Sam’s Amtrak across the United States

Journey End,

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:30:00 -0400

Niagara Falls, United States

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 15:30:00 -0400

My train delay in Denver stretched on for a few hours. Luckily, the station bar’s drinks were great (I chuckled at, but did not order, the extremely alcoholic Layover in Paradise cocktail “maximum two per customer”) and there was lots of interesting information to read about. Two quick tangents I went on while drinking the excellent Peach Green Tea Smash (Photo 1) at the bar: 1. As a sign inside the station’s entrance proudly stated, the 105th Meridian runs right through Denver’s Union Station. A line of meridian, or longitude, is an imaginary vertical line that converges with all other longitudinal lines at the North and South poles. Along with latitude, or parallels, they are used to determine the location coordinates for any point on earth. The 105th Meridian West is one of 24 meridians on which time zones are based, and of course corresponds to Mountain Time. The train station’s placement on the 105th Meridian is completely coincidental, but is a fun way in which the train station represents a link to destinations across the country and around the world. 2. After wondering for weeks why almost every train station I stopped in was called “Union Station”, I finally googled it. It turns out that, as inspiring as the name might be, it’s not a generic plea for unity within the city. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the name originates back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, when many railroad companies built and owned the stations on their line. Many companies named their stations after themselves, leading to the various Penn Stations in NYC, Newark, New Jersey, and Baltimore, which are remnants of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. However all non company owned stations were transportation hubs, serving trains from multiple companies. They were stations where different lines met up, and were accordingly named Union Station. As thrilling as my various rabbit-holes and conversations with people at the bar proved to be, I was grateful to finally board my train, the California Zephyr. This was the same train that Margaret and I had taken from San Francisco, and I would be riding the rest of its route, all the way to Chicago. However this poor, star-crossed train seemed to encounter every possible challenge. We sat in Denver for another two hours before leaving to allow for necessary repairs and apparently had to go slowly all night due to a storm that was following our path through Colorado and into Nebraska. I woke up just outside Hastings, Nebraska on the way to Lincoln, with the train running six hours behind schedule. We had a beautiful, if slow morning ride along the Platte River and after Omaha we followed the Missouri River into Iowa. Having seen the wonders of the great American West, I must admit that traveling through Nebraska and Iowa was less than captivating. However I enjoyed watching English Premier League Soccer on my phone whenever service would allow, and peaked up to catch lots of farmland and the Des Moines River (Photo 2) just before Ottumwa, where we had a stretch break (Photo 3). After leaving Burlington Iowa, I crossed the Mississippi River - this time into Illinois - for the fourth, and last, time on this trip (Photo 4). It sounds silly, but I tried somehow to convey the enormous gratitude that I felt to this remarkable river that had provided such stunning vistas and thrilling experiences to me over the past five weeks. I enjoyed the sun setting over Illinois’ cornfields before pulling into Chicago around 8:30 PM Central Time. Clocking in at almost six hours late, I was grateful that my layover was seven hours, and had time for a quick scurry to famous local favorite Chipotle for a burrito before I boarded my train to Buffalo. The train ride from Chicago Union Station to Buffalo Depew Station was easy and I slept through almost all of it, so I’ll just remark on a couple things. The Lake Shore Limited runs daily from Chicago to Boston, also traveling to New York City via a split-off in Albany. It trails many of the Great Lakes, but at least on my trip did so mostly in the dark. The other note is that there is a distinction in Amtrak’s fleet between the trains that run in the Eastern United States (The Viewliner) and all other trains (The Superliner). The differences are truly mind-numbing so I will spare you the details, but I wanted to note it because the Viewliner’s dining car, where I ate breakfast before arriving in Buffalo, was sweet! (Photo 5) Upon arriving in Buffalo (“city of good neighbors and great football” said a sign I passed) and picking up my rental car, I sat and read in a very pleasant coffeeshop before walking a couple of blocks to the Darwin Martin House (Photo 6). The Martin House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most celebrated architect, for successful Buffalo businessman Darwin Martin. An executive at Larkin Soap Company and close friend of Wright, Martin provided near-total control and a virtually unlimited budget to Wright for the design of the Martin house, which was completed in 1909. As a quick aside, I did not realize just how much of an industrial hub Buffalo was in the early 20th century, fading as the steel industry collapsed. My tour guide in Niagara Falls claimed that Buffalo in 1920 had a larger population than Los Angeles. Wright called the Darwin House his opus, and it is one of his most famous works. Wright took a radical design approach at the time, with a horizontal, earthy design aesthetic. This