USA Trip: Of Train Ride and Gastronomical Quest

Amtrak Train Ride (San Francisco, California - Portland, Oregon)

Waking up to this view first thing in the morning after long night sleep.

When we wanted to book the train tickets, there were few options; seating coach or sleeping coach, or even a room. The journey from San Francisco to Portland was about 17 hours so we were contemplating to get the sleeping coach, since the only schedule was overnight train. The price difference was so glaringly far apart (at the time, 75 dollars vs 400 dollars), and we immediately went for first option. As we boarded the train and got to our seats, I would say it was considerably a good bargain to get the seating coach for budget travel as the seat was quite spacious with enough leg space. Luggage was left at lower deck and passengers' deck was on the upper level, it also came with power points which was definitely helpful to keep your devices juiced enough, although it didn’t come with WiFi. Toilets and lounge area were available for the necessary toilet break and ergonomic stretches. This was definitely way, way ahead than my train experience back in Myanmar from Yangon to Bagan, and that I was on the first-class coach. The train departed on time as the clock struck 940pm. Long night and day ahead of us.

 

We slept through the night and woke up to snowy scene outside the window as the train was cruising through mountainous area. We were still in the state of California. After a while, we couldn’t help but overhearing argument between two passengers few rows before us. Unsure what was the trigger but the guy seemed to be bothered by the lady passenger next to him and keep saying something about being an adult. The other passengers appeared to be on the lady side by asking the guy to “shut up”, not long after officers came and escorted the guy away to other coach.

The train did a quick stop at Klamath Falls, which meant we have finally crossed the state border and we are now in Oregon. We got off the train for the fresh air before popping back in. The night before we bought some food at Target for our breakfast and lunch on the train. There was restaurant coach onboard in which me and my friend decided to skip. There was viewing coach so we had our meals there and to chill. Supposedly there was mini bar right below the deck should you wanted to buy snacks and coffee, however, it wasn’t open until much later. Got our hot water from the restaurant for free to cook our cup noodles, although the waitress kept diverting us to the still-close mini bar. It was 3.30pm as we arrived at Union Station, Portland.

Brief stopover at Klamath Falls, stepping on the state of Oregon for very first time.

Contemplating about life. Was feeling under the weather.

Frozen Klamath Lake as our train crossed by.

The cottage covered in thick snow, view from the train for another brief layover.

Viewing lounge for better view from our coach, no reservation required.

Portland, Oregon

We booked Lyft to get onto our hotel and the driver or “Glamma” was very friendly as we were vibing to her music, even telling us which area to avoid and places to go. Why “Glamma” you might wonder, she told us she was from New York and moved to Portland to be with his 29 years old son and that was her youngest who was about to have his first baby. She looked like only in her late thirty or early forty. We checked in at Courtyard by Marriot and rested for the evening before going for our dinner at Kachka. At this city, we didn’t choose to rent car and relied on public transport as we intent for short stay before going further up north. Most of the shops, not the eateries at least, closed rather early so it was a quiet walk as we walked towards the restaurant. It was my first time having Russian meal so we ordered what being recommended by other customers’ review. Drink wise, I tried Moscow Mule and I was struggling to finish it due to strong ginger flavour. The restaurant exercised no tipping and service tax was included in the final bill. It was 22%.

Herring under a fur coat

Palmeni & Vareniki Dumplings

Me with my Mocsow Mule and Golubtsi.

Day 2 in Portland and off we went to another local coffee roaster, Stumptown. At that point, I would rank Stumptown second after Blue Bottle for my favourite coffee, at least in the west of America. We bought day pass that cost 5 dollars which can be used on their light rail, buses, any other public transports as long as they are under TriMet. We commuted to Washington Park for our first point of interest. The light rail stopped at Oregon Zoo and from there we hopped onto free purple bus to get around the park, which was scheduled for every 15 to 20 minutes. We did quick tracking at Hoyt Arboretum and the surrounding was covered in thin snow. There were multiple trails and could see the locals doing their jogs. Next stop was the International Test Rose Garden, but since it was winter so no roses were spotted during our visit and there were all just bushes. Apparently, Portland is known as city of Roses for their love (or obsession) over the flower. There was Holocaust Memorial nearby which was driven by the local community to remember the tragic event.

Cute coffee cup from this local roaster.

My first snow encounter for this trip as we tracked within Washington Park.

Barren Rose Garden. Not in season, obviously.

In memory of Holocaust victims.

