From the Surfliner

I was on a quick trip from my home base, Los Angeles area, up to the Central Coast, and I was taking the train. The Surfliner is one of the most beautiful train rides on this planet, once you get to Ventura, of course. That's when the train turns north and runs along the coast.

One of the early points, the skyline of LA is easily viewed:

The train ride affords views of a specific kind: city underbelly. It's quite enlightening in a certain way. This particular day was opening day at Dodger Stadium, which is also spied from the train, high on the mountain, the big lights poking over the ridge. This is the fiftieth anniversary of the displacement of the Mexican working class community opening of the Stadium in Chavez Ravine.

This is a nice shot of the dunes outside of Ventura, as the train turns towards the ocean. Soon enough, you're closer than the highway.

This next picture I like because I ended up with a picture of a walking surfer, and this yields a scale. The break looks regular and nice, but the walking man makes us reassess the size of the wave. I'm not a surfer, but I have surfed, and waves of a certain size forces us amateurs into a wide-eyed respect. These waves visible here may not have been that big, but they made me think.

My business in the Central Coast was a quick trip to collect some old East Coast friends and navigate the highways back to our house in the inimitable Long Beach the next day, a trip made with the help of aspirin and tepid water. Dramamine might have helped me in the back seat of a brand new rented Mustang, but it was okay. The company made it a great trip.