California Zephyr to Chicago

 

Just a bit over three weeks ago, I arrived home in Seattle after 18 days in Italy.  Glad I'd been away, glad to be home again.  Glad to greet my two cats and to revel in their (ambiguous) signs of warm welcome.  ("Can we go outside, NOW?")

But almost before I'd unpacked my bags, and certainly before I wrote my trip summary for this blog, I was asking myself, "Where next?"

Well, really, I'm not rushing back out the door.  The cats require a certain amount of appeasing before they'll countenance another of their "master's" disappearances.  I'll be hanging around all October.

But in about five weeks, I continue my recent annual railway pilgrimages from the West Coast to Chicago.  I plan to repeat my 2022 trip on the California Zephyr, a 51-hour ride from San Francisco to Chicago, reputed by many to be the most beautiful railroad ride in the United States.  (The Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles offers worthy competition, in my opinion.)  I did consider the nearly four-day Canadian ride from Vancouver to Toronto, but I decided to save that for a future year.

I'll fly down to San Francisco from Seattle, stay overnight, and leave San Francisco the next morning at 7:15 a.m. by Amtrak bus over the Bay Bridge.   Once I'm across the Bay in Emeryville, I climb aboard the Zephyr -- my home until 2:39 p.m., two days later.  (Assuming always that the train runs on time.)  

The next morning, I meet up with my friends Jim and Dorothy, who will be arriving by bus from their home in West Lafayette, Indiana.  We met up in a similar manner last winter, after my arrival in Chicago from L.A. on the Southwest Chief.  And like last year, we'll spend part of our time together enjoying the performance opportunities that Chicago offers.  

First, and most seriously, we'll see Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro as offered by the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

We follow up Mozart with a somewhat lighter experience the next day: Drunk Shakespeare, a play within a play, in which four sober actors and one drunk actor try to perform Shakespeare.  As the billing eloquently describes the experience:

Hilarity and mayhem ensue while the four sober actors try and keep the script on track. Every show is different depending on who is drinking... and what they're drinking!

Craft cocktails are available for purchase throughout the show.

Find us at 182 N Wabash Ave, in the Chicago Loop, for speakeasy vibes, a full cocktail bar, and a whole lot of Shakespeare.

It sounds educational.  I'll try to sober up by the time my plane leaves for Seattle the following morning.