31 Days of Flashbacks: Train Trip West: Day #6

Click these links to read about Day #1, Day #2, Day #3, Day #4, and Day #5.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
In which we ride through Utah and Nevada, eat in the dining car, arrive in California, and sleep on park benches in San Franscico.

When I woke up at 6:30am local we were in Provo, Utah. We had more bagels w/ cream cheese for breakfast as we continued our ride through Utah and Nevada. We got to see the Great Salt Lake and more beautiful vistas.

Playing games in the observation car

More scenic views.

We had canned chili and chips for dinner - it was nice to have a kind of normal meal for dinner.

Supper of canned chili and chips in the observation car.

 Our train was 7-8 hours behind schedule so Amtrak provided a free meal for us: chicken fricasse on rice w/ a biscuit. It was pretty good and it was nice to have a warm meal. We REALLY would have appreciated it if we hadn't had food for dinner but, as it was, it was a huge blessing to experience the dining car for free :)

 We finally arrived at Emeryville  Station (San Francisco) at about 11:30pm (we were supposed to be there at 4:10 in the afternoon.) We checked in some of our luggage for our train ride south in the morning and were told that as soon as he was done the agent was going to lock the station and it was not going to open again in the morning until 4:30am. He also told us that all local hotels were booked so he recommended that we head over to Denny's just a couple blocks away since they are open 24 hours. We decided not to take his suggestion and went outside and set the kids up on benches wrapped in blankets on the tracks side of the building. I then saw another set of benches protected more with a wall and a flower bed and a luggage lift and we moved the kids over there and set them up to sleep. It was pretty chilly (upper 60s, I think), especially after the recent 100 degree days in NY and Iowa. None of the adults really slept much. We wandered around and then sat, I crocheted a bit and wore a hat I crocheted to keep my head warm and then gave Steph what was left of the blanket that I was undoing to use as a scarf.

Lydia wrapped up for the night

Grandma helping the kids wrap up

swaddled children on benches - we really could have used more blankets!

Steph cuddled with Caleb (at least the blanket color is right)

keeping my head warm with the hat I crocheted quickly

Grandpa snuggling with Hannah (I'm assuming because the blanket is blue)

Sleeping bundles

The pretty station

As a girl that grew up in rural New York I was a bit nervous letting my kids sleep there but we all figured, after this night, we could add to our claims to fame: "I slept on a park bench in San Fransisco." Should we make a bumper sticker?