really made it stand out from the rest of the Victorian-dominated neighborhood, which was incidentally planned by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Martin House was centered around a massive two-sided fireplace on the first floor, and pioneered an open floor plan nearly a century before that became popular. Wright’s design standard demanded total control: almost every piece of furniture is built-in, and in alignment with his overall vision. The house had been beautifully restored, and was cared for lovingly by a team of volunteers, one of which was our tour guide. I loved the tour and the house’s design…and it is important to put Wright’s work in the broader context of housing inequality in America. As I frequently read in “The Color of Law” earlier in my trip, Wright was an active contributor to the development and implementation of exclusionary white suburbs that were inaccessible to people of color in the United States. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Buffalo is the home of buffalo sauce. So after the tour, I drove to Allentown, a cool neighborhood close to Lake Erie, in search of some buffalo wings. Gabriel’s Gate had a funky, kind of charmingly unfriendly vibe. The wings though…the wings (Photo 7)! They were perfect, I don’t know what else to say. To work off the wings, I went for a couple of long walks to beautiful reading destinations. The first, Delaware Park, was a beautiful park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, where I sat under a Weeping Willow by Hoyt Lake (Photo 8). Next, I went downtown and walked by City Hall and the Guaranty (formerly known as the Prudential) Building (Photo 9). One of the United States’ first skyscrapers, the Guaranty Building was designed by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural mentor, and was completed in 1896. The Guaranty Building stands 13 stories tall, and is famous for its three design zones: large windows at ground-level, thin vertical elements that characterize its offices, and beautiful curvy ornamentation at the top of the building. I then walked by the western-most point of the famous Erie Canal and along a beautiful harborside walking path along Lake Erie (Photo 10). After dinner at a very cool gin bar, I made my way to the train station for the short, late-night ride to Niagara Falls. And finally a real bed! Amusingly, the best combination of affordability, a decent place to stay, and a view of the Niagara River (Photo 11) was at the casino in Niagara Falls. It was a strange place to stay, but met my needs just fine. I woke up after some much-needed sleep on Tuesday morning, August 17th. The second to last day of my trip was to be a whirlwind tour of Niagara Falls, and some googling around had led me to the “highlights” tour, a ~five hour bus tour with stops at the most iconic Niagara Falls locations. Our tour group was jovial, with families from Suriname, San Francisco, and Mexico, among others. We had a couple of anniversaries and a couple of honeymoons, and a gruff but good natured tour guide who had lived in the Buffalo area his entire life and was full of history and stories. We first set off for, and boarded, the Maid of the Mist. For some reason I had always thought of Niagara Falls as somewhere with a really nice view and kitschy stuff to do - somewhere that would be cool to stop by. As anyone who has been might imagine, I was therefore completely unprepared for what happened next. Our boat departed down the Niagara River, and we passed right by the American Falls, stretching out for hundreds of feet to our left. Approaching the Canadian Falls (Photo 12) with its sort of biblical mist billowing up and out from the impact of the falls was truly breathtaking. Entering that mist and seeing the power of the falls - apparently 250,000 gallons fall every second across the several waterfalls that make up Niagara - was humbling in the most wonderful way (Photo 13). After the boat ride we took the elevator up to the observation deck for yet another stunning view of the American Falls (Photo 14). Talking excitedly amongst ourselves, we re-boarded the bus for the short drive down to Whirlpool State Park. There, the waters from the falls rush down the Niagara River at such a rapid pace that they hit the beach and redirect backward, forming a whirlpool (Photo 15). After rebounding, the water is driven far below the surface - Whirlpool State Park is the deepest part of the Niagara River - and continues downriver all the way to Lake Erie. At this site, our tour guide informed us that Niagara Falls is between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the falls itself has historically eroded 4-6 feet per year. In fact, 5,000 or so years ago, Niagara Falls was located where Whirlpool State Park is now. In the last century, the park authority has installed deep steel beams into the falls, dramatically reducing the pace of erosion. After a walk down to see the whirlpool, we made our last stop at Goat Island to walk in and around Bridal Falls (Photo 16), one of the most beautiful parts of the American Falls. We were able to walk around on a somewhat rickety set of stairs right by Bridal Falls. Buffeted by the winds and soaked in spite of our ponchos, it was remarkable to see, hear, and truly feel the water pouring down (Photo 17). “It’s like being struck by lightning, but you live” said our tour guide. The tour complete, I returned to my hotel truly reckoning with the fact that I had only one more day left on this amazing trip. I celebrated the last night of my trip by losing $50 at slots and blackjack (Photo 18), and treated myself to an overpriced but tasty meal at one Casino’s restaurants before heading to bed.