It was way past lunch time when we were done with our strolling at the park and we walked towards Salt & Straw at Nob Hill neighbourhood for quick sweet street, locally founded ice cream parlour. They have pretty unique flavour options. I went for honey lavender and pots of gold and rainbow (seasonal flavour). We walked along the 23rd Avenue before taking the bus back to the city. The plan was to have lunch at Pine Street Market but most of the stalls were close for lunch by the time we were there and we diverted our plan to Lardo, local chain of sandwich restaurant. 

I'm a Simmer so these houses fascinated me.

Honey lavender and pots of gold and rainbow.

Came across this store that was opened by Singaporeans.

Boba lover, I was ecstatic seeing this outlet at this part of the world.

Pork burger for 12 dollars. The portion was just sufficient for an Asian stomach.

Other than being a foodie city, Portland is also famous for the largest independent used bookstore, in America at least. We went to Powell's City of Books, the one located at Burnside Street. Three-storey high building, the bookstore was divided into multiple sections by the name of colours such as Red Room, Purple Room, Green Room etc. At the top floor there was rare book room which limited the number of visitors access at a time. The options of books appeared to be boundless at the store. We spent a fair amount of 2 hours before deciding to have Vietnamese dinner at Luc Lac to conclude our second last day in Portland. At this point, whenever we craved for soupy meals, we couldn't go wrong with Asian cuisines.

Books and more books at this bookstore.

Couldn't leave the place without a pose like this. This was the Orange Room.

Main entrance to the bookstore; it was already dark the moment we left the bookstore.

Warm filling my stomach with Pho for dinner, and a bottle of Mexican coke.

Yes, there was gym at our hotel so might just as well... take a seflie.

We started our day early by grabbing our routine morning coffee at Coava and had donut for breakfast at Blue Star. Most of the sites would recommend having donuts at Voodoo for tourists but my friend and I decided to be more, local. Instead of the usual fluffy texture the one I had at Big Apple, there were more like butter cake donuts with flavored glaze. To catch our train at 12pm, we packed our lunch at Hunnymilk before walking back to our hotel to check out.

Mocha from Cuava Coffee.

The O.G. and Chocolate Bergamot Old-Fashioned.

Array of flavours at Blue Star Donuts.

Mural of roses, with the flag of the USA on top of the building.

I found this parking signage cute with the kitty.

Checking out from the hotel and waiting for our Lyft. It felt like I was staying for business travel for the last 2 nights.

We boarded Amtrak Cascades this time around, which was only single deck train as compared to the previous train that got us to Portland. I supposed this was due to much shorter journey as our next destination was only 3 hours away. With that said, this is the end of Oregon chapter and I was very looking forward to the next one.

Bye bye, Portland. Thanks for the food!

Reviewing the upcoming itinerary. Most parts at this trip, we were just winging it.

My USA Journey

San Francisco, California

Portland, Oregon

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Seattle City and Olympic National Park, Washington

First Starbucks, Washington and Las Vegas, Nevada

Canyoning in Arizona and Catching David Blaine

I Made It to the Oscars and Hollywood!

More of Los Angeles and Santa Monica Pier

USA Trip: from Parks, Piers to Prison

Singapore Airlines A350-900, waiting to depart from Kuala Lumpur, bound towards Singapore.

SQ 37 took off from Singapore Changi International Airport at 2045 hours of 26th February and I was on the air for about 15 hours. I have to say, I was spoilt with choices when it comes to the entertainment options, which included my all time favourite film in the list. Cruising over Pacific Ocean, I travelled back in time and was given second chance to live Sunday for another day before landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 2000 hours of the same day. Immigration clearance was rather smooth and despite was prompted by Singapore Airlines app to fill in attestation form with regards to COVID-19 vaccination, I wasn't asked to present any. Was merely asked on my purpose of travel by the officer and found my way to reclaim my luggage. It was about an hour wait for my bag to be out from the carousel before leaving the airport building. 

Stepping onto the America land for very first time.

Stepping out to familiar cold weather, I still couldn't believe myself that I was finally in the States. I was finally in America! As I was waiting for my friend to pick up, I saw officers were manning the heavy traffic picking up passengers; A pet dog was so excited to see the return of presumed parents when the presumed kids came pick them up and for a while I thought the dog might get out of the car; a couple was kissing in the car before being told to move as they were holding the cars behind them; there my friend came in her Honda and headed towards Santa Barbara right away, which was 2 hours away. My friend bought In-N-Out burger for my very first meal in the US. It was already midnight the moment we arrived at my friend's place. Had a quick supper eating Lee Fah Laksa before calling it a day. Jet lag or not, I have had a long day and managed get myself to sleep (it was 5pm in Malaysia). 

People watching; Cars watching, for about an hour.

