06.09.2025 Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Union Station - Los Angeles

Taking a train across the country was on my husband's bucket list - so that's how we traveled to visit our daughter in California.  It was a fun adventure. I would recommend doing it at least once, especially along the Pacific Coast.

The trip took just over two days - we started in Austin on the Texas Eagle and went to Los Angeles. Union Station in LA is a magnificent building - a mix of Art Deco and Mission Revival - but I don't recommend arriving before dawn (4:30 am) only to hang out until the coffee shops open.  That was the biggest downside, and if we were to do it again, we'd schedule a little differently.

From LA we took the Coast Starlight up through California, which was beautiful - especially as the train ran alongside the historic Pacific Coast Highway. 

In the Dining Car

The "bedroom" in the sleeping car is very small, but the ride was comfortable, and I actually slept quite well. The highlight of the trip - beyond watching the country go by - was definitely the dining car!  When you book a sleeper, meals are included, and they are really good!  Eggs cooked to order for breakfast, burgers and salads for lunch, and wonderful dinners, including a very nice steak!

Our train got in late Monday evening, but we were up early and heading into San Francisco on Tuesday morning. Once we arrived, we more than made up for the two plus days of sitting and eating!

With my daughter and Peggy

We took BART in to UCSF, where our daughter is currently a postdoc.  We met her PI and some lab colleagues before she spent some time working, and we took off to explore Golden Gate Park.  We reconvened and - because my husband wanted to - took a Waymo to the Mission District where we had a delicious Cal-Mex lunch and finally (after years of buying jewelry and getting to know each other online) met my friend Peggy Li!

Meeting people in person just hits different - starting with hugs! We had a great time visiting, talking about making jewelry - I loved hearing about Peggy's experiences creating jewelry for movie and television costumes - and getting to meet her delightful corgi, Huckleberry!

From Peggy's studio we went to Fiat Lux, an incredible San Francisco fine jewelry store. 

The store itself is beautiful, and the selection of pieces - in house, vintage and from other artists - was amazing.  Of course, I bought some things! For myself, a pendant cast from a vintage heart locket, and a fun gold single earring for my daughter.

There is no way to describe everything we did over the course of our week in a blog post, so I'll just share a few of the highlights.

During the week we hit the museums - there are so many of them in San Francisco, we barely scratched the surface. 

Colorful minerals
at Cal Academy of Sciences

We visited the California Academy of Sciences, where we were just in time for the day's penguin feeding, and of course I made my way to the gems and minerals.

At the SFMoMA we saw a fabulous retrospective of Ruth Asawa's life and work, as well as some Alexander Calder sculptures (he's one of my favorites), and at the deYoung we saw a wonderful collection of Paul McCartney's photos from the Beatles first tour in the US, and enjoyed the fabulous views from the top of their tower.

Over the weekend, we saw Lucy Kaplansky at the Freight (formerly Freight & Salvage) and went to the Chase Center to see the Golden State Valkyries play the Minnesota Lynx - the home team didn't win, but we still had a lot of fun.

Sunday, June 1st was our last day - the first day of Pride in San Francisco - and there was no better way to celebrate than by watching roller skating drag queens at the Ferry Landing.  We took the ferry from Oakland, and spent the afternoon at the gorgeous Ferry Building shopping and eating.

Pride at the Ferry Landing

We've made several trips to California in the seven years since our daughter moved there - and at the end of each visit I look forward to going back again.  Not just because I love spending time with her, but there is so much to do and see - and we have been there, the weather is always beautiful (especially compared to the heat and hail in Austin while we were gone).

I also need to give a shout out to my podiatrist.  When we came home from a trip to DC in February, I was in pain...my feet, my legs, my hips all hurt.  I went in to see her in March, and she said my left foot had become completely flat (the long term effects of a car wreck more than 20 years ago) and I needed orthotics. 

My new insoles arrived a few weeks before we left - and they made such a difference.  We walked, and walked, and walked...and while I was tired, nothing hurt...even on the day we went more than 15K steps!

It was just the break we needed before starting what is going to be a very busy summer...which includes enameling class at ACC (yes, there will be a blog post).

You can see a daily photo log of the trip by scrolling back through my Instagram (more than here, but even there it's only a small sample of what I took), and follow along through the summer for enameling.

Until next time.