Photo 1: A Peach Green Tea Smash helped me get through the long delay at Denver Union Station

Photo 2: The Des Moines River in Iowa

Photo 3: A stretch break in Ottumwa, IA

Photo 4: Crossing the Mississippi River for the last time, from Iowa to Illinois

Photo 5: The sun beginning to set over corn fields in Illinois

Photo 6: A very (very) quick layover in Chicago

Photo 7: Breakfast just before arriving in Buffalo

Photo 8: The Darwin Martin House in Buffalo

Photo 9: Some DELICIOUS wings at Gabriel's Gate in the Allentown neighborhood of Buffalo

Photo 10: Reading under a willow tree next to Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park

Photo 11: The Guaranty Building (formerly the Prudential Building) in downtown Buffalo

Photo 12: Lake Erie from the Buffalo Harborside

Photo 13: The Niagara River as seen from my hotel room

Photo 14: Approaching the Canadian Falls on the Maid of the Mist

Photo 15: Entering the Canadian Falls on the Maid of the Mist

Photo 16: Looking down at the American Falls from the Observation Deck

Photo 17: Whirlpool State Park

Photo 18: Bridal Falls, part of the American Falls

Photo 19: Bridal Falls, part of the American Falls

Photo 20: The casino hotel where I was staying

Boulder, United States

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 21:30:00 -0600

Hilariously, if unsurprisingly, Jauntlet has not been able to complete the journey with me, and isn't allowing me to post longer than a few lines. Please click this link for my blog post, complete with pictures, for my time in Denver and Boulder: https://medium.com/@sgreenberg129/denver-boulder-c00677856743

Denver, United States

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 21:00:00 -0600

Hilariously, if unsurprisingly, Jauntlet has not been able to complete the journey with me, and isn't allowing me to post longer than a few lines. Please click this link for my blog post, complete with pictures, for the trip to Denver: https://medium.com/@sgreenberg129/22bea60a09a3

