Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Opening Sunday, 30 November, is Sacramento’s newest hotel: the Citizen Hotel.

I’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time. With the debut of the Citizen Hotel, Sacramento now has a 198-room boutique hotel with character and style in the downtown city center.

The Citizen occupies what was built in 1925 as a high-rise office building but which over time had become a seedy relic. The developers (with help from the City of Sacramento) gutted the property and rebuilt it as a top-notch hotel.

The property will be managed by San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hotels, whose mission is to operate a chain of California hotels that are not in the least bit chain-like. Each one has its own name and personality; the Citizen is no exception.

For instance.

In a story in today’s Sacramento Bee, Chip Conley, the CEO of Joie de Vivre, is quoted as describing the red and black color scheme of the hotel lobby and mezzanine lounge (“Scandal”) as “law library meets bordello”. Now that just has to be fun.

Continue reading "Lodging – Let's all welcome Sacramento’s newest Citizen" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Using up my bookmarks / Clogging my mind
Read this, don’t read that / Can’t you read my blog?"

(Apologies to the Five Man Electrical Band.)

Here’s a brief non-travel, non-running related post about a quick way to keep track of your favorite blogs.

If you’re reading “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” then chances are good that you read other blogs hosted in many locations, not just the Enterprise-Record's Norcal Blogs. Now if your method of checking for new posts has been the same as mine then I have a suggestion for a faster way: Google Reader.

Until I found Google Reader my modus operandi was to bookmark each blog and then periodically check them one by one for updates. Pretty tedious, wouldn’t you say?

Now all I need to do is log in to my Google Reader account to see if any of the blogs have been updated.

It's really simple:

Step 1 – Set up a Google account if you don’t already have one for Google Groups, Google Maps, G-mail, etc.

Step 2 – Go to Google Reader, sign in and specify the URLs for the blogs you are tracking. (This is called “adding a subscription".)

Step 3 – When you want to see if any of the blogs have been updated you just sign in to Google Reader.

Take a look at two screenshots of my Google Reader homepage:

To the left is the portion of the homepage that lists the blogs to which I have “subscriptions”.

The blog names in bold font contain new posts.

The number in parentheses indicates the number of new posts.

For example, the blog “Rafi on the Rails” contains one new post.

This larger chunk of the Google Reader homepage shows not only the list of blogs but also the first few lines of each blog with a new post.

From here I can read the entire post within Google Reader or I can go directly to the source should I wish to see the blog in its original format, or to read or add comments.

That’s all there is to it. Get started at www.google.com/reader !

Would you like to get an e-mail reminder when I add a new post to "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"?

Whether or not you use Google Reader I'm happy to include you in a blast e-mail to notify readers when I add a new post to "Planes, Trains & Automobiles". Comment back to me with your e-mail address. (I won't publish the comment with your e-mail address for all the world to see.)

Posted by Greg Fischer at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the last post inspired by my train trip from L.A. to Portland. The first one was about the ease of using Burbank Airport as the gateway to L.A. and the second concerned the train trip itself.

Simply put, Portland is a terrific place. This post won’t even try to tackle the city. I’ll save that for another occasion when I’m really spending time there, and not just making the place an overnight turnaround point for a trip that was all about the transportation and not so much the destination. In keeping with that, this post is mostly just a look at the ease of getting in and out of the city for arrivals and departures by rail or air.

By the way, when I plan long-distance trips for other people on Amtrak to Seattle or other destinations in the Pacific Northwest, I recommend breaking travel in Portland. It's a great city to make a stop, whether it's overnight or longer. And if you're traveling beyond Portland a layover there means you're not going to have to worry about late trains and missed connections.

ON THE PLATFORM IN PORTLAND

It’s not exactly the Gare du Nord in Paris but Portland Union Station is fairly active and very attractive. Looking at the photo above, you see on the right the train I was on, the Coast Starlight, northbound from Los Angeles to Seattle. In the middle is the rear end of train 28, the Portland section of the Empire Builder, which merges in Spokane with train 8 from Seattle and continues on through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to end in Chicago, Ill. On the left is one of the Cascades trains, which operate north to Seattle (and beyond to Vancouver, BC) and south to Eugene.

Continue reading "Destinations – Portland, Ore. – Easy in, easy out" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my last post I sang the praises of using the Burbank Airport rail station as a gateway to southern California. For me it was simple. I hopped on a Metrolink train and about 25 minutes later I was getting off at L.A. Union Station, where my Big Ride on Amtrak would originate about an hour later. By the way, the cost of the short hop on Metrolink was only $5.50.

First, some words about Union Station. This is the grand gateway that every train ride should start from or end at. It opened in 1939 and was the last of the great railroad terminals built in the United States. For more history and interior photos here’s a good account on Wikipedia.

In addition to its grand indoor spaces in the Mission Revival style, the gardens on either side of the main waiting area are splendid examples of why southern California’s climate attracts so many visitors and residents.

LOOKING TOWARD OLVERA STREET FROM A COURTYARD AT UNON STATION

CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS AT AN AIRPORT?

Continue reading "Rail – Los Angeles to Portland on the Coast Starlight over the Tehachapis" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rather than write one long post about my trip, I’m going to write three shorter posts over the next few days.

This first one is about Burbank airport’s convenience for transit connections elsewhere in the region.

The second post will be about the train ride from Los Angeles to Portland on the Coast Starlight’s detour over the Tehachapis, and finally the third will concern my brief stay in Portland.

