Visiting San Francisco

So I got to Emeryville and went to my hotel which was across the tracks from the station.  I relaxed for a little bit before heading over to San Francisco.  I decided to stay at the hotel in Emeryville because I liked it the last I stayed there but I should have just stayed in San Francisco since that was supposed to be the focus of my trip.

San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776 when a group of Spanish colonists established a Fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Saint Francis of Assissi a few miles away.  The settlement sputtered along until the gold rush of 1849 brought rapid growth to the city.  It would become the largest city on the west coast at the time.  In 1856, this rapid growth caused San Francisco to become a consolidated city-county (the only such entity in California).  Because of its situation, it is the mostly densely populated city in California.  In 1906 there was an earthquake that pretty much flattened the city but it quickly recovered.  During World War II, it was a major embarkation point for the Pacific War.  There is not nearly the military presence there once was though.

 Because I was staying in Emeryville, I spent a fair amount of time on the BART.  BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit and it does a pretty good job of getting people around the area.  Sadly, it was pretty crowded on the way back and that kind of hampered my desire to stick around San Francisco on the next day.

 The San Francisco Ferry Terminal is a pretty nice building and it now serves and shops and restaurants.  It was opened in 1898 and served as a transportation hub for the bay area.  It was one of the busiest in the world until the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges opened.

 Looking up at the tower.

 The terminal now serves as shops and restaurants.  It is still pretty neat looking though.

 A shot of part of San Francisco.

 The Bay Bridge is in two parts and it connects San Francisco to Oakland.  The two spans connect at Yerba Buena Island.  This particular span opened in 1936 and was built by the American Bridge Company.  It is 10,000 feet long.

 Another angle of the Bridge.

 A seagull decided to hang around the area.  I was surprised that he let me get as close as I did.  Maybe he thought I had food.

 Looking down the long way at the Ferry terminal.

 Looking down one of the streets of San Francisco.  Hmmm, that sounds like a good title for a movie or TV show.

 Looking down another street.

 This is a flower that was sitting in front of my hotel.

 So I decided to head back to San Francisco on the next day.  It wasn't too bad getting around.  In Emeryville, they have a shuttle bus called the Emery-Go-Round.  It took me to the BART terminal in Oakland.  At the time I headed over to San Francisco, the train wasn't too bad.

 I thought that I would take a ride on the Cable Car in order to get to Fisherman's Wharf so I could get pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Sadly, I looked at the lines for both the cars and tickets and decided against that.  I didn't want to linger too long in San Francisco because I didn't want to deal with crowds on the BART.

 San Francisco is another city of contrasts.  There are several cool looking old buildings.

 Part of the line for the Cable Car.

 Looking down one of the streets.

 Looking down another street.

 I think this is a statue dedicated to either the settlers of San Francisco or the gold miners.

 Looking at a building.

 Somewhere around Mongomery Street.  I did decide to head over to the Transamerica Pyramid.

 Looking up at the Transamerica Pyramid.  At 850 feet tall, it is the tallest building in San Francisco and one of the tallest on the west coast.  It is probably one of the more iconic buildings.

 Construction began in 1969 and was completed in 1972.  At its completion it was one of the five tallest buildings in the world.  I'm not sure where it stands now.

 There is a little park nearby and it makes for a pretty cool picture.

 And a nice little fountain.

 Another view of the building.

 The little park is home to some redwood trees.

 It's kind of nice to have an island of peace in a bustling city.

 And then we return to that bustling city.

 Like I said, a city of contrasts.  You have some lovely old buildings scattered amongst the new skyscrapers.

 Looking down another street.

 The mechanics statue.

 Looking down another set of streets.

 And it was back to the BART and Emeryville.

 A view from inside the BART.  I left early enough that I beat the rush.

 This is the hotel I was staying at.  It was a pretty nice hotel but if I return, I think I'm going to stay in San Francisco proper again.

Across the street from the hotel was a nice little food court.  You could get anything here.

Riding on the Coast Starlight

So the next leg on my journey was the Coast Starlight.  The Coast Starlight is a train that runs daily from Seattle to Los Angeles.  I would only be taking it as far as Emeryville though.

Before Amtrak's line, there was no one passenger train that ran the length of the west coast.  The closest would have been the Southern Pacific's West Coast line that ran from Los Angeles to Portland.  You could continue on a Great Northern train to Seattle.  There was also the Coast Daylight that ran between Los Angeles and San Francisco and if you wanted to continue on, you could hop on the Cascades but again that would only take you as far as Portland.

The Coast Starlight had a number of issues with lateness.  At one time, it had an ontime rating of 2% which earned it the nickname of Coast Starlate.  There were a number of issues that led to this but the biggest was the Union Pacific giving priority to freight trains (much like everywhere else).  Eventually, things were worked out and the Coast Starlight now has a pretty good ontime rating.

So a final view of Seattle before heading into the station.

 I really like the old school train stations.  I know that I say it all the time, but I wish Ann Arbor used the Gandy Dancer instead of the station they have.