U.S. Route 101

Waking up to drizzling morning, we were picked up by car rental company, Enterprise to retrieve our Toyota Corolla to kick start the first leg of this journey via road trip to San Francisco! Grabbed myself a coffee from The Daily Grind and off we went start cruising along U.S. Route 101 up North. Sandwiched by coast of Pacific Ocean and mountains of California, our drive was accompanied by cloudy sky with slim window of sun appearing at some point. We diverged to California Route 1 to do a quick stop at Elephant Seal View Point at San Simeon. There were so many seals lying along the beach. It was so windy and I found myself freezing while admiring the cuteness of these mammals. Had a quick toilet break at Hearst Castle Visitor Centre, we headed towards Atascadero for Thai lunch. I was craving for Tom Yum.

Road trip off we go, with mocha in my hand and my Pokemon kids.

Quick stop at Starbucks, Santa Maria for toilet break. First time needing security code to enter the restroom.

Brief layover to admire the coast of Pacific Ocean, with Morro Rock in the distance.

The seals definitely can handle the cold better than I am

Saying goodbye to Pacific Ocean for now.

We continued our journey further up nortj and I noticed there were jet pumps along the way. I believe it was the San Ardo Oil Field in which I only knew upon googling at the end of the trip. It was another 2.5 hours drive before arriving at Apple Park, Cupertino. Initially we thought that there were some sort of access into the headquarter of Apple, or at least the park surrounded by the oval shape office. Unsure whether it was too late (it was way past 6pm at that point of time and even the Apple Store nearby was already closed) or it wasn't open to public in the first place, we left for San Francisco and settled our dinner at Sotto Mare, which is famous for their Cioppino, a fish stew originated from the city itself. The restaurant was full of people when we arrived and thankfully it didn't take long before getting our table. With a full stomach, we checked in at King George Hotel and rested for the night. We parked our car at garage which was conveniently located right in front of our hotel. Overnight rate is 38 dollars. 

Didn't expect to see familiar machinery on this road trip.

No chance to get into the Apple Park so having this photo as memorabilia instead.

Our first meal in San Francisco. Loving the decoration of this restaurant.

San Francisco, California

Our hotel didn't come with breakfast so we walked for 15 minutes to nearby Blue Bottle Coffee, local coffee roaster, headquartered at Oakland to be exact. It was another rainy morning. The shop concept was rather minimalist and the logo was just simply, a blue bottle.  Apparently there were plenty of Blue Bottle outlets in Korea and Japan when one of my friends replied to my instagram story in which she thought Blue Bottle was from Asia. Ordered my mocha for 7 dollars and we were set to head for first agenda of the day. Our initial plan was actually to visit Yosemite National Park, straight from Santa Barbara before continuing to San Francisco. However, it was snowy for the past week before I fly and the park was entirely closed. If I recalled correctly, the park was going to be off limit during my entire time in the USA. Tough luck, we changed plan and my friend suggested to visit Point Reyes National Seashore. 

Me liking my coffee, knowingly I would miss it back home.

As we started to drive through the city, a familiar landmark started to appear right in front of me and despacito, the red structure stood there proudly to be admired by yours truly. I would think by now you know what I am talking about. The bridge appeared to be rustic red, despite of the name. It was named after the strait below it. We cruised through suburban area and drove through lush of forests before arriving at Bear Valley Visitor Centre an hour later.

Passing through this bridge felt like a dream come true.

Sign of spring with these blossoms by the roadside.

There we realised we navigated to the wrong destination as we intended to go to a light house that oversees Pacific Ocean and that was another 40 minutes away. We drove by Tomales Bay before Pacific Ocean coast was on our right. We parked our car and did 0.4 miles of walk towards the light house. It was super windy and I swear I thought I was going to be blown away, though I did figuratively, admiring the view of the vast ocean. There were some deers within our proximity. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the lighthouse as the gate was locked, so was the visitor centre. We droved to another view point, Chimney Rock which was on the other edge facing Drake Bay.

One with the lighthouse.

One with the deers.

Another coastline of Pacific Ocean.

Tracking for another 0.4miles along Chimney Rock Trail and was mesmrised by this view. I think I can see Hawaii already, very small of course.

Clear blue sky meeting the green coastline and blue sea for this picturesque Drake Bay.

Spotted another group of seals before returning to our car.