San Francisco, United States

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 21:50:00 -0700

Los Angeles, United States

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 11:50:00 -0700

My journey from Seattle to Los Angeles brought the first - and hopefully the only - major Amtrak hiccup of my trip. The Coast Starlight is probably Amtrak’s most iconic train line, traveling from Seattle to Los Angeles. Its roughly 40 hour ride was repeatedly identified in my research as one of the two routes (along with San Francisco to Denver…stay tuned) not to miss. Apparently the train normally has wine and cheese gatherings in the panorama car and travels through some of the West Coast’s most iconic sights, from the Cascade Mountains to Mount Shasta to the Pacific Coast Highway. I say apparently, because my train was canceled due to wildfires in Oregon and Seattle which had damaged key tracks and bridges. There are, of course, far more horrific consequences to these increasingly worsening wildfires, but I was pretty disappointed as this was the train ride I had been most looking forward to. Luckily I’ll have the chance to do a significant chunk of it with Margaret when we travel back up to San Francisco to begin the journey back east. Instead, I flew from Seattle to Los Angeles. My bags initially found themselves in Sacramento and I was accordingly luggage-less for my first 12 hours in Los Angeles. Despite this, I made it through *knocks on wood* the only plane ride of my trip and landed in Los Angeles on Monday August 2nd around 10 AM Pacific Time. Having spent a significant chunk of the last month on trains, it was striking how quickly I reached my destination via plane. It was equally jarring how much more stressful and less comfortable and enjoyable flying was. No waltzing up to a plane 10 minutes before it departs, fresh air breaks, friendly attendants, table service or adequate leg room, that’s for sure. It reinforced just how fortunate I’ve been to travel in such a leisurely and obligation-free way on this trip. After landing, I met Margaret - who is joining me for the next leg of the trip - at our hotel, the Line LA (Photo 2). The Line was a blast, shoutout to our friends Josiah and Maia for suggesting it. It is located in Koreatown, which we promptly began exploring and checked out a traditional saloon for a drink before going to Yupdduk, a restaurant specializing in Tteokbokki, or spicy rice cakes. If you read my Austin entry (more power to you if you did!) you will know that Tteokbokki is one of my favorite foods, but I had never eaten anything like this. We ate from a massive pot of spicy rice cakes, fish cakes, and cooked and tempura vegetables. A special note of gratitude goes to the restaurant’s host who capably managed the bustling wait for tables, helped us avoid ordering too spicy a dish without making us feel bad, and even smuggled us a couple of Korean smoothie drinks on the way out. What a legend. Tuesday morning after breakfast we went for a walk through the heart of Koreatown, and spent awhile perusing the shops at Koreatown Plaza, a fun mall that Margaret said felt like we were in a suburb of Seoul in the 90’s. We particularly enjoyed the food court where dozens of older Korean folks clearly found a community, chatting and eating with friends. It was a hot day, so afterward we cooled off at the hotel’s pool. Tuesday afternoon I was able to go see one of my good friends from college, Kate Sim, who just finished her Ph.D. at Oxford in internet privacy and had been wrapping up her thesis back in the LA area where she grew up. It was great to see Kate and she supplied us with a whole slew of wonderful recommendations for things to do and places to eat in LA. Not wasting any time, Margaret and I went to Park’s BBQ (Photo 3), which Kate says has the best Korean BBQ in LA for dinner. It was incredible. Wednesday was a packed day, which we started with breakfast tacos at Tacos Gavilan, a great LA taco chain that has become a favorite for us. We then drove down to Manhattan Beach, a beautiful beach town about 30 minutes from where we were staying to meet my Uncle Seth and Aunt Julie, who generously hosted us at their house there. Julie took Margaret and me down to the beach to visit the extremely charming Roundhouse Aquarium (Photo 4) the smallest aquarium in California. A one room building with a small second floor, the aquarium nonetheless hosted a vibrant array of really cool eels, fish, and jellies (Photo 5), all of which were local to the area’s oceans. Seth joined us after work and we hung out at the beach, enjoying the beautiful day (Photo 6). Seth soundly beat me in beach tennis (really fun!) after which we took a dip to cool down before eating an early sushi dinner and heading back to LA. A huge thanks to Seth and Julie for treating us to such an enjoyable afternoon! Over the past few days, I had been texting with my good friend Edgar Orozco, an LA native who moved back there after college, about swinging by to say hi. He passionately encouraged us to join him at that night’s LAFC game. LAFC was founded a few years ago as Los Angeles’ second Major League Soccer team, and to hear Edgar tell it, has captured the imagination and adoration of Angelinos in a way that the LA Galaxy never have despite great success. Playing at the beautiful Banc of California stadium in downtown LA and having attracted legitimate stars like Mexican international Carlos Vela and exciting young players like Diego Rossi, LAFC has a lot going for it. And it was hard to disagree with Edgar’s assessment when we arrived to a buzzing stadium, mostly full even on a Wednesday night (Photo 7). LAFC played its worst performance of the season and lost 4-1, but you would never know it from the way the fans consistently chanted and cheered throughout the game. We had great seats, fun fellow-crowd members and a beautiful sunset so we were all set. In addition it was Ted Lasso night, and some of our favorite characters were in attendance showing their LAFC pride (Photo 8). What an experience! Our night wasn’t yet over as we drove out to Santa Monica to visit my college roommate and close friend Eric Cervini. Eric and his boyfriend Adam live with their dog Moo Bear, and we caught up on their wonderful gazebo over an Aperol Spritz. Eric is a hugely talented historian and his debut book “The Deviant’s War” was recently long-listed for the Pulitzer Prize! This was the first time I had seen Eric since reading his book and it was fun to be able to talk through it. But more importantly we had a great time reminiscing, catching up, and talking about what’s next for all of us. After saying goodnight to Adam and Eric, we returned to our hotel and dropped into bed. I woke up Thursday to Margaret jumping up and down and chanting “It’s Disneyland Day!” We had been inspired to visit by Kate, who described it as an essential Southern California experience and gave us invaluable advice that helped us avoid the worst of the lines and get on the rides we wanted. We began our day in the “California Adventure” park where we visited the Marvel Campus (Photo 8), saying hi to Spider-Man, Loki, Black Panther and Captain America, and rode several rides. My favorite was the Incredi-Coaster (Photo 10), which features a frantic search for the lost Incredible baby Jack-Jack, after Edna loses him. Margaret really liked the Soaring over the World ride, a virtual fly-over some of the world’s most famous sights. In the afternoon, we crossed into the Disneyland park, home to the truly classic Disney rides, beloved characters like Miguel from Coco (Photo 13), and the Disney Palace (Photo 12). We rode Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn Bobsled ride. We also spent a ton of time in the unbelievably cool new Star Wars area, complete with a Millennium Falcon replica (Photo 11) perpetually under repair by Chewbacca (to be fair it always seems to need it) and some threatening stormtroopers. Wandering through the Star Wars area as the sun set (Photo 16), we made our way to our final two stops for the day. First, we grabbed a drink at Oga’s Cantina at Galaxy’s Edge (Photo 14), an immersive Star-Wars themed bar, mirroring the bar from Star Wars 4 and complete with themed cocktails (Photo 15) and a robot DJ playing all the hits from across the galaxy. I was amused to hear the bartender tell a customer that he should make sure the souvenir glass he had just bought wasn’t chipped, because “the Death Star sometimes disrupts incoming supply ships and damages the merchandise.” And after waiting all day for our spot in line, we were able to ride the Star Wars “Rise of the Resistance” ride, Disney’s most ambitious ride ever. It was a 15 minute, incredibly detailed experience and the best ride I’ve ever been on (Photo 16). It’s an absolute must if you ever get the chance! Los Angeles is amazing. The weather was incredible, the opportunities endless and of course the food was delicious. Margaret was right though, to point out how hard and expensive it would be to navigate LA with more resource constraints than we had, especially without easy access to a car. In fact, the difference in our ability to easily traverse the city between our first day (without a car) and our second and third days (with a car) was extreme. We were thankful to be able to see loved ones, have so many fun experiences, and pack each day while also finding lots of moments for rest. I was especially glad to be able to swim in the Pacific Ocean. It felt right that I should do so before heading back East. Friday morning we boarded the all-day train from LA’s Union Station (Photo 17), headed up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco.

