I've noticed that Flynn, when I take him for a walk in the stroller, is nervous about being near train tracks with their noisy and clanking engines and rolling stock, not to mention piercing horns. So, it was with some fear and interest that I found myself today taking him and Ella, who loves trains, together with Emily and Dot on a return train journey to Belmont - about half way from Mountain View to San Francisco. Towns en route include Palo Alto (high pole in Spanish), Menlo Park, and Redwood City - a who's who of ICT firms. The journey took about 25 minutes one way.
The line is served mainly by CalTrain services, which are often quite frequent on workdays. They tend to have a large diesel locomotive and 5 enormous double-deck carriages, with the former always at the southern end. So, services are pull southwards from SF and push northwards and look like this:
going north and south respectively.
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Coming back from Belmont, the carriage we were in housed bicycles and I was surprised at the enormous amount of space provided for cyclists.
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The route roughly parallels the El Camino Real (Royal Road in Spanish) road running from SF to San Jose and beyond and this picture taken from Belmont station shows the park we went to in the background.
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We mainly had lunch in the park, but both Ella and Flynn used the play equipment enthusiastically:
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I had a bagel for lunch, which I rather enjoy and Ella and Flynn both liked the slippery dips. Flynn even managed to climb up to the top of the slide himself even though he doesn't as yet walk - an event that's only days away I think. And, of course, he had to be helped down the slope..
All this action took place in yet another Eucalyptus forest. We were surrounded by massive specimens of various species, which rather made us feel at home:
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Finally, after we returned to Mountain View ... well San Antonio station, which was apparently named after me ... we finished the day's trip with an ice-cream. Mine was a "small" (i.e. actually large) cup of two flavours, one of which was "computer chip". This was a delicious soft chocolate surrounding chips of hard chocolate. I must have some more of that in the next few days! Ella loved hers too!
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AS
The line is served mainly by CalTrain services, which are often quite frequent on workdays. They tend to have a large diesel locomotive and 5 enormous double-deck carriages, with the former always at the southern end. So, services are pull southwards from SF and push northwards and look like this:
going north and south respectively.
Coming back from Belmont, the carriage we were in housed bicycles and I was surprised at the enormous amount of space provided for cyclists.
The route roughly parallels the El Camino Real (Royal Road in Spanish) road running from SF to San Jose and beyond and this picture taken from Belmont station shows the park we went to in the background.
We mainly had lunch in the park, but both Ella and Flynn used the play equipment enthusiastically:
I had a bagel for lunch, which I rather enjoy and Ella and Flynn both liked the slippery dips. Flynn even managed to climb up to the top of the slide himself even though he doesn't as yet walk - an event that's only days away I think. And, of course, he had to be helped down the slope..
All this action took place in yet another Eucalyptus forest. We were surrounded by massive specimens of various species, which rather made us feel at home:
Finally, after we returned to Mountain View ... well San Antonio station, which was apparently named after me ... we finished the day's trip with an ice-cream. Mine was a "small" (i.e. actually large) cup of two flavours, one of which was "computer chip". This was a delicious soft chocolate surrounding chips of hard chocolate. I must have some more of that in the next few days! Ella loved hers too!
AS
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