The lighter side of life – staying in touch with friends and family by celebrating the ordinary.
My Trip to California, Post 10: Taking the Ace Train
I had a great time at Tracey’s but soon it was time to head to Laura’s house. Tracey offered to drive me, but I remembered when I used to live in Livermore, I had a friend who commuted from Livermore into Santa Clara Valley on a train. I looked it up and sure enough the ACE train goes from Stockton in the central valley, through Livermore and Santa Clara, all the way into San Jose.
It’s a beautiful train, far nicer than BART. It only goes southwest on weekday mornings, and northeast on weekday afternoons. I hopped the last train on Friday morning and it took me seamlessly from Livermore to Santa Clara.
I took tons of photos out the window just because I was so excited to be on a train. I like trains so much better than cars and airplanes. These photos are nothing special, but just imagine what my photos would have looked like out a car window on a freeway!
Here you can see the front of my train as we go around a bend.
Beautiful wetlands.
I had all my luggage with me: a medium sized hard-side plus a backpack. But it was the last train of the morning and not crowded. I had a whole set of 4 seats to myself, two facing two.
The spaciousness felt luxurious compared to an airplane. And so much more independence! There were no lines, no check-in, no security, no authorities, no announcements other than arrival at stations. I could bring my own water – no one checked to see what we were bringing on at all.
At one point someone walked through to look at our tickets, which we had purchased online ahead of time. It was so nice to not be herded like cattle! No one badgering you to put on your seatbelt or turn off your phone or stow your stuff or put back your tray table or adjust your seat or anything. You just sat where you wanted to sit, and got up and walked around whenever you wanted to walk around. Oh the freedom!
I sure wish I could go everywhere on a train – but most US trains are very slow. It would take me days to go where I could fly in a few hours.
This is the Santa Clara station.
The Livermore station also has a similar, old-fashioned train depot style building.
Very cute.
The whole experience felt safe, everything was clean and it was all very easy. I would take that train again!
Here is another train that came by while I was at the station. Laura said it is a new electric train. Very nice!
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