Last Coast Starlight note — when you book your ticket, you can’t specify which side of the train you want to be on. According to the ticket person at the counter, they don’t even know in advance, because it depends on how the train gets hooked up (though I imagine they could know if they wanted to go to the effort, but anyway).
I was a little frustrated by that initially, because I really wanted fabulous ocean views. But as it turned out, the views were probably more varied on the other side, and between meals in the dining car and the option of going to the observation car for a while, you can certainly hang out and see the other side periodically.
Note, though, that the observation car fills up really fast, and people sit and work there for a long time (which sounded nice, but actually, if you’re staring at your laptop screen, or even a book / Kindle, you’re probably not actually looking at the view much, so maybe don’t spend a ton of time monopolizing a seat for that…). It empties a bit at each station, but then fills up again right away, so you have to be both strategic and lucky if you want a seat — and two seats together? On the ocean side? I didn’t manage it.
That’s it for Coast Starlight commentary — I’ll post some more pictures in a bit. But overall, glad we did it, would do it again at some point, ideally going all the way up to Seattle and sleeping on the train. I sleep so well on trains. And the stars over the ocean are probably pretty splendid…
