South for Christmas

One week from this moment (5:48 p.m. PST), I will find myself about half an hour east of Eugene, Oregon.  I'll be climbing eastward across the Cascade mountains, aiming for Chemult, Oregon, where I expect to arrive at 8:13 p.m.

Aw, shucks! You guessed it!  I'll be once more traveling south by rail, en route to Oxnard, California, on Amtrak's Coast Starlight.  This will be my third trip on the Coast Starlight during 2021 -- some sort of new single-year record for me.  

I've discussed this route before.  Most extensively, and longingly, perhaps, in November 2017 when I was headed to Oxnard for Thanksgiving.  I'll just repeat that it's a train ride that lasts 34 hours, with two lunches, one breakfast, and two dinners on board.  Because I'll be traveling in a roomette, all the meals come free, including one alcoholic drink (wine, beer, cocktail) (second and third alcoholic drinks cost $7.50 each, which isn't bad for a restaurant).  

The dinner menu has been upgraded since the last time I traveled Amtrak, and now consists of a choice of appetizers (e.g., lobster crab cake), main course (e.g., grilled Atlantic salmon), and dessert (e.g., flourless chocolate torte).  I emphasize meals, because they are the main events of the day aboard a train.  Against a background activity of watching scenery, reading, snoozing, or chatting with other travelers in the lounge car.

But enough (can there ever be enough?) about the train.  I will spend a couple of days with my brother and his wife in Oxnard, walking the beach (in December!), and then drive with them to their daughter's home in Glendale for Christmas.  I'll fly home from Burbank on December 26.

Last year, as you may remember, I "celebrated" Christmas alone, in Covid-induced isolation (other than my two recently-acquired cats, of course), "feasting" on a turkey TV dinner.  Like Scrooge eating alone in his office, right?  This Christmas, I join the entire Bob Cratchit family for convivial family festivities.  (Probably no dancing, however.)  I'm eagerly looking forward to it.

But first -- I have some gift wrapping to take care of.