Photo 1: Enjoying some Tteokbokki (spicy rice-cakes)

Photo 2: Our hotel room in Koreatown

Photo 3: Park’s BBQ Restaurant

Photo 4: The Roundhouse Aquarium in front of the Pacific Ocean in Manhattan Beach

Photo 5: One of the jellyfish in the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach

Photo 6: from left, my uncle Seth, aunt Julie, Margaret and me

Photo 7: LAFC playing Sporting Kansas City at the Banc of California stadium

Photo 8: Coach Beard and Dani Rojas from our beloved show Ted Lasso cheering on LFAC - passionately if unsuccessfully

Photo 9: The Avengers base in the Marvel Compound at Disneyland’s California Adventures Park

Photo 10: The entrance to the Incredi-Coaster at California Adventures

Photo 12: The Disney Palace

Photo 11: The Millenium Falcon in the Star Wars area

Photo 13: Miguel from Coco saying hi

Photo 14: Oga’s Cantina at Galaxy Edge, an extremely detailed replica Star Wars bar that is easily the coolest non-ride in Disneyland

Photo 15: The Coruscant Cooler and Jet Juice drinks at Oga’s Cantina

Photo 16: The Star Wars area at Disneyland as the sun began to set

Photo 17: Some very intimidating Stormtroopers on Star Wars’ Rise of the Resistance ride, the best ride either of us have ever been on

Los Angeles’ Union Station where we left for San Francisco

Seattle, United States

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 10:50:00 -0700

East Glacier Park Village, United States

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 22:30:00 -0600

Chicago, United States

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:30:00 -0500

Austin, United States

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:30:00 -0500

San Antonio, United States

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 00:40:00 -0500

For all the ways that my ride from New York City to New Orleans was a pleasantly surprising affirmation of the possibility of the great American railroad, our trip from New Orleans to San Antonio was a bracing dose of reality. The Sunset Limited (Photo 1) leaves three days per week from New Orleans, running through Louisiana and Texas before continuing through the Southwest to its destination in Los Angeles. Having been warned by our AirBnb host in San Antonio that the train notoriously runs late, we were prepared to arrive much later than our 12:05 AM estimated arrival. However we assumed that since New Orleans was the first stop, it would at least achieve its 9 AM departure. We were wrong! Somehow, boarding did not start until after 10 AM and we pulled out of the station after 10:30. To add insult to injury, we crawled along for the first 45 or so minutes at 20 miles per hour (Natie downloaded a speedometer app to determine just how slowly we were going) before picking up speed as we left the New Orleans metropolitan area. At the risk of doubting the possibility of American innovation, we found ourselves wondering whether a tourist on this train from countries in Europe or Asia that have lightning quick rail would think that they were part of some elaborate prank. Still, the ride itself was fantastic. We picked up speed as we left greater New Orleans (photo 14) and for the next 6-8 hours sped through the Louisiana bayou. We had never seen anything like the trees growing out of swampy water, or the occasional muddy rivers that bent away into the forests. We crossed the Atchafalaya River (Photo 3), Yellow Bayou, Bayou Teche (Photo 2), Spanish Lake and Bayou Nezpique before crossing the Sabine River into Texas. One very cool element of both Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas was the occasional open fields with deer, flocks of birds, and other wildlife gathering. Natie also claims he saw a dog riding on top of a pickup truck on the highway, but that’s much more of a man-made wonder I guess. These sights were made even more enjoyable because the Sunset Limited is equipped with a Panorama Car, a lounge car with large windows in both the side and ceiling (Photo 4). Most of Amtrak’s long train routes have Panorama cars, and they offer an absolutely fantastic way to watch the scenery go by. After a quick stretch break in Houston (Photo 5) we continued on through the darkness and made it to San Antonio in the early hours of Monday July 19th. We slept in on Monday before beginning the day with our own trips along the famous San Antonio Riverwalk - for me a run and for Natie a walk to pick up coffee and breakfast (what a hero). Being extremely lucky to grow up alongside the Charles River, we were both were inclined to appreciate the San Antonio River and the way that it is seamlessly woven within downtown San Antonio. The Riverwalk was initially constructed around the San Antonio River in 1938 as part of a project to both beautify the area and create an elaborate flood bypass system in response to a deadly flood from the decade prior. With accessible and shady walkways built in throughout, tons of beautiful plants and trees (Photo 9) and little side waterfalls and public art, it was really pleasant. One nice part of my run was that it took me outside the tourist hub parts of the river walk, and in fact I didn’t see close to all of it. The full San Antonio Riverwalk stretches for 15 miles through the city, beginning near the source of the river which itself continues over 200 miles south to the Guadalupe River before the Gulf of Mexico beyond. We learned much of this and more from Marisa, the knowledgeable tour guide of our 25 minute boat tour through the most popular parts of the Riverwalk. After getting a lay of the land, we got some very good Mexican food at a restaurant on the Riverwalk (Photo 7) and explored close-by La Villita, one of San Antonio’s first neighborhoods that is now a collection of artisan shops. After resting at the AirBnb to cool off, we grabbed a drink at one of the many bars dotting the Riverwalk and ate dinner at Rosario’s, a locally loved Tex-Mex restaurant. One unexpected and amusing fixture of our time in San Antonio was the presence of about 15,000 high school coaches, thanks to the Texas High School Coaches Association Annual Convention, which was going on as we were there. The Riverwalk, with its plethora of hotels and proximity to the San Antonio Convention Center, is clearly a popular site to host large gatherings. And it was something else to see hordes of apparel-clad people, mostly male-bodied, basically wherever we looked. Natie estimated that 40% of the people we saw were coaches, which isn’t as ridiculous as it might seem. On Monday we woke up and got breakfast on the patio of a cafe in the Hemisfair Park, close to our AirBnb. This park, along with the Tower of the Americas (a 750 foot free standing tower) and a variety of other amenities were constructed for HemisFair ‘68, the official 1968 World’s Fair. While I can’t say that the legacy of the World’s Fair in ‘68 was the most interesting part of San Antonio, the Hemisfair Park is awesome and was extremely well used by families whose children splashed through the fountains next to where we ate. We then walked to the site of the Alamo (Photo 8), the most visited place in Texas. We purchased the audio tour, which along with the exhibit offered a passionate story of the heroic actions of Texan revolutionaries like William Travis and Davie Crockett who temporarily held off the overwhelming Mexican forces, buying time for General Sam Houston to raise the army needed to win the war for Texan independence. The audio tour was informative, although did occasionally make us wince as, for example, it talked about how the Alamo initially was run by Spanish missionaries seeking to “convert Indians to Catholicism and help them be functioning members of society.” Interestingly, in the past few months there has been a significant furor in Texas in response to “Forget the Alamo,” a new book written by three Texas historians who make the case that the Alamo is much more myth than fact, and that the myth has damaging consequences. They argue that the battle did not have the significance it is reported to, that the contributions of Tejanos (people of Mexican heritage living in Texas) were written out of the story, and that one key reason why Texas wanted independence from Mexico was Mexico’s insistence on the abolition of slavery. This book has caused significant blowback, with Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick shutting down a planned panel about the book at the state history museum. The historical dialogue and its implications on today’s culture wars was probably more interesting to me than the site itself, but was cool to see such a famous site. After lunch in a cool neighborhood called the Pearl, we visited the Briscoe Western Art Museum, an amazing three floor museum dedicated to art of the American West. With special exhibits about the Western Film as a genre and women artists of the West, as well as an incredible collection of sculptures (photo 10), paintings (photo 11) and historical artifacts like spurs, army uniforms, and saddles, it was a fascinating hour. We also really benefited from the museum’s generous air conditioning. We closed our time in San Antonio with a walk through the King WIlliam Neighborhood, where we were staying, to Pizzeria Vesuvio, where we were able to watch the sudden summer downpour from the safety of a covered porch (photo 12). The King William Neighborhood was farmland associated with the Alamo when it was a Spanish Mission. German immigrants named the neighborhood after Wilhelm I of Prussia in about 1866, and were joined by Mexican immigrants in the following several decades. Today it is an upscale neighborhood that is extremely walkable, with beautiful flowering trees (Photo 6) and the most diverse and intact collection of architecture in San Antonio. Pizzeria Vesuvio was one of a bunch of restaurants, cafes and bars that were located in converted old homes, which Natie and I agreed should be done more often elsewhere because they were awesome! On the long train ride, I finished The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein’s very informative, sometimes frustrating, book about the American Government’s role in actively contributing to housing segregation in the United States. I’ve also been listening to the audio book of Harry Potter, which if you haven’t listened, is terrific. After years of re-reading the books endlessly, I have held off for the last five or so years and am loving my rediscovery of the subplots and side stories. Less enjoyably I have also been doing some GRE studying, but you win some you lose some.

The official Amtrak Sunset Limited poster hung in the New Orleans train station. The poster is a little more impressive than the train.

The Bayou Teche in Louisiana

The Atchafalaya River in Louisiana

Amtrak’s Panorama Car, which is definitely the coolest part of Amtrak so far

A stretch break in Houston

Out for a walk in the beautiful King William neighborhood

Mexican food at Domingo, a restaurant along the Riverwalk

The Alamo from the outside. Photos are not allowed inside as the limestone is decaying

Trees along the Riverwalk in San Antonio

One of many beautiful sculptures at the Briscoe Western Art Museum

One of many beautiful paintings at the Briscoe Western Art Museum

Pizza under a covered porch in the King William neighborhood

Our river boat on the San Antonio river

Leaving New Orleans (very slowly)

