Kevin's Life and Travel Blog

Part of the Pacific Northwest Trip Journal
Previous entry: Amtrak Coast Starlight (Los Angeles to Seattle)

Journal entry for August 2-4, 2010.

After getting out of the train station, I decided to walk the 12 blocks or so to the hostel instead of taking the bus. It was a pleasant night and I figured that walking would be a good way to get an introduction to the city.

City Hostel Seattle is located in an area of the city with lots of nightlife. The street is full of restaurants and bars. It is the nicest hostel I have ever visited. Everything looks very new and clean. There’s free internet, a movie room and a lounge room downstairs, another room with lots of books, DVDs and board games. Each dorm room is painted by a different local artist. There are about 3-4 shared restrooms on each floor.

I got into my room and found 2 girls from Korea who barely said ‘Hello’ back to me.

City Hostel Seattle

City Hostel Seattle

I dropped my bags and headed downstairs. In the movie room there were a group of Norwegian guys who were about to start watching American Psycho. I decided to stick around and more people joined us later on. This all brought back memories of my European trip in 2002. I hadn’t stayed in a hostel since then.

The next day, I woke up around 9am and contemplated getting up to go get the free breakfast (served until 10am), but decided to get some more sleep. I ended up waking up around 10:30, the Korean girls had already packed up and left. I made my way to Pike Place Market.

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

The market was a little too crowded, making it hard to walk around. I got a ridiculously expensive Turkish kebab for lunch. Most of the food I found in the area was pretty pricey.

The original Starbucks store is also around the market. I didn’t go inside because there were way too many people.

Original Starbucks store

Original Starbucks store

I headed back to the hostel to grab something and met one of my new roommates for the night. Ann was from North Carolina and had gone to Seattle to see a Joanna Newsom concert. That’s being a dedicated fan.

I needed to get to REI to get a topographic map of the Olympic peninsula for the Shi Shi Beach hike. On the way there, I stopped by the Space Needle but didn’t feel like paying $18 to get to the top. I’m backpacking after all, and should be on a backpacking budget.

Space Needle

Science Fiction Museum

It was a long walk to REI. Good warm up for the upcoming hikes. This particular REI was the biggest and most impressive I have ever seen. It even had a outdoor mountain bike test trail. Despite the thousands of items inside the store, they didn’t have the map I was looking for in stock, but they did tell me that a map store by Pike Place Market had it in stock.

Back at the hostel, I run into Ann again and we had a long pleasant chat until midnight or so. She was trying to stay up late to fight jet lag. My two other roommates turned out to be brothers from Alamaba. Probably two of the nicest and most courteous guys I’ve ever met.

I didn’t sleep well that night. Tossed and turned a lot. I got up in time to have breakfast with my roommates. I went to the map store and got the map I need before heading to the Greyhound Terminal to catch the Dungeness Line bus to Port Angeles. I was very lucky because I had not made a reservation and there was only two seats left on the bus.

Next entry: Port Angeles, Washington
Part of the Pacific Northwest Trip Journal

Part of the Pacific Northwest Trip Journal

Journal entry for August 1-2, 2010.

Amtrak's Coast Starlight

The night before the trip, I had to wrap up a few tasks for work. It wasn’t until 8am that I was able to go to bed. After only one hour of sleep, I headed to the train station. It was OK though, I had a long 34-hour train ride to catch up on sleep. I was dead tired but very excited about what I expected to be an amazing trip.

I arrived at Los Angeles Union Station at 9:45am, 30 minutes before departure time. I thought 30 minutes would give me enough time to pick a nice window seat on the “nice” side of the train (the one with views of the ocean). I printed out my ticket, which I had purchased online, at the vending machine. There was a counter with the sign that said “Coast Starlight” but nobody was behind it, so I walked straight to the train. At the train car, the lady at the door asked me if I had checked in to get an assigned seat. Since I obviously had not, she assigned a seat for me right there. I headed for the upper deck and realized that I got an aisle sit on the side of the train not facing the coast. Great.

