THE REST OF MY PORTLAND/SAN FRANCISCO PHOTOS! Yeah, I neglected my blog for months. But it was for a reason! I was busy! I got a new Macbook! I’m moving to Japan!

Anyway, here’s the rest of the photos. Even though this was from, you know, APRIL.

The Amtrak train that runs along the west coast from Seattle to LA is called the Coast Starlight. Fancy! We decided to take the train from Portland to San Francisco just because we’re train nerds and it sounded like a fun idea.

We got a sleeper car and I made a fish face. (Those two things are unrelated.) The sleeper cars are pretty tiny but it’s nice to have your own little space with beds and a table and stuff.

I like champagne, even if it is from California and served in a plastic glass.

You could either eat dinner in the Dining Car or the Parlour Car. The Parlour Car is only for people who have booked sleeping cars, so we went for that. Also, in the Dining Car, you share your table so that it makes a table of four and we didn’t feel like making conversation with elderly American strangers.

This was the dining car.

We took a stroll over to the sightseeing car.

Seeing the sights!

There was even a cute little movie theatre.

The Amtrak amenity kit wasn’t as nice as the ones you get on airplanes but I just love transportation-branded anything.

The Parlour Car and the top of my messy haired head.

Train salad

Train… beef? I can’t even remember. The food was fine but not memorable (obviously). Here’s an example menu.

For relaxing times… take the train.

Pretty mountain scenery

While you’re at dinner, your sleeper car attendant comes and makes up your room into beds. Sleeping in a train was kind of soothing. I also had a shower on the train before I went to bed — now there’s something you can’t do on (most) airplanes!

Morning!

Amtrak coffee

The breakfast was also edible — I think Mike had a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich.

More pretty scenery. Almost in San Francisco at this point.

We also had some doughnuts left from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, which made an even BETTER breakfast.

Yummmmmmmmm

Heading into San Francisco…

… and we arrived at Fisherman’s Wharf! The whole Amtrak thing was pretty fun, but we were definitely some of the youngest people in a sleeping car. Most of the people were 60+ but I guess I just like doing things that old people like doing. I would only really recommend the Coast Starlight if you a) are a train nerd and/or b) have a lot of time on your hands because it takes at least 15 hours longer than flying.

 

Yeahhhhhhh… so I guess I kind of neglected my poor blog for awhile. I was busy! Sorry, blog. But I’m back! NOW I WILL FINALLY POST MY PORTLAND/SAN FRANCISCO PHOTOS EVEN THOUGH THEY’RE FROM A MILLION YEARS* AGO. And update on various other life things because I’m going to Japan in three months! Three months? That’s so soon! Anyway, here we go with my almost-forgotten Portland/San Francisco photos. In case you forgot (I mean, I barely remember and I was there), I went to Portland a couple months ago and then took the train down the coast to San Francisco. Two of my favourite cities!

* by “a million years” I mean “four months”

 You remember how this goes. Here’s me eating a muffin on United on the way to ORD. A real coffee cup, because my YYZ-ORD upgrades always, always clear on United. I’m basing this entirely on my own experience, but I think that there aren’t that many United elites flying out of YYZ. (Lucky for me.)

One of the surprisingly tolerable United Clubs in ORD.

It looks kind of modern!

In order to get to the west coast at a reasonable time, you need to leave really early. So I was trying to sleep. It didn’t really work.

Look! I don’t always get upgraded! Exit row ORD-PDX. Despite the lack of upgrade, this was one of the BEST United flights I’ve ever had. The pilot was amazing. He kept Channel 9 on and would talk about various things related to the flight, answer passenger questions, talk about what we were flying over — it was awesome. As much pain as United causes me sometimes, that kind of stuff is why I love them.

Arriving in Portland and riding the Max.

Downtown Portland/Chinatown

We went to Ping for happy hour. Portland has such amazing happy hours everywhere. SO MUCH CHEAP FOOD AND DRINKS! Seriously, look at Ping’s happy hour menu. Coming from a place that doesn’t really do happy hour, I’m so jealous.

Ramen and squid on a stick

The Kobayashi dog

Tiny fish

It’s cute inside. It was pretty empty, because I guess MOST PEOPLE aren’t drinking at 3pm on a weekday. Their loss!

Then we wandered off to Ground Kontrol for some nerdy nostalgia. It’s basically an arcade that serves alcohol. I’m not the hugest arcade fan unless there are UFO catchers involved. (The best combination would be UFO catchers AND alcohol.)

This was Mike winning at Mortal Kombat.

A cute Portland diner. Notice that it’s raining. It rained the entire time. It’s Portland!

Best place to spend a rainy day: the greatest bookstore in the world.

I love Powell’s so much. Mmm, books.

A giant square of food trucks. Toronto, you suck.

Food trucks, wahhhh. Why can’t I have more stomachs?

Went for Spam musubi. 808 is the area code for Hawaii!

Not quite as good as Honolulu, but I take what I can get.

Then, it was time for (obviously) more Japanese food. We went to Kale (“curry” in Japanese), an adorable curry restaurant run by Japanese people. I LOVE Japanese curry. This was the regular curry with extra fukujinzuke (pickles). When I make curry, I always pile on the fukujinzuke because I require MAXIMUM PICKLES at all times.

Mike got the Curry Doria. The doria version basically means it’s baked with cheese. It is DELICIOUS. It may be one of the most delicious foods on this planet.

This entry is making me really hungry. I think I’m going to go get some food and then continue on with more Portland photos. Which are probably all food photos. Sigh.