I'm on the train from Portland to San Francisco. I continue to enjoy traveling by train. I'm sitting in the observation car in the slanting evening sun watching the forest covered hillsides go by. A deer looks up as we went by. The moon is almost full, hanging low. The sky colors as the sun sinks. Flying I would have seen nothing but the drive to and from the airport.
As much as I enjoy riding the train, as I look out at the forest I can't help think I'd rather be out there hiking through the trees instead of sitting here watching them through the window.
I'm almost sorry to leave. The more time I spend in Portland, the more I find to like about it. I stayed at Hotel Fifty during the conference - not quite as fancy as Riverplace but still right on the river and closer to the conference center (and cheaper). I spent more time in the Pearl district this trip, initially because the Patagonia and REI stores were there. I ended up returning several times simply because I liked the area.
The train gets in to Oakland in the morning. I decided to stop there for the weekend since Santa Clara (where my conference starts Monday) doesn't look too interesting. Oakland has a market on Sunday and I can always ride the ferry across to downtown San Francisco. The train station is near Jack London Square. Naively, I thought this would be a "square", but it looks like it's a shopping center. Kind of like a "villa" isn't a villa and an "estate" isn't an estate. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment