California - Oakland and San Francisco

I was able to leave luggage at the Portland hostel and travel light for my trip to California.

An original state border sign in the Oakland California Museum

There were some lovely views from the train in the evening:

I like the blurred effect of the trees on this one. I have to say the Amtrak trains are generally not very fast. The lines are quite bumpy and mostly used by freight trains. It would take quite an investment to ensure they were suitable for high speed trains. However I quite like the way we mostly trundled along. It gives you time to study the scenery.

In Oakland I stayed with Russell, a friend from Alford days, and his family in this lovely Victorian building. We visited the California Museum which told the history of the area with lots of walk through exhibits. But also some art:

From the dango (Japanese dumpling) series by Jun Kaneko

Russell and Sarah are members of a wine club so we went to an exclusive advance wine tasting at the Donum winery out in the Napa Valley area. I was a bit wary due to my lack of wine knowledge and the obviously well off clientele. However we ended up sitting next to a lovely couple who didn't look down on us (maybe later...) and we chatted happily. The lovely wine helped. At $120 a bottle we didn't put in any orders.

Even more impressive is the collection of large outdoor pieces of art the owners have dotted about the estate. Take a look at the website here:https://www.thedonumestate.com/

The Vertical Panorama Pavilion

Sanna by Jaume Plensa

On Saturday I took the BART train into San Francisco and met up with my niece Maya, her fiancé Jack and my nephew Sage. Jack and Maya live in the colourful and vibrant Mission district. Lots of beautiful wooden buildings. Most of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires so many buildings date from the early C20.

Mission Dolores Park with downtown skyscrapers beyond. Mission High School at the bottom of the park.

One of the many painted garage doors.

That evening I was back on the train for Portland (the last of my 5 overnight trips) and the next morning positioned myself for some good shots of the scenery I'd spotted on the way down. Hard to get a clear picture through the often dirty train windows and to avoid the reflections.

Upper Klamath Lake

This section of Southern Oregon really did feel quite remote. No mobile signal, no sign of houses, tree clad mountains and valleys on all sides. Beautiful. 2 nights back in Portland now with a severe heat warning in place!