New Orleans, United States

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 21:50:00 -0500

After getting in late on Wednesday night I made it to my Air Bnb in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. The suggestion of the Bywater as a neighborhood to stay in - as well as virtually everything on my itinerary in New Orleans - was recommended by my good friend and former band mate Luke Anderson. Luke is a Ph.D student at Tulane and while he is unfortunately (for me) spending the summer in Ecuador tracking rare birds through the rainforest, he was incredibly generous with his advice and recommendations, for which I am very grateful. As an excellent guitarist, bassist and singer (you can find him on Spotify at H. Luke Anderson) he also really knows his music. The Bywater neighborhood was initially developed from plantation land to a residential neighborhood in the early 19th century as part of the mostly Francophone downtown section of New Orleans. It became much more populated in the 1980’s and 1990’s, when real estate development surrounding the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition caused people to be priced out of the French Quarter and refurbish 19th-century Bywater houses. Today, the Bywater is beautiful, eclectic and vibrant, with brightly colored houses dotted amongst cool coffee shops, delicious restaurants and bars/music venues. As the name suggests, it is right by the Mississippi River, which acts as a natural levee, and kept the Bywater more protected than much of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. As such, it has recovered more quickly than many other parts of the city, which has created prosperity, but also led to gentrification. Talking to folks living in the neighborhood, they are very cognizant that many of them are relative newcomers themselves, even if they’ve lived here for a number of years. On the flip side, they are resentful the number of AirBnbs (which house people like me!) that absentee landlords have incorporated to profit off of its status as a desirable neighborhood. I took some solace in that that my AirBnb hosts lived in the other side of the duplex, and are part of the community. Like many of the houses in the Bywater and across New Orleans, my AirBnb was a Shotgun house. So named because you can shoot a shotgun from the front door to the back of the house without hitting a wall (I did not try this out), shotgun houses are distinctive for their lack of hallways and narrow layout, with one room behind the other in a neat line. This, along with their high ceilings, helps them stay cool even in the summer. My AirBnb matched the typical layout, wherein the first room is a living room, the second a bedroom, and the third a kitchen, with a bathroom that was added once indoor plumbing was invented. Historians believe that Shotgun houses as a design concept were brought to New Orleans by free Black people following the Haitian revolution in 1804. Many of these homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and sadly many market rate developers have not always prioritized restoration of these houses. Seeing the variety and vibrancy of these often brightly painted houses was an absolute highlight of my trip. Shoutout to my good friend Simon Thompson for sending me a great article where I got all the information I just wrote! On Thursday I began my day with a sweaty run (with humidity it felt like ~100 degrees the whole time I was there) along the Mississippi. After cooling off and showering, I grabbed a quick breakfast at the neighborhood coffee shop and went off for a meandering walk through the Bywater neighborhood, turning corners at random and happening upon lots of cool murals, restaurants, and parks. I stumbled on the site where in 1892 Homer Plessy was arrested from the East Louisiana Railroad train as part of a coordinated effort by the Comité des Citoyens in the first post-Reconstruction use of the 14th amendment to challenge segregation. The Supreme Court ruled against Plessy in the infamous Plessy vs. Ferguson case, coining the “Separate but Equal” doctrine, and would continue to reject similar 14th amendment arguments until 1954 with Brown vs. the Board of Education. Eventually I reached the famous French Quarter. Luke had recommended that the French Quarter is best approached without a plan, and I really enjoyed spending a couple of hours following his advice. I wandered into strange and fun souvenir shops, saw the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral, and resisted the temptation to buy “New Orleans’ most powerful drink!!!!!” 5 or 6 times, which are fittingly called hand grenades and seem to be sold at every bar on Bourbon Street. Making the whole scene more dramatic was the rolling thunder that continued on for hours all afternoon. Thursday night I was back in the Bywater, where I ate some great barbecue and saw some jazz at a very cool outdoor venue called Bacchanal, which felt a little bit like a fairy grotto if fairies liked wine and jazz. I guess maybe they do. I ended the night by going to a famous dive bar called Vaughan’s, which pre-Covid had some of the best Thursday night jazz sets in New Orleans. I was disappointed to find out that they haven’t yet re-launched them after Covid, but did really enjoy chatting with a bunch of Bywater residents at the bar, and appreciated how friendly they were. Friday morning my younger brother Nathan (known within the family as Natie) flew in to join me for the next week or so. He and his girlfriend Phoebe are moving from Cambridge to St. Louis, where he went to college, in just a few weeks. So traveling together is a great chance to spend some time with him before he leaves the Northeast. We immediately got delicious beignets and cafe au laits before walking down Magazine street, a very fun set of shops and a great atmosphere. We were only interrupted by a sudden downpour that caused us to take cover in a fancy clothing stores and pretend to be interested in $2,500 suits in order to wait it out. After lunch at Stein’s a very tasty - and familiarly grumpy - Jewish deli with lots of Philadelphia themed sports paraphernalia, we fled the heat and rested in our AirBnb. The grand finale of our time in New Orleans was Friday night, where we got Chinese food before heading to Frenchmen Street, the iconic hub of New Orlean’s music scene. It was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been, with maybe ten different venues, people spilling out of each, and the music from each venue’s band blending together into a beautiful rhythm. Few places had covers, all served great drinks, and the music was amazing at each. We spent most of our time at The Maison, where the Shotgun Jazz Band, on for a three hour set, were absolutely breathtaking (check them out on Spotify, too!). We couldn’t believe that we could just stroll in, sit down at the bar, and listen to this quality of music for tips and a couple drinks. Natie is a lifelong cello and occasional trombone player, and if this didn’t convince him to get back into the trombone I don’t know what else will. After ending on such a high note, we left New Orleans feeling triumphant. But also that another few days would have been well spent. Next up is an all day train ride with Natie through Louisiana and Texas to San Antonio, where I’ll check back in.

