A New Year Adventure, Part 1: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Well, we'll leave the plane part for a later blog post, and start with the train.

I had the most wonderful adventure this week; the perfect way, really, to end 2013 and start 2014. It was only five days, but it was filled with fun, new experiences, and a ton of sunshine...and so many pictures on both my iPhone and my Canon that it's going to take multiple blog posts to document it all. We'll start here, with Sunday's adventure.

On Sunday morning, Dad drove me to the Rocklin train station, where I caught a train heading towards Oakland. I got off in Emeryville, about two-and-a-half hours after I started, and met Summer to begin the next leg of the adventure.

Sunday was an iPhone-only day; I didn't pull out the Canon until Monday when I could really focus on landscapes. 

8:30 in the morning, Rocklin, California.

"I hear the train a'comin'..."

Train selfie.

Of course Cali came along! He brought his girlfriend.

Tower Bridge, Sacramento.

My old friend, Mt. Diablo.

Mt. Diablo and what's left of the Mothball Fleet.

Originally, Summer and I planned to go to Santa Barbara for our getaway, but several weeks ago, her husband Ben asked if she'd drive his old motorcycle down to his brother's place in San Diego. Summer agreed, and asked if I'd mind going there instead. Having never been to San Diego, I was eager to make the change, even though the drive would be much longer.

Then, a few weeks ago, Summer had a brilliant idea: why not, instead of leaving on Monday and driving the whole day to San Diego, leave on Sunday and stop for the night at our friend Amanda's place in Bakersfield? Amanda and her family were happy to host us, and breaking up the long drive was the best thing we could have done.

The infamous motorcycle, on the back of Summer's car.

Summer had to stop at an ATM on the way out of town, and
I saw this cute store.

 We stopped for lunch at Pea Soup Andersons in Santa Nella, because that's just what you do when you're traveling Interstate 5 (in the part of California where it's still called "Interstate 5" and not "The 5").

It's a long way from Santa Nella to San Diego.

I-5, heading South.

Fortunately, we weren't going to LA, just Bakersfield.

A singing moose at Dewar's Ice Cream in Bakersfield.

It was lovely to see Amanda--a choir friend from our Chico days--and her family. They bought us dinner and ice cream, and we were having so much fun that I forgot to get my camera out, except to take a picture of the singing moose.

We crashed that night, semi-coherent after several hours in the car...Interstate 5 through Central California is a wee bit on the boring side. 

Monday would bring more adventures...which I'll share in Part 2!