nervous
travelswithkuma update his journal. Changes to LJ's interface last year made it much more difficult for Lisa to help Kuma, and Bear's paws are too clumsy for him to update by himself.I called today "Day 0" because we had a huge number of errands around San Jose and Fremont before we could actually get moving. Because of the hours I've been doing, I wasn't even able to pack until this morning after breakfast. As usual, I've overpacked. It's a good thing we're going by train, as I'm sure I'd be overweight for luggage by air. Also, Amtrak Superliner cars have good-sized luggage racks, and we're boarding at the origin station in Emeryville and should have first crack at them to boot. (That means we don't have to check our bags and simplifies packing somewhat.)
After the final errand (I needed a haircut), we drove to the Fremont train station and caught the 4:56 Capitol up to Emeryville, then walked over to the Hilton Garden Inn, where, just like three years ago when we went to Montreal, we're staying because I had enough Hilton points for a free night. After the short train trip and the walk to the hotel, Lisa and I walked back to the Public Market in Emeryville and had dinner. This is probably the only day of the whole trip where we're going to be in chilly weather; however, Lisa accidentally left her jacket in the back seat of my van, and it was impractical to go back to Fremont and get it. She shivered through the walks back and forth, not helped by the fact that she's still sick and still being wracked by coughing spells. (At least we remembered to stop by a drugstore and pick up some more cough syrup.)
The California Zephyr leaves Emeryville at 9:10 AM Sunday morning. From our previous experience three years ago, we know that sleeping car passengers like us are offered breakfast seating immediately, so we don't need to worry about getting breakfast. (That was a mistake we made on the 2009 trip because normally the breakfast service ends at 9 AM, but they make an exception for the originating service from Emeryville.) We'll aim to try and get out of the hotel by around 8 AM tomorrow so that there's no question but that we'll be at the station and ready to board when the doors open. That will give us plenty of opportunity to stow our bags without having to rush. (Unfortunately, the hotel shuttle bus doesn't run on weekends. It's only about 1 km between the hotel and the train station, but the walk hauling luggage is hard on Lisa in her current state.)
I don't think there's internet connectivity on the Zephyr, so I don't expect to be online again after we check out tomorrow morning until we're in Chicago.