A mural in the Bywater

A quick selfie in front of our AirBnb before heading to the train station

The Shotgun Jazz Band playing at The Maison on Frenchmen St

A brightly colored shotgun house in the Bywater

Some beautiful flowers Uptown

Beignets and cafe au laits with a very chipper younger brother (impressive since he got up at 2:30 AM central time to fly to New Orleans!)

A photo of the Mississippi River taken from an elevated bridge crossing the train tracks during my run through Crescent Park in the Bywater

A jazz set at the Bacchanal Wine Bar

Buildings in the French Quarter

The St. Louis Cathedral, with Jackson Square right in front

A particularly beautiful painting in one of the French Quarter’s art galleries

The home of a big Drew Brees fan!

The Plessy vs. Ferguson historical sign installed by the Crescent City Peace Alliance

Two brightly colored houses in the Marigny neighborhood in between the Bywater and the French Quarter

New York

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 12:30:00 -0400

I began my big adventure yesterday, Tuesday July 13th, with an amusingly familiar first step, riding the Metro North from New Haven’s Union Station (photo 1) to Grand Central Station (photo 2) in New York City. Margaret was very kind to give me a lift and send me off. After arriving at Grand Central I walked the 30 minutes through a bustling Manhattan from Grand Central to Penn Station’s new Moynihan Hall (photo 4), which opened just six months ago. At 2 PM on a Tuesday, it was almost too easy to navigate. But the Amtrak “Metro Lounge,” (photo 3) available to travelers with a sleeper car ticket, was pretty sweet. At 2:15 PM I boarded the Amtrak Crescent Train, a daily direct train from “The Big Apple to the Big Easy” as Amtrak’s marketing department would have you know. I initially worried I might feel a little claustrophobic in my Roomette (photo 5), but have come to love it and did not feel cooped up at all during my trip. The sleeping attendant greeted each sleeping car passenger and showed us how to use the various amenities (reading lights galore, fans, even a fold-down sink and fold up toilet which is less gross than it sounds) in our rooms. We rode through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to Washington D.C. Some highlights included crossing the Schuykill River (shoutout to my Dad, who long ago taught me it’s pronounced Skoo-Kul) just before arriving in Philadelphia and skirting the Susquehanna (photo 5), Bush (photo 6) and Gunpowder Rivers on the way to Baltimore. In D.C. we were able to take our first stretch break, a 10-15 minute period where passengers are invited to stretch their legs, or in practice smoke cigarettes and stand around. Leaving D.C. and heading into Virginia, the landscape changed dramatically (photo 6), with farms and rolling fields becoming the norm. With the sun starting to set, it was pretty stunning. Dinner arrived around this time, delivered room by room. Expecting airplane food I was blown away, it was pretty great. After dinner, the attendant converted the chairs to a reasonably comfortable and shockingly Sam-sized bed. I fell asleep as we were traveling through Virginia into North Carolina, and woke up on Wednesday at about 8:15 AM just as we pulled into Atlanta, Georgia. Today we traveled through the fields of rural Georgia, crossed into Alabama and through the Talladega National Forest (photo 8), Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa followed by Mississippi. We pulled into New Orleans just after 9:30 PM Central Time on Wednesday the 14th, sadly just after sunset so I was unable to see Lake Ponchartrain pass, but am hoping for a glimpse on the train out. All told, leg one clocked in at 32 hours, not bad! With an interesting and frequently gorgeous landscape passing and a good supply of books and audiobooks, articles, podcasts, movies and tv shows, I have rarely been bored. One highlight has been listening to the selection of train themed songs that my wonderful first cousin once-removed Denny Curtis recommended, especially “City of New Orleans” sung by Arlo Guthrie. Thank you Denny! A non-train song I’ve really enjoyed, particularly on my way through Alabama, is Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s “Alabama Pines.”

Grand Central

The Amtrak Metro Lounge

The new Moynihan Hall at Penn Station

My home for 32 hours. Roomier than it looks!

Crossing the Susquehanna River, shortly before Baltimore, MD

Crossing the Bush River, shortly before Baltimore, MD

The sun setting just after Manassas, VA

The sleeper cars are toward the back of the train, which allows for occasional peaks of the rest of the train.

Talladega National Forest

The Coosa River in Alabama

The Crescent Route’s official poster, hung up in the New Prleans Amtrak Station