Amtrak Coast Starlight Day 2
I woke up today just as we were crossing over the bridge over Susan Bay. I knocked on the door to my parents roomette and only my mom was just getting up. My dad was already up and in the Pacific Parlor Car looking out the window. While my mom was getting dressed for breakfast, I went to into the
Pacific Parlour Car to see what was being served for breakfast. I was surprised to find out that the Parlor Car was offering a breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon and French toast.
My mom wanted French toast and was disappointed to find out that the dining car was serving pancakes, so it was a nice little surprise to find out that the
Parlour Car was serving French toast. So we changed plans and decided to eat breakfast in the
Pacific Parlour Car instead of the dining car. Veronica let us choose whichever table that we wanted and then she came over to take our drink orders and gave us three empty plates to help ourselves to the buffet. When we got back to our table, orange juice and coffee were waiting for us, all served in real glass and coffee mug. The breakfast food was good and the French toast with syrup was just what we needed this morning. It was also nice that we didn’t have to share a table with anyone in the
Pacific Parlour car. While I do like company, it was just too early for chit chatting with strangers.
After breakfast, we headed back to our roomettes to just chilax. When we arrived in Jack London Station in Oakland, I went outside the train to watch the private train being coupled to the rear of our train. Because of the private car coupling, we stayed in Jack London Square Station for about 25 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to visit the business class car. After we departed Oakland, I decided to take a shower and get dressed for the day but the train came to a stop and then the power went out. Since I already know that many of the things like the toilet does not work on a train without power, I went back to my roomette and waited until the power came back on. The conductor came on the intercom to explain that the private car that was attached in Oakland had a piece of equipment that wasn’t properly secured and it set off a warning by one of the trackside detectors that our train passed by.
With the power restored, I headed back down to the communal shower to shower and change my clothes. The tracks were a bit rougher than yesterday night when I showered so I was a bit harder to lather up and rinse without falling over. Once I got back up to my roomette, announcements were made regarding lunch reservations and Veronica came through starting with our sleeping car taking lunch reservations. My mom didn’t want the chicken wrap which was being served in the
Parlour Car so we took the 12:30 reservation in the dining car.
When we arrived at San Jose Direrdon Station, I went off the train for some fresh air and picture taking. Before all aboard was called, I headed back up to my roomette to look out the window and post pictures on Instagram. Time flew by quickly and it was time for lunch. Shawn made an announcement for 12:30 and we headed over to the dining car and waited at the entrance after entering. Shawn sat us on the other half of the dining car with a passenger who was traveling in
Business Class. She was a pleasant lady who boarded in Portland and was heading down to Solano Beach in San Diego.
For lunch, my parents and I started out with a salad and Diet Pepsi. For our main course, my dad had the steamed mussels and my mom and I had the burger with cheese and bacon. Once we were finished, the lady that was dining with us headed back to her seat but we still had dessert before leaving. My dad and I had the pecan tart and my mom just had couple of bites of my dad’s pecan tart.
After we were finished, I begrudgingly left a tip for our less than stellar waiter and headed back to the Parlor Car. Earlier in the day, Veronica refilled the ice in the ice bucket which contained our leftover Chardonnay from yesterday. I brought the bucket which contained the wine and the wine glasses and my parents and I finished the rest of the wine as our after lunch treat.
Shawn came around later on for dinner reservations. I picked the 5PM reservation for the
Parlour Car. When I talked to Veronica earlier, she told me that only the
lamb shank was available for dinner. After consulting with my parents, we decided to have our final meal aboard the Coast Starlight this trip in the Parlor Car. While waiting for our dinner reservation time, I continued writing up this trip report. About 15 minutes before dinner time, our train reached the California Coast section of the route so my parents and I decided to go to the Parlor Car and wait for dinner reservation to be called. At 5PM Veronica served us in the Parlor Car. We started out with drinks and warmed dinner rolls to start. According to Veronica, all of the salads were gone so there was no more side salad. Then shortly afterwards, our main lamb shank course arrived. Everything was served in real chinaware and not plasticware like in the dining car. The braised land shank was fork tender and was served with mashed potatoes and green beans.
For dessert, my parents shared a pecan tart but I decided to try the chocolate raspberry tart instead. I have to say the chocolate raspberry tart was not my favorite. The tart was made with dark chocolate which I’m not a big fan of and raspberry which is meh to me. I knew I would probably not like it, but as a blogger, I wanted to try it for the photo opportunity. Other diners seemed to love it very much.
After we were finished, we left a well deserved tip for Veronica and headed back to our roomette after wishing Veronica a Happy New Year. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I got off the train in Santa Barbara to take some pictures and get some fresh air. Santa Barbara is the last fresh air stop before reaching Los Angeles. For the rest of the trip, I spent the time in my roomette writing up this report on my iPad Pro during our last stretch into Los Angeles which is not the most scenic part of the trip.
This concludes my trip report from 2017. Thank You for reading and Happy New Year!
More pictures from aboard the
Coast Starlight Train 11 traveling in a
Amtrak Roomette