Amtraking to Santa Fe

I left San Diego on another train which took me up to Los Angles along the coast.  It was a lovely run, saw some lovely beaches, and amazing stations. 

Once in Los Angles I had to get from one track to the next one to get my next train to Lamy, New Mexico.  Unusually there was an actual tunnel under the track.  Usually you just have to walk across the tracks which I find a bit strange because you have to watch for trains all the time.  

Since the journey was going to take just under a day I booked a roomette.  I’m glad I did but this was one occasion when British Rail does it better.  

My roomette had two seats which made down into a bed at night.  If two folk had been in it I think we would have been playing “kneesy” for a good part of the journey. When the bed was made up and I lay down I would say from wall to wall was probably about 5 and half feet across.  Anyone over 6 feet couldn’t have stretched out.  The second bunk was above my head. Since the edge of the bed was 6 inches at the most from the door I don’t think I would have liked it all if there had been two of us. It was dark by the time  we left the outskirts of Los Angles so I didn’t really see any of the scenery until the next morning.  As a sleeping car passenger I had dinner, breakfast and lunch on the train as it was part of the ticket.

Seats were allocated in the dining car so I met different people at each sitting.  We talked about the election, my trip, class reunions, the scenery, which was mostly desert but very colourful. All in all it was a very pleasant journey.  Then we arrived in Lamy.  The scenes where you see a station in the middle of nowhere exactly describes Lamy.  From there there was a shuttle to take me into Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is very different to other towns that I have been in.  It is almost exclusively built in the Pueblo Indian style with input from the Spanish-Mexican empire. Generally the houses are built of adobe brick often with a hacienda. 

Santa Fe is one of the oldest towns in America.  Some parts of it date from the early 1600s.  It was built round  a village square, bordered on one side by the Palace of the Governors and shops around the other sides.  

In Santa Fe when you get married you then parade through the town to your reception.

I’d like to say that I had a wonderful time in Santa Fe but I didn’t, it was the lowest point of this trip.  In fact it’s the only low point I’ve had.  I won’t go into what happened here.  Some of you know what happened and those who don’t can hear about it later.

USS Midway

Well, I think that the only person who will enjoy this blog is Archie but I may be surprised.  

To get started San Diego is one of the major navy bases of the US.  The majority of its aircraft carriers are stationed here when not on active duty and so when it was time to mothball the USS Midway it was decided to do so here.  However rather than just mothball it the powers that be decided to turn it in to a museum.  

My hotel is in, what is now called, the Gaslamp Quarter however it was originally called the Stingaree area because it was very near the harbour and you could get stung there quicker than swimming with stingrays.  So since I was so near to the harbour I decided I would pay a quick visit to the USS Midway.  How wrong was I? 4.5 hours later wrong.  

It was an amazingly interesting museum.  It’s obviously stocked with all the aircraft of whatever sort ever that ever flew off the Midway’s decks.  As you enter the Hangar deck you are given an audio soundtrack which will guide you round the whole carrier.  

It’s simply a case of keying in the number attached and listening but in addition there are videos from an airman or someone from the carrier telling you about a particular incident associated with the plane / helicopter. Many of the exhibits also have a docent  beside them.  No idea what “docent” means.  It’s not a term associated with museums at home but it is frequently used here.  Anyway, these particular docents were all retired servicemen, who in one capacity or another had served on board the USS Midway.  They were all very happy to answer questions about the aircraft, themselves or anything else.  So between the three methods you are treated to an interactive experience throughout your visit. 

Here is one example.  This little plane( and I can’t remember what type it is) was the last plane to land on the deck of the Midway during the evacuation of  Saigon.  It was flown by a Vietnamese air force pilot, who had circled the Midway several times to drop a letter off.  This pleaded for permission to land.  The Admiral on board finally gave permission in the last minutes of the evacuation so the pilot was only able to make one attempt.  Luckily he was successful.  When he opened his hatch the men on board realised that he also had his wife and small baby sitting alongside him. What they did not realise until a few minutes later was that he had another 4 children crammed into the fuselage. They had been there for several hours.  The docent beside the plane was one of the men who had helped to pull the children out of the plane.  He had 2 children of a similar age himself and could not believe how the pilot’s four had all stayed in the limited space for so long.

Some of the many exhibits.  I have more but there is a limit to the internet upload for a blog.

The Tomcat - the type used in TopGun

 Standing on the air traffic controller’s spot.  The Safety net should a landing go wrong is just below me.(I’m not kidding and it’s for the controller to jump into. I’m about 100 feet above the water here)

 Pilots’ lounge - the chairs used all have a name for each pilot in the corp who is on active duty.  Pilots wait here to be called on deck.