I’d like to assume that all readers know that Burbank (BUR) is the most centrally located airport of the five commercial airports in the Los Angeles metroplex. But just in case you don’t know that, then let me say so now: Burbank is the most convenient of the L.A. area airports. That is true, regardless of whether you are renting a car, using transit or being picked up by someone.

Long Beach is a close second due to its small, user-friendly feel (similar to Burbank), but its flight offerings are limited, it is not near downtown L.A. and it does not have the transit options that I'll shortly describe about Burbank.

There are five airports in the greater L.A. area: LAX, Long Beach, Ontario, Orange County and Burbank. If your destination is close to one of the four other airports then the logical choice is to use it. But Burbank best serves a huge swath of the area including the entire San Fernando Valley, downtown L.A. (way, way better than using LAX), Glendale, Pasadena, Hollywood and environs

If you’re driving, Burbank is a piece of cake because it’s very close to the Golden State Freeway (I-5) and also near the Hollywood Freeway (170/101).

But beyond an easy jump onto the famous/notorious L.A. freeway system, Burbank Airport offers a remarkably painless connection to rail that broadens the reach of the airport to the transit user.

Continue reading "Airlines - Burbank Airport, your easy gateway to L.A. and beyond" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, how many of you runners out there have done a relay?

I'll bet not so many as have done a 5K, 10K, half-marathon or even a marathon.

Interested? Even mildly? Or perhaps you're horrified by the thought but want to learn more if for no other reason than to be reinforced in your conviction that you don't ever want to be involved with one.

Regardless of motivation, come on down to Fleet Feet Chico this coming Thursday night for Relay Night. You just might catch the relay bug.

Eric Lerude, event director and promoter for the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey, is coming all the way from Reno to tell you about his great event. And Tori Parks, race director for the Whiskeytown Relays, will also be there to promote her relay.

Eric and Tori are wonderful people who work incredibly hard to put on these fine events. I know this because I've done each of their relays three times. I'll be at Fleet Feet, too, along with another local RTO (the common abbreviation for the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey) team captain.

If you're planning to attend, please RSVP to Fleet Feet at 345-1000 or e-mail them at staff@fleetfeetchico.com

Hope to see you there! It's going to be a fun evening.

Posted by Greg Fischer at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven’t had time to write my long post about the trip yet but I wanted to get word out quickly about four more dates in November that Amtrak is planning to detour the Coast Starlight over the Tehachapis.

Those dates are 8, 10, 12 and 14 November, both north and southbound.

The schedule will be the same as in October and presumably the train will also operate via the former Southern Pacific route in the San Joaquin Valley.

Southbound train 11

Leave Chico 3:50 a.m.
Leave Sacramento 6:35 a.m.
Arrive Los Angeles 6:15 p.m.

Northbound train 14

Leave Los Angeles 10:15 a.m.
Arrive Sacramento 9:30 p.m.
Leave Sacramento 11:59 p.m. (long wait in order to catch up with regular schedule)
Arrive Chico 1:55 a.m.

The best price for coach one-way is $62 ($55 from Sacramento) and appears to be currently available on most departures. (10% less for AAA members booked at least 3 days in advance; 15% off for seniors age 62+.) If you want to upgrade to the least expensive sleeping accommodation the lowest additional amount for a roomette is $124 and is still available at that price for most dates.

Book on-line at Amtrak.com or call Amtrak at (800) 872-7245. Amtrak does not charge an additional fee for telephone reservations unlike many airlines.

Posted by Greg Fischer at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greetngs from the lobby at the Sacramento Holiday Inn at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 29 October!

(I'm using the free wi-fi here because it's not working at the train station and the Starbucks next to the station is closed. I need to be back at the station by about 11:45 p.m. since the train departs at 11:59.)

I'm happy to report that all of the arrangements described in yesterday's post turned out just as planned. My flight to Burbank and the Metrolink connection worked splendidly.

The train ride was lots of fun, plus I ran into two friends I used to work with at Amtrak.

THE COAST STARLIGHT IN THE TEHACHAPIS APPROACHING A TUNNEL

Posted by Greg Fischer at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My long planned trip to experience the new and improved sleeping car service on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight gets underway tomorrow. In the course of three days I’ll be heading south, north and then south again.

If you read my recent post about the detouring Coast Starlight you’ll know that the trip I originally planned was disrupted due to Union Pacific maintenance work on tunnels around San Luis Obispo. So instead of the train trip originating in Santa Barbara it’s going to start in Los Angeles, and therefore instead of driving a rental car one-way to Santa Barbara I'm going to fly one-way to Burbank to meet the train.

Here's my itinerary over the course of the next three days. I've embedded links to the airlines and Amtrak so feel free to follow along and check flight and train status to see if I stay on schedule or if my trip gets blown to bits by late planes or trains. I'm already here in Oakland as I write this.

View Larger Map

Continue reading "Rail - Plane, Train, Plane (& transit galore)" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this second installment on Alameda, I’m going to introduce you to the western half of the island. If you didn’t read Part 1 about Alameda, click here for a shortcut to that post.)

The western end of Alameda is dominated by the large property that was formerly the Alameda Naval Air Station (NAS). The land that became the Navy base was tideland that was dredged and filled in the late 1930s. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Alameda NAS was a substantial facility. Rather than paraphrase its history, here’s a link to the Alameda Naval Air Museum website. You’ll find lots of fascinating history and photos.

Two noteworthy sentences from the museum’s overview page illustrate the base’s impact on Alameda:

“The Air Station had 45,000 personnel at its peak in 1945 when the city of Alameda had only 25,000 residents. The base covered one-third of the island of Alameda.”

Continue reading "Destinations - Alameda, Part 2" »

Posted by Greg Fischer at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)