It was close to 2pm before we decided to head back to San Francisco and by the time we arrived at Golden Gate Bridge view point, it was raining again which made it almost impossible to do the photo ops. Based on weather forecast, the rain expected to stop after an hour so we googled to have our tea break waiting for the sky clearing out and we found a place called Farley Bar at Sausalito, 10 minutes drive away. It seemed to be a fancy place as a pot of tea cost 6 dollars and palm size sandwich was 23 dollars. As the sunlight shone once again upon us and we headed back to catch the iconic bridge against clear blue sky. Thankfully. I considered myself lucky that I was able to capture the bridge in good weather as San Francisco is infamously known for its foggy weather and there were the odds that the bridge would be covered in fog. We stopped at Baker Beach for another perspective of the bridge but I was disappointed with condition of the beach. Not sure if it was low season as there was no cars other than ours and the toilets nearby, the mobile ones, were full of graffiti. We didn't hang around for long.

Weather was on our side to capture this beauty!

Another viewpoint of the iconic landmark, though the site was rather underwhelming.

We passed by Palace of Fine Arts before we arrived at the famous crooked street of Lombard. I first noticed about this road from Pixar's Inside Out movie and didn't realise it was based on real place. It was not blooming as much as in the movie since it was still winter season. The Painted Ladies was part of my list of places to visit but I chose to skip in the end. We settled our dinner at Chinatown. It was disappointingly salty albeit the portion was generous.

This architecture reminded me of Edinburgh.

Driving through crookedest street in the world.

Excited to see the setting from Inside Out movie.

It's a thing to take tram in SF, for tourists. We didn't board any.

It was our last day in SF and weather was sunny for the whole day. This was one of those days we have the sun with us till the end. Refilled our car with petrol and returned the car, we were back to our foot.  We did a quick drop by at Westfield San Francisco Centre and most of the shops were still close eventhough it was already 10am, unlike the malls we have in Malaysia. Got myself a pair of gloves at HnM before grabbing coffee at Peets, another local roaster. We had our brunch at Luke's Lobster ordering the Lobster and Crab Roll. Basically it was cold seafood sandwich and the lobster's cost 24 dollars. It was 30 minutes walk towards Pier 33 to board the ferry to Alcatraz. We booked our tickets online the night before which was 50 dollars for day tour. We spent around 2.5 hours at the notorious prison and audio guide was included in the tour that brought you stories and events at each site, where one of them was the story about prisoners' attempt to escape by using spoons in making the escape route. Fascinating. From the island, you can have good view of Golden Gate Bridge and skyline of San Francisco.

Peet's Coffee, founded in Berkerly since 1966.

Warm bun with cold lobster.

The only ferry service getting to Alcatraz.

Bonus point of Alcatraz tour: view point of San Francisco skyline. Or may be that's why the ticket cost 50 dollars.

I doubt the prisoners putting the same face as I did when they were detained here.

Last few photo before leaving the island.

The yard where the prisoners spent their limited leisure time when they were out of their cells.

We returned to SF for our early dinner at Pier 39, pretty much only visited by tourists where the price here was slightly on higher end. We had Clam Chower and Giant Scallops at Fog Harbor Fish House. There was street performance as we walked towards the end of the pier and we tipped. From afar we could see Alcatraz. Directly next to the pier was another view point of sealions, albeit there weren't that many of them during this time of the year. I supposed it wasn't the season. They were all just lying on the planks and snoozing away while the spectators were enjoying the scenes of their cuteness.

Another feast of seafood: clam chowder and giant scallops.

The touristy pier 39. I got some of my postcards and stamps here. The shop's name was Lola, seemed to be a franchise.

A photo with Mr Ocean, or so my friend thought the name was.

View of Alcatraz aka The Rock from Pier 39. And you wonder even if they managed escape the prison, how would they survive swimming across the cold sea?

Looking so warm and cuddly.

I read about Ghirardelli being SF's locally founded chocolate company and so we went to the marketplace for a quick break after a long day. It was already 5pm. I had hot chocolate instead of the famous ice cream. Tired from walking, we Lyfted back to city centre to have quick stroll at Union Square. Wanted to buy new winter jacket at Nortth Face but it was out of my budget range. We popped into Macy's and found the one I like but there wasn't my size. Empty handed, we returned to our hotel to retrieve our luggage. Refreshed and cleansed ourselves knowing there was going to be long journey ahead of us, we crossed San Francisco Oakland Bridge to catch our train which was scheduled to depart from Emeryville Train Station at 940pm. 

Union Square, last stroll at the city before leaving.

Off we went to the next city. Bidding farewell to California, for now.

My USA Journey

San Francisco, California

Portland, Oregon

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Seattle City and Olympic National Park, Washington

First Starbucks, Washington and Las Vegas, Nevada

Canyoning in Arizona and Catching David Blaine

I Made It to the Oscars and Hollywood!

More of Los Angeles and Santa Monica Pier