saturday april 7, 2007

The long ride home / San Francisco, CA / 18 months ago

Our afternoon in Ballard was nice and quiet, we walked down to the boat locks and watched as they raised some boats to pass from one body to the next. Then we wandered back into the neighborhood center, had some lunch and returned to Queen Anne.

On Tuesday we managed to make our Amtrak train, the Coast Starlight 11 on time on a clear, sunny morning. As we wiggled along the I-5 corridor, we made several stops in small and large towns like Centralia and Portland before climbing into the Cascade pass, eventually finding our way into California and then closer to the bay through towns like Marinez and Pinole. It was odd to travel so far through so much rural landscape and and then end the trip by passing by a massive trash pile in PInole, a slight signature of mankind's waste sprinkled on the outskirts of the bay. I may have to go to Los Angeles at the end of the month and I am even considering the second leg of the Coast Starlight when doing so.

Anyway, we're back home now and all is normal in SF. Today I am going to contniue to restore the old Schwinn that Ferris gave me and maybe do some leftover site work for friends.