 This is the way a train station should look, if you ask me.

 Okay, we'll give you one more view of Seattle.

 The tower on the train station.  It was based on tower in Italy.

 And it was raining as I was heading out but that makes for a cool picture I think.

 Looking up at the tower.

 Getting ready to board.  I will have to say that I've been pretty impressed with the Amtrak staff that I've run into.  For the most part, they are very friendly and helpful.  In all honesty, I prefer dealing with Amtrak's staff over the Airline staffs.

 A shot of my home for the next day.  Fortunately this leg was only an overnight one but the seats are pretty comfortable and it was doubly so because I had both of them to myself.

 As we were getting ready to head out, a BNSF train decided to pass.

 This is one of Boeing's final assembly plants.  They build the 737 and P-8 here.  I think they may also build an AWAC version of the 737 but I have no idea what its designation is.  I guess taking a picture of a plane from a train would be part of my trifecta.  Just need a ship in there somewhere.

 This used to be a warehouse for the storage of supplies that were heading out to the Pacific Portion of World War II.  Part of it is used by the GSA.

 This was a power station that used hydropower from one of the nearby rivers.  I think it is now idle.

 A pair of Union Pacific engines.  I was most impressed by the grafitti covered engine because you don't typically see an engine covered in grafitti.

 A pair of Navy pre-positioning ships that are docked in Tacoma.  These are operated by civillian crews though.

 This is a memorial to the Asian descent residents of Tacoma.  At one time, they were kicked out of the city and that became a model for kicking them out of other cities.  And there was really no reason to do so other than they were different.  Shame we have to have so many black marks in our history.

 The Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  The bridge that is inbound would be the bridge that replaced the one that was destroyed by high winds.  It was constructed in 1950 and used many of the lessons learned from the other bridge.  There are still parts of the old bridge in the water.

 The bridge on the left was completed in 2007.   The bridge on the right is used for westbound traffic and the other is used for eastbound traffic.

 I like this picture for the most part.  They are pretty cool looking bridges.

 A lone tug pulling a barge through the Tacoma Narrows.

 One of several ferries that ply the area.

 I loved the fact that the water was smoothe enough for a nice reflection.

 Another island.

 A shot of the Olympia-Lacey station.  As you can see, it was still raining.  The rain would plague me for most of the day.

 A grain elevator.

 I kind of wish I would have noted some of the rivers that I passed because there were some really nice looking ones.  One of the nice things about taking the train is that you get to pass through areas that aren't otherwise travelled, so you get a nice pristine view of the country.

 The Kelso station.

 As we were chugging along, I got the treat of seeing an Apache in action.

 And what's better than seeing one Apache?  Seeing two of them.

 Another shot of the sightseeing cars.  I love the views that you get from them but I kind of wish they had some sort of anti-reflective coating on the glass.

 A shot of the dining car.  I would have to say that one of the pleasant suprises about food on the train is that it is quite good.  The prices aren't too bad considering that they have a captive audience.  Another fun aspect is that they use community seating, so you get to meet some new and sometimes interesting people.

 A tugboat from Foss Maritime.  The company was founded in 1889 by Thea Foss in Tacoma, Washington.  She started out by buying a tugboat and painting it green.  She would take fishermen out.  Eventually they branched out into other vessels and became the largest tug operation on the west coast.  Thea was the basis for the movie "Tugboat Annie".

 One of the shipped docked in Portland.

 I'm not sure of the bridge in this picture but I do like the looks of it.

 Probably one of my favorite stations and if you haven't, you should heed the advice and go somewhere by train.

 One of the engines used by the Amtrak Cascades line.

 I'm pretty sure this is the Empire Builder.

 A more overall shot of the station.

 Another view of the Cascades engine.

 A better overall view of the station.

 Another bridge in Portland.

 A rain soaked view of the Portland skyline.

 I just liked the looks of this building.

 A typical scene from Oregon and Washington, a farm with mountains in the background.

 As I was eating dinner, I missed what probably would have been the shot of the whole trip.  We pass along a river for quite a while and there was rainbow at one point.  I guess a cloud covered mountain scene will work.

 I think this is the river we passed for a long time.

 A lone Union Pacific engine.

 One of the last pictures I took during the day.  I tried to get a picture of Crater Lake but it was way too dark.

 An early morning shot of the Sacramento skyline.

 We stayed at the Sacramento station for quite a while, so I got to get some pictures as the sun was rising.

 A shot of the engines as they are being fueled.  I thought the engine in the front was kind of unusual for Amtrak.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a better picture of it.

 The Sacramento River.

 A fairly typical scene along the way from Sacramento to Emeryville.

 I guess this one is even more typical.

 Another cool spot along the way on the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr is the Navy's mothball fleet.

 Most of the ships here are waiting for the eventual demise as scrap but sometimes they are pulled back into service.

 A pair of bridges.

I'm pretty sure this is a barge.

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many other pictures after this one.  I hope you enjoyed this part.