The Flight deck  - takeoff

The bridge, captain’s and admiral’s quarters

San Diego

I left Santa Barbara Heading for San Diego on Amtrak again.  This time I was traveling business class which I think is about the equivalent of First Class at home.  I’m not at all sure how Amtrak works.  Business is definitely one step up from coach but you don’t have a reserved seat.  It’s first come first served.  On the other hand you do get a bag with various snacks and a small bottle of wine at the start of your journey. It was a 5 hour journey to San Diego so I arrived in the dark.

San Diego looked a lot different the next day.  Once again I took the trolley tour.  I think that’s about the fourth trolley car I’ve been on.  San Diego seems to be where California began but I am sure that I have heard other cities say that too. THe city is only 165 years old, so in the scheme of things it’s just a young thing.  I didn’t realise that almost all of southern California is desert.  San Diego and Coronado the island off its coast have been reclaimed through irrigation.  As you travel around the many different types of trees really frame the buildings, fountains etc but until just over 100 years ago there were no trees here.  It was only when a way to bring water here was found, that people settled.  Even today 80% of the water used in San Diego is piped into the city. Wish that we had that problem.

The Spanish/Mexican influences are becoming much more apparent both in the buildings and in the people.  Almost every other person speaks Spanish.

The trolley took me all over the city including out to Coronado island in the harbour.  We went out over the road bridge which was  a bit of a strange trip.  It’s a very high bridge. San Diego is in the middle of a heatwave(85-95 degrees).  At sea level it was beautifully sunny and hot.  Up on the bridge we were in a thick mist and it was freezing. Coronado is a beautiful residential/holiday resort with gorgeous beaches.  

The Hotel de Coronado is where much of “Some like it Hot” was filmed.

Having seen the Old Town and all the different ethnic sections of te city I decided to visit Balboa Park next day.  It is a huge park where almost all the museums and many of the theatres are based as well as beautiful gardens.

Place de Balboa

 Lily pool

 A wee turtle trying to make his mind up whether to bake or swim

 The Artists’ quarter

Art in the park

Down the coast

I left San Francisco by Amtrak to travel to Carmel.  Amtrak is, in some ways, a step up from British Rail.  The trains are double deckers and if you are in “coach”, which I was, then you are on the upper deck.  Everyone is assigned a seat.  The seats all face in the direction in which the train is going and are four abreast with an aisle in between.The space around each seat is considerably  more than given on our trains.  I presume that this is because each seat has its own footrest, can be reclined and has its own individual table.  Amtrak’s timetables are, however, just as fluid as British Rail.

Like our trains many of the passengers have mobiles, which they are on constantly and which go off constantly.  The object behind me had a different ring for each individual person who phoned.  It was perhaps just as well that I was only on the train for 2 hours otherwise I might have been inclined to join in with another passenger that suggested something be done about this.  Given that we already had the mad women from Hell opposite us talking on her phone all the time I could understand where he was coming from. I can’t understand why passengers with mobile phones can’t be asked at the beginning of a journey to set their phones to silent/vibrate mode.  They could still use them but the noise levels would be somewhat less.

Anyway I arrived in Carmel, after a transfer by bus from Salinas which was also somewhat fraught since two of the passengers spent it haranguing the driver over their travel arrangements.  I came to the conclusion that there must have been a strange moon the night before.

Carmel is a beautiful, if twee, little town which has fought hard to remain much as it was in the first two decades of the 20th century.  

It has had a number of mayors who were actors/writers/artists among whom was Clint Eastwood. Houses in the immediate town do not have street numbers but names and many of them have a fairytale look about them as do the shops.  

Between the shops run many little lanes which are also individually decorated.

Trees grow everywhere and roads have to accommodate them and not the other way round.  It is built on the Camino Real( the King’s road) and having originally been Spanish has a very old Mission on the outskirts. 
Carmel is also the most dog friendly place that I have ever been in. Most of the shop owners bring their dogs to work and they greet you and well as their owners when you enter the shop.  Shops regularly give you change which includes a dog biscuit for your dog or one that you might meet. A number of restaurants allow dogs to eat with their owners and a few even have a dog menu. In the middle of a very upmarket shopping plaza is the Fountain of the woof - a fountain installed to allow dogs to drink while out shopping!

Carmel also has 110 art galleries in it which given its size is extraordinary.  It must have about 40-50 wine cellars where you can taste/buy local Californian wines.  I’m not sure if one is related to the other.

One of the relics of Clint Eastwood living and filming here is his pub - the Hog’s Breath.  Like many of the hotels and pubs in California is features an outdoor fire so that customers can sit outside to drink/eat.

Next day I headed  for Santa Barbara via the Amtrak bus and train. First of all I had an interview with bus service about the passengers who had harangued the driver on my way into Carmel.  Apparently the passengers had put in a complaint about the driver and I was one of the witnesses.  Very strange, they must have known that I wouldn’t support them.

