The last few days, I've been on a bit of a little trip to San Francisco and back via Amtrak. I didn't end up doing a trip log for the first part of the trip, as I was a bit exhausted through that part of the journey, so Ill give a bit of a summary before I start the return trip.
Anyway, to get to San Francisco, I travelled via the overnight bus departing San Diego at 10:15pm last Wednesday night along with the connecting San Joaquin at Bakersfield and bus from Emeryville. On Wednesday morning, I pre-checked a piece of luggage to the Ferry Building, as the late bus has no checked baggage and I wanted to go directly to the bus without having to go home first (I was a bit busy after work). Nice that you can do that!
The bus left on schedule, and I quickly settled in to a seat towards the back that for some strange reason had much more legroom than the seats further towards the front. Strange, but I wasn't complaining! At that point, I tried to sleep, and I actually was able to somewhat - though I recall waking up around Fullerton and LAUS. Eventually, we made it to Bakersfield at around 4:20am - at which point train #711 was already pulled into the station. After waiting a bit, we quickly boarded, and I was surprised to find no Superliner in the consist. Ended up in a normal California Car, and it wasn't the greatest sleep experience - no seat recline or foot rest at all! I did at least have the seat next to me empty the entire trip, but I didn't know it would be that way - and as such only started using it to rest when it remained empty after around Fresno.
After some on and off sleeping on the train, I eventually woke up for good around Stockton, and got some breakfast from the cafe car. It (like the other cafe cars I've seen on the SJ) used a CCC, which I found interesting (and better than the standard Surfliner cafe car given the nice seating). Found that they gave me one free refill on the coffee, which I've never had before on Amtrak. Anyway, the trip was otherwise uneventful, and we arrived in Emeryville just a little behind schedule. At EMY, we found the bus connection to San Francisco waiting - the ride over the Bay Bridge was nice, and we arrived at the Ferry Building around 11:30am.
Anyway, to get to San Francisco, I travelled via the overnight bus departing San Diego at 10:15pm last Wednesday night along with the connecting San Joaquin at Bakersfield and bus from Emeryville. On Wednesday morning, I pre-checked a piece of luggage to the Ferry Building, as the late bus has no checked baggage and I wanted to go directly to the bus without having to go home first (I was a bit busy after work). Nice that you can do that!
The bus left on schedule, and I quickly settled in to a seat towards the back that for some strange reason had much more legroom than the seats further towards the front. Strange, but I wasn't complaining! At that point, I tried to sleep, and I actually was able to somewhat - though I recall waking up around Fullerton and LAUS. Eventually, we made it to Bakersfield at around 4:20am - at which point train #711 was already pulled into the station. After waiting a bit, we quickly boarded, and I was surprised to find no Superliner in the consist. Ended up in a normal California Car, and it wasn't the greatest sleep experience - no seat recline or foot rest at all! I did at least have the seat next to me empty the entire trip, but I didn't know it would be that way - and as such only started using it to rest when it remained empty after around Fresno.
After some on and off sleeping on the train, I eventually woke up for good around Stockton, and got some breakfast from the cafe car. It (like the other cafe cars I've seen on the SJ) used a CCC, which I found interesting (and better than the standard Surfliner cafe car given the nice seating). Found that they gave me one free refill on the coffee, which I've never had before on Amtrak. Anyway, the trip was otherwise uneventful, and we arrived in Emeryville just a little behind schedule. At EMY, we found the bus connection to San Francisco waiting - the ride over the Bay Bridge was nice, and we arrived at the Ferry Building around 11:30am.