Growing up in Southern California beach towns, watching paradise relentlessly paved over by highways, parking lots, and strip malls, I decided to opt out of car culture and never get a driver's license. This has required some tricky maneuvering, but also a lifelong appreciation for public transportation, particularly boats and trains.
Last weekend, we flew to Seattle for a birthday/honeymoon trip, and escaped their Fisherman's Wharf style downtown waterfront by embarking on the commuter car ferry to Bainbridge Island.
The late afternoon was unusually sunny and warm for Seattle...
...and the views were remarkable.
The ferryboat was huge, with different levels to hang out...
...including triangular jutting areas that were a thrill.
Unlike Sausalito, for instance, Bainbridge is not really a tourist destination...
...but you can walk up a hill to a small commercial district and drink a local brew.
The return at sunset was breathtaking.
The next morning we boarded the Amtrak Coast Starlight train in a Deluxe Bedroom...
...and headed south along Puget Sound, which had reverted to its usual grey.
The sun finally emerged in the afternoon in southern Washington...
...as we passed strange roadside businesses...
...and all-white crowds at rural station stops.
The white supremacist movement that has emerged out of the Pacific Northwest finally made sense to me visually.
The most beautiful section of the journey was in southern Oregon in the Cascades...
...and the sweetest part was being rocked to sleep overnight while journeying back to San Francisco.
Lovely. Erudite Partners used to take the train from Portland to SF when we were courting, but it seldom made the run without various interruptions -- landslides, etc. Hard to plan, but we were young. :-)
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