It's a beautiful sunny, spring Sunday morning, the birds are chirping and Lilo wants to be held. I'm well rested and feeling great after a good night's rest in my own bed. No matter how great it is to travel, it's great to be home again, too. I'm back in San Diego from my trip along the coast to the Bay Area. My "local" sister, Heather, and I do this every year. We take the Amtrack Surfliner to LA and then the Starlight train along the coast northward, a really beautiful train ride, and visit my sister, Evva, in Mountain View, in the south peninsula part of the San Francisco Bay area. One week, three sisters, no husbands. It's a lot of fun and we usually talk and laugh a lot and drink tea and craft to our heart's content. So, that's just what we did this year, too.
The train ride was just lovely. We left early on the 12th from Solana Beach Train ststion after a quick breakfast at VG's Bakery. They're voted Best Donut in San Diego, San Diego Magazine. Best doughnuts in the world. Here's the train station. The architecture is interesting.
It was sunny and bright on the way up there and the views were just great all day. The attendant took good care of us. Because I have difficulty walking, they seated us downstairs and our nice attendant, Andre, brought us our meals from the dining car. The food was surprisingly good. The train food I remember form the past was not so good, but times have apparently changed. We had a big spinach salad for lunch and a roasted chicken for dinner that were both good.
The views were to die for along the coast, especially the beaches around Carpinteria and the dunes and beaches at Vandenberg Air Force base, also the farm country around Paso Robles. The wild flowers are in bloom right now all along the way,dark violet-blue lupins and bright orange California poppies, purple lilacs and fields of little bright yellow field flowers, I forget their names.
Actually many green open country places with cows and horses were just beautiful and other urban, industrial areas were gritty but interesting.
After sundown it rained hard. The cars on the adjacent freeway were sliding through deep puddles, but the train did not seem to mind.
On the way up I was knitting on a red shawl, mostly Evelyn Clarke's Swallowtail pattern, with a few mods to suit me. The yarn is from Lamzie Divy Wollens, http://lamziedivywoolens.blogspot.com. It's special sock yarn, 1 ply 80 percent Jacob sheep wool, 20 percent nylon. Very springy and with great depth of color because the base Jacob sheep yarn has various colors carded together before it is dyed. Jacob sheep are spotted. Size 9 needles.
I'll post pics of the finished shawl later.
We got to San Jose and were met by my sister, Evva, at the train station. There is a way to transfer to the light rail and head on up to Mountain View that way, but we have not gotten it all figured out yet. Next year.
Lilo is very glad to see me back and is constantly wanting to be held.
See you later with more from the trip,
Julie
- Location:at home in San Diego
- Music:Julian Bream
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