TRAIN TRIP TO SAN DIEGO

On Monday, we decided to ride the trains from Escondido to San Diego and back, as a sightseeing tour.  We were able to purchase an all day/all region pass for $12 each which seemed like a good deal.  Also at all the transit centres, they have free parking for transit passengers.

The first train was called the Sprinter and it goes from downtown Escondido west through San Marcos to Oceanside.  This ride to the ocean took about an hour and was not too busy, as we were past the morning rush hours.  The scenery along the way was a mix of urban and rural vistas which is always interesting to us.

 The Oceanside transit centre has an Amtrak station as well as the local commuter trains and there were a couple of big Amtrak trains that went through while we were waiting.

We boarded the Coaster which goes into downtown San Diego and back.  That track goes through Carlsbad, Encinitas and along the Pacific coast for a ways, then through Rose Canyon and into San Diego.  

The train window was dirty so most of the pictures we took look like there is snow in the sky.  On the trip south we saw lots of surfers in their wetsuits riding the waves.

We disembarked at the Santa Fe depot in San Diego and walked around the area to a restaurant for lunch. 

It started to rain so we didn’t spend a lot of time out on the streets.  We only had a couple of hours until the next train back but that was enough for us as we’d spent time in downtown San Diego about 6 years ago and were familiar with the area.

The ride north seemed to go faster and we hardly had to wait for the Sprinter back to Escondido.  It was late afternoon by then and there were many more commuters.  It was raining hard for a while and we were glad to be inside.

BIKE COVERS FOR THE COMMUTERS

The whole trip lasted from 9 a.m. to approximately 4:30 and was well worth the effort.