Day 6 - Friday, June 17, 2016 - Los Angeles California.
What I am about to describe many people may consider a waste of a day in L.A. but for me, having a day to just meld into the city and not be "that guy taking pictures of road signs" for a while. Like, maybe I am meeting my cousin at the train or something...
So, the checkout time for The Metro Plaza is 11:00 am and I plan to use every one of those minutes. At the last possible minute I check out and head across the street to Union Station. It is blisteringly hot. I haven't shaven in 6 days. I am wearing my cloth cap and sunglasses. I look like the uni-bomber, only with nicer shoes.
If you've never been to Union Station, here is what to expect. If you HAVE been to Union Station, please let me know if I got this right.
No matter what entrance you use, the station swallows you up. It is so immensely large inside that you sort of wonder what they were thinking when they built such a thing. It's a bit overwhelming trying to take in the high ceilings with their insanely intricate wood working and chandeliers that look like they are the size of the tires on those Earth Movers you see that can carry a small town in their bucket. The floors are ceramic tile in terra-cotta colors, well worn by the millions of shoes and boots that have walked through this hall. You want to stop and gawk at it and just absorb it all but you have to remember that there are throngs of people who don't really care and just want to get to their trains and so you stand off to the side and breathe it in.
In the Main Waiting Room they have an open piano that anyone is welcome to play. As I made my way through to head to the Metropolitan lounge to check my luggage and get some of that Amtrak coffee, there was a young kid who was playing classical music like he'd been hearing it and only it since the day he was born. It came so naturally to him and he went into a trance-like state. He gathered an audience and seemed surprised to see that many people watching when he was finally finished. The next player was a little Asian girl of maybe 5 or 6 who wanted to play chop-sticks, much to the delight of the gathered audience.
I finally made it to the Metropolitan Lounge, one of the perks of sleeper or business class accommodations. It has ample comfortable seating. Each chair has it's own power outlets in the side and desk-like trays that swing in or away. There's a dedicated bathroom, a small conference style room with a large table, a kitchenette with cold drinks, coffee, muffins or some other form of pastry... I lucked out and got chocolate chip cookies! I'm not ashamed to admit that I stashed 2 of them in my bag for later on the train. I staked out my spot and set up my computer and actually posted the first entry of this blog, while waiting for a train that is not scheduled to leave for 10 hours!
After a while I decided it was lunch so I left my bags with the attendant and made my way to Traxx, an up-scale bistro style restaurant at the end of the main waiting room, adjacent to the old Ticketing Room, which is now defunct but is preserved and makes quite an attraction in and of itself. Lunch at Traxx was a patty melt with mushrooms added and pub-style fries. The mushrooms were quite juicy and made my roll soggy. I had to eat my patty melt with utensils. For the second time in 3 days I am eating a wet sandwich.
After I finished my wet sandwich I went back to see who was at the piano now. An older gentlemen had just taken the bench and was warming up his fingers with some rag-time runs when all of a sudden he broke into Linus and Lucy! People were getting up and moving to closer seats just so they could see this guy play. Here is his performance: Linus and Lucy at Union Station, Los Angeles.
He continued to play for at least the next 2 hours. His repertoire was impressive, from Beethoven to Whitney Houston and all from memory. He had clearly spent some time in front of a piano as a child.
I ventured out of the station to get some more photos and to explore Olvera Street, I think it what it's called. Essentially a giant open air market with 100 vendors all selling exactly the same stuff. It's in and around a central plaza style park with some amazing trees. I wandered a few blocks in either direction just to see what there was, but there really wasn't anything that exciting so I took my hairy face back to the lounge and did some more blogging and sorted out some of my photos I've taken so far.
At about 9:45 pm they finally called for the red-caps to take us to the train and by some stroke of luck I was the first to load. I guess it's only fair since I had been in that lounge the whole day. I was in my room on board number 2, the Sunset Limited, by 10:00pm. The train was due to leave at 10:00 pm but due to a situation on the Coast Starlight coming in from Seattle, that train was running late. Apparently someone had been struck by but not killed by the Coast Starlight and the crew requested relief, meaning a new crew to take over the route. As a result, we didn't pull out of the station until 11:34 pm. Doomed from the start.
By coincidence a couple in the room across from me were from about 50 miles away from where I live, so we had something to chat about as we waited for the train to leave. Jay, our attendant, had already introduced himself and done the usual attendant stuff by then. I went to sleep as the train passed Pomona.
Continued on Day 7
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