Thursday 2nd October – Friday 3rd October
San Diego to Esalen, USA
From San Diego, we moved north through California, to a place called Esalen (of which more in our next post). The journey was simply spectacular, and the photos just don’t do it justice, but here’s a bit about what we saw.
Train journey, San Diego to Salinas
An early start on Thursday – the alarm went off at 4.30am! Our train from San Diego (called the Pacific Surfliner) was at 6.05am. As we left the city we followed the coast and watched the sun rise over the beaches to the north of the city. There were plenty of surfers already in the water as the sun rose.
We had a short time at Los Angeles station, before we boarded the Coast Starlight, which goes all the way to Seattle.
Travelling through the sprawl of Los Angeles seemed to take an age (we must have spent at least an hour in total passing through the city and its suburbs). But eventually we left the suburbs behind, passing huge amounts of agriculture.
And, especially in the Santa Barbara area, beaches and bays one after another.
The Coast Starlight train, and Joanna in the Sightseer Lounge Car.
We finally arrived at our stop, Salinas, at 8pm. Salinas is an agricultural centre in California, and was the hometown of the author John Steinbeck.
Bus and van journey, Salinas to Esalen
A slow start on Friday, and after a long sleep we headed to Salinas Transit Center to catch a local bus to Monterey, where we had a chance to relax for a few hours.
We were picked up in Monterey, and driven south to Esalen along the coast road in Big Sur – surely one of the most beautiful drives in the world. The road winds along the coast, giving the most beautiful views of the bays and beaches along the way.
All in all, the most spectacular journey imaginable!
Fact of the day
The Striking Out blog has just hit 1,000 views! Thank you so much to everyone who’s read, commented, liked and followed our posts. We really hope you’re enjoying reading the blog as much as we are enjoying writing it!
Striking Out 