Coast Starlight

Coast Starlight

Spacious seats

The seats were spacious and comfortable. I sat next to a girl who lived in Vancouver but was headed to Portland. She had all sorts of electronic gadgets to keep herself entertained: laptop, Nintendo DS, Ipod.

The train left 10 minutes late. I stayed awake for the first hour, enjoying the scenery. Ever since my trip to Europe 8 years ago, I have always enjoyed train travel. I really like to see the transition from place to place and people going about their everyday lives. After the first hour, I dozed off from time to time. Around noon they started calling in people to the dining car. Apparently someone had walked by to take appointments while I was sleeping. Every 15 minutes they would call in a new group of passengers. I went to the store to get a muffin and some apple juice for lunch.

View from my seat

At around 1pm, the train passed by the Santa Barbara area, which is very beautiful. Lots of surfers in the ocean. It was a cloudy day, which is rare for this time of the year. Despite being called the “Coast” Starlight, you don’t really get to see a lot of coast, with this stretch being the highlight and one of the exceptions.

Santa Barbara area

At around 4:30pm, a lady came by to take reservations for dinner. Since I was in the last car of the train, by the time she came by all the prime time slots (6pm-8pm) were already taken. She told me I could either take the 5pm slot, or wait until 8:30pm when no reservations would be needed. I decided for the latter.

The train arrived at San Jose 20 minutes early at 8:10pm. It was going to be a 30-minute stop. I got off the train to walk around the station for a bit.

San Jose Station

Back on the train, I wondered when they would make the last call for the dining car. At 8:50pm I went to ask and was told that it was already closed. They must have announced the last call while I was off the train. I had no choice but to go to the store again and get a pretty uneventful ham & cheese sandwich.

I felt asleep around 10:30pm. I wished the seats would recline a little more, which they could easily do since there is so much space in between rows. My foot/leg rest was also also broken (it wouldn’t stay in position), which made it a little uncomfortable.

Aside from waking up a few times to switch positions, I slept relatively OK, probably due to me being very tired. I woke up around 7am. The train made a lengthy stop at Klamath Falls, Oregon. I took the chance to go out and enjoy the fresh morning air.

Klamath Falls, Oregon

Back on the train, and just like the previous day, I got a blueberry muffin for breakfast. I enjoyed it while seating in the lounge car, which has taller windows for a more panoramic view. For the next few hours, I enjoyed my book while meeting and talking to a couple of passengers. One guy was traveling around the country by train, while another lady was going back to Vancouver after visiting family members in LA. The scenery was amazing in this part of Oregon. Big lakes surrounded by huge mountain ranges. In one section the train went through some mountains and passed through about 20 tunnels.

I realized once again that I missed my chance to make an appointment for the dining car. There was no way I was going to eat that ham & cheese sandwich from the store again. I took a seat in the lounge car right by the dining car entrance and waited patiently for last call at 2:15pm. I shared my dining car table with an older gentleman who had decided on a whim to buy a train ticket and go to Montana. Also at my table were to ladies who were going to Portland to visit relatives. The burger I ordered was pretty good. I also got ice tea and some Häagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert. The bill was $9.75, not bad.

The train arrived to Portland 45 minutes early.

Portland Station

Portland Station

A lot of people got off at Portland, which meant that I could pick any seat I wanted. I enjoyed the last stretch, with Mount Rainier to the east, and expensive beach neighborhoods to the west.

Mount Rainier

Tacoma area

Prior to the trip, I had read many horror stories of the Coast Starlight being always late, sometimes for as much as 15 hours. I guess I was lucky since the train arrived at Seattle 15 minutes early. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing experience. The food was decent and I had fun meeting and chatting with different people.

Seattle Amtrak Station

More information about Amtrak’s Coast Starlight:
Official Amtrak Website – Including maps, brochures, and online ticket purchase.
Trainweb.com – Has many travelogues and pictures from passengers.

Part of the Pacific Northwest Trip Journal
Next entry: Seattle, Washington