Once on the train my journey was very pleasant and calm.  No odd passengers or many ringing mobiles.  For the first part of the journey the scenery was much as on the previous journey miles of dry, sunburnt land with flourishing fields of vegetables, fruit or vineyards in between.  The farmers and vintners must have artesian wells or something similar to supply the water required to keep their crops going.  However they do it the artichokes, lemons, strawberries and tomatoes are being well taken care of.  After St Luis Obpisbo we travelled along side the ocean until we reached Santa Barbara.  The scenery was glorious.

Santa Barbara is a very affluent town like Carmel but it’s totally different.  It owes its architecture to Spanish and Native American influences. It is a town that still relies on the sea for much of its industry so there are many fishing boats as well as pleasure boats in the 
harbour.  On Saturday there was a harbour festival so there was lots going on.


Children being shown where a fish’s eyes are by a Conservation person

 Sea urchin being eaten - this may look strange, but it was worse in real life.

 The view out across the straits to Santa Cruz was glorious.

 On Sunday there was a Porsche convention and an arts and craft festival all along the promenade.

San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco in the late evening and by the time we had driven into the city my shuttle was lucky enough to be caught up in the end of Fleet week, the end of a Giants game and something to do with the America’s cup.  Wall to wall bodies.

Over the next 2 days I saw a lot of San Francisco either on the bus or by walking.  I started off on a “hop on, hop off” bus and saw the Golden Gate bridge again.  

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Then I walked for a bit and saw the crookedest street, which is part of Lombard St.  It was actually a part of the street designed to stop the earliest cars careering down a very steep hill unchecked.  (Now I bet that you didn’t know that

 Then I visited City Hall.  It has a gold dome, not golden but gold.  Heaven knows why. 

The walking tours of China Town and Little Italy were fun.  

In one part of Little Italy there were very in to street poetry and pasted it on the pavement?!

 I also found an original flyer for a 60s concert.

Then I went on a night tour on San Francisco and saw City Hall at night dressed to support the Giants! 

It was great to see San Francisco again.  Glad I came back.

Bye Hawaii

I spent today learning more about the Hawaiian culture and history.

Most of it I undertook by simply sitting on a wee trolley bus and getting taken around while listening to the driver. Strange men these drivers; I have now been on 3 trolleys and the drivers all have this cackle of a laugh, aren’t madly keen on most other road users, love to talk to folk that they know on the pavement while driving or I should say stop to do so.  Generally I think it’s a prerequisite that you should be at least one sandwich short of a picnic to work on the trolleys.

Anyway back to culture and history: the Hawaiian language has only 12 consonants and 5 vowels.  This means that almost every word in the Hawaiian language will have two or more vowels together sometimes 3 e.g. Lili’uokalani.  It takes a wee while to work out how to say many  of the names.

Another thing that I didn’t know was the strong connections between the British and Hawaiian royalty up until the 1950s. Before Hawaii became an American state the folk here actually voted whether to join the USA or become a protectorate of the UK. Obviously the US won but the Hawaiian state flag has the Union Jack incorporated into it and the Hawaiians are very proud of their connections with the UK.  The last ruler of Hawaii was Queen Lili’uokalani, who was deposed by a dastardly act by US merchants living in Hawaii in 1895.  

The USA has still not been totally forgiven for this.  Even then it was recognised as an act of war by many nations.  They haven’t learned much in the intervening years.  Very near by to Queen Lili’uokalani’s house and the State capital is the first missionaries’ house.  It was shipped here from New England and assembled on site.  Living in the heat of these islands in a house with no air conditioning and such small windows must have ben torture.  There isn’t any way that a breeze could blow through the house.

After visiting this area I went down to the harbour and was very surprised to see a Clyde built sailing ship anchored there.  The Falls of Clyde has been here for a number of years and a group have been working hard to maintain her.  The Aloha area is more or less called after Queen Victoria’s children except for the tower that I climbed.

View over harbour from Aloha tower

I managed to catch the sunset at the Banyan Tree bar on the beach in front of one of the hotels in Waikiki and the was treated to  a hula show.

Tomorrow I leave for San Francisco.  I’ve enjoyed my visit here although all I have really only seen Honolulu, which is a very built up commercialised area.  I believe that the rest of Oahu is countryside and beach.  I had hoped to go to the big island to see the volcanoes today.  I would have had to get up at 5am and wouldn’t have been back until 10pm, which I did think of but a weather system came in early on Friday morning whipping up the volcano dust and causing what they call”vog”.  It’s fog with lots of fine volcano particles in it and it is very harmful to those with allergies or asthma.  Warnings about it are all over the place so I thought “maybe not”.  

It is worth visiting here but it’s not at the top of my list for a return.