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Monday October 5, 2009

Kenmore Air instructs you to be at their Lake Union office so long before the first flight, but they don't have the office open. I hiked across the vast parking lots to get some Starbuck's coffee while we waited outside in the chilly air. Met some nice people from California.

But eventually we were off, 3 planes full to Victoria. Lucky us, we got the Beaver!

Freight cars

Float and boats

Container ships

Taxiing in

The End of the San Diego trip.

Seattle - Alexis Hotel

Sunday October 4, 2009

We arrived in Seattle near 9:00 pm and that was the end of the train trip. The Alexis Hotel paid our cab fare on the short ride from the train station.

Lobby

Room

The Alexis is a Kimpton hotel like the Argonaut that we stayed at in San Francisco. Their decor is always a little 'different'. This one wasn't really to my taste but it was comfortable for our brief stay and the staff was pleasant. Our room had a little balcony overlooking a courtyard.

Being a Sunday night there wasn't much open in the area. We gave up on trying to find a cup of coffee, went back to our room and set up the laptop. After hearing a couple of horror stories about taking the Clipper (boat), we decided to book the float plane instead. This meant we'd be getting up early again.

Amtrak train route - San Diego to Seattle

Here are two maps showing the train routes we took.

To get from San Diego to Los Angeles we took the Pacific Surfliner commuter train. Although it carries on up to San Luis Obispo we had to get off in LA in order to catch the Coast Starlight to Seattle. In total, it's a two day trip. We had taken part of this trip before but only north from Oakland, California, where the train departs at about 10:00 at night.

I didn't take pictures from the Surfliner since it was just becoming daybreak. Initially the route paralleled the highway we'd driven in the car before, by the coastal towns of Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas and Carlsbad. There were help-yourself snacks on board and it was an enjoyable ride.