanc. . They took our lunch orders and brought us a delicious salad: baby lettuce with goat cheese and almonds with a something or other dressing that was sweet and tart all at once. I ordered the beef medallions, and Rachel ordered the pork. They also had chicken and two types of fish. We both decided on the chocolate brownie for desert, which we would get when we got back from Grgich Hils. We had about an hour of riding the train and eating (and drinking! We both used our first voucher for a Merlot with our meals. Delish!) before we got to the winery. We were going past all sorts of other wineries, though, and I got a picture of a few.

The car that we were in was beautiful. There were fans up top moving the AC around (it was over 100 degrees F today), we had beautiful silver and china (see picture!) and our server was very polite. Everything was decked out in reds and greens and golds. It felt very lush, and very early 1900s first class. It might not seem like it from this trip, but I don't pamper myself very often, and this was worth the expense. The beef was so tender I could cut it with my fork, and the carrots that came with it were nice and crunchy. There was a long strip of Cambozola cheese on top of my beef, and it went so well with the truffle potato cake underneath it all. Oh, it was heavenly!

When we got to the winery, we met Mike, the guide. He was hilarious. For example, the owner of the winery also goes by Mike, and you might notice from the picture that he is turning 90. One of the ladies joked that our Mike looked pretty good for 90, and he responded "That's what happens when you drink too much on the ride up!" or something similar related to the idea that alcohol was making him look younger (his was funnier). As I said, it was over 100 degrees out, so he hustled us into the winery itself, where it was a downright chilly 55 degrees. He gave us some history of Mike Grgich and the winery we were in, and then we went to taste their 5 wines. He told us how to be wine snobs, but kept insisting that it wasn't about being able to identify the full body or the smells of the wines; it was about enjoying the wine you were drinking and having a good time. He kept saying "It's Ok if you make a mistake, just drink another bottle and it'll all taste great!" He was, as I stated earlier, hilarious, and really informative, and just a very genial guy. When Rachel and I asked about shipping to PA, he did not call us a bad state, but did note that we had some "really archaic liquor laws" while shaking his head at the travesty of it all.

Back on the train, we were put into the lounge car (pictures!) to have our desert and tea for the hourish trip home. It was so leisurely! I half wish I had petticoats and a dress. I had to go to the bathroom at this time, and I have to say: there were marble counter tops, and everything was full sized--the door, the counter, the sink. It was so spacious for a train bathroom! Rachel didn't believe me.

We both still had a drink voucher left, but between the two glasses before the tasting and the five tastes in the  tasting, we didn't have any more room for wine right then. We used them in the gift shop for post cards and a bottle of chocolate wine.

After all that fun, we went to the Jelly Belly factory and did a tour. I had forgotten about this part of the day until Rachel asked if I was still up for it on the way out. The factory wasn't moving, but we got to see all the steps, and we got a lot of free Jelly Belly's along the way.

We checked into our hotel, went to Safeway to get some wine and cheese for dinner to continue the tradition of the day, and came back. We went down to the pool and spa, but there were some pretty obnoxious people in the pool and the hot tub was pretty crowded, so we only stayed for like 20 minutes, if even that long. We came back, and I got to work on this.

Tomorrow, we are going to finally see Joss Whedon's William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Once I realized it would be out when I was in CA with Rachel, I knew I couldn't see it without her. It's the third thing I was most looking forward to (the first being this and The Painted Cabernet combined).

Adios!
Bethie

Wine train!

Late night train fun!

So, there is no one at the amtrak desk at San Jose. This guy that just got off my train was standing at the desk, giving those obnoxious finger-mouth whistles trying to get someone from the back. Of course, they are all loading/unloading the train that just came in. Some people walked in front of him, and he freaked out, being very rude and practically yelling "Excuse me!" Only without the Steve Martin Charm. They jawed back and forth until a guy stepped in and asked what the first guy needed. Turns out he wanted to know which caltrain track to go to, which Amtrak can't help him with and which is clearly marked at the bottom of the ramp, which he said he understood but clearly didn't. He then jawed at the guy helping him and stomped off, muttering and shaking his head.

And the two guys in front of me just missed the Seattle train!

High drama at the San Jose Diridon Station!

Santa Barbara to San Jose

Sleeper Car Fun! I got two meals, free champagne, free wine, and a private place to get away from everyone if I needed to, which I only sat in after dinner. 

The train was two hours late to the station, which was OK by me, but most of the travelers were very upset. The luggage check lady had an argument with a man who checked his luggage (which is free), then went to lunch, and then came back to uncheck his luggage. The woman was upset because they have a "luggage watching" service for $4. So she yelled at him, saying he was just trying to game the system, and that wasn't how it was supposed to be, and now they had to go through and find all of his luggage. He was taken aback (I'm pretty sure he wasn't trying to game the system, but maybe he was a good actor) and was apologizing as she went and got her luggage. Another guy, grandpa aged, kept standing impatiently next to the check in table, cutting up close to people checking in their luggage, and asking the lady when the train was coming, and what the problem was, and so on (I found out later that they needed to switch out a sleeper car due to a blown out AC unit). I wasn't even really paying attention to the guy and he was getting on my nerves. I could only imagine what the actual Amtrak employee was feeling. 

Since I sat outside for about 2 hours, I got to watch a homeless guy make loops and ask for quarters. He probably went around four or five times, asking different people each time. 

Our conductor came over the intercom, saying, “Now Arriving: Salinas. Wohoo!” very much like Art would. The train has been having some issues, and earlier he came on and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, some approximate times for you here,” at the end of which he said “Well, at the rate we’re going, it could be one, three, four, five, heck, we might not even get there.” They’ve been running behind all day, and stuff just keeps getting worse. We just had to switch something over because the electric hasn’t been working.

I saw Florence in the waiting room at Amtrak. I couldn't bring myself to go and sit next to her. She was nice to listen to the first time around, but it was going to be exhausting the second. I was enjoying being in my own little world, and having to talk to another person was going to suck. 

That being said, I sat with all sorts of people on the train. For lunch, I was with two guys traveling from Albuquerque to San Francisco. They took the overnighter to LA and then transferred to this train. The one told me how he used to bike the three hundred miles down to Santa Barbara and then take the train back up on Thanksgiving weekend--a hundred miles a day. At the wine tasting, I sat with an engineer who has been all over the US and Europe. We were having a lot of fun; when the guy came to get dinner reservations, he thought we were together and was really embarrassed when we told him we had just met. We both ended up being seated together for dinner too, along with a couple on their first anniversary.  She works for Boeing and he is a paramedic from the OC. We also had a good dinner and talked about high school and traveling; they had to ask us to leave because they needed the table. 

This is my last "travel" train experience. Tomorrow is the Wine Train in Napa, the other thing I am most looking forward to. One thing that everyone I have talked to has said is that the train is such a nice way to travel. It's comfortable, it's a slower pace. You don't have to worry about cars and parking. I've gotten to meet so many more people on the train than I ever do when I fly. It's nice! 

I think I'm at San Jose!