Galloping Along the Beach to Union Station in Los Angeles, CA
Time is a measure of distance, yet time is lost traversing the iron horse conduit from San Diego to Los Angeles Union Station. Soft shimmies and shakes will massage you in your seat aboard the northbound Surfliner. You will watch blurred vistas of muted shades of brown and green whiz by under blue-gray clouds. Between Trestles Beach and San Clemente Pier you can wave back to beachcombers and surfers. Miles are marked by the sounds of the trackety track and horn toots: long, long, short, long, played with Doppler affected clanging bells. You may see urban sprawl and industrial backsides, but what you will remember most is leaving through your exit portal, historic Union Station.
Somewhere trains are coming and going, throngs are boarding and unloading. Tracks leading out of town—they’re an invitation to escape. But to bask at leisure in the impeccably preserved romance of the last great railway station America built, you don’t need a ticket or a destination. The consummate flâneur might gravitate to Union Station solely to recede, undisturbed, into a capacious armchair, catching the breeze through an archway where Art Déco meets Spanish Colonial Revival. Take refuge in the cloistered north garden, a haven of fragrant jasmine, burbling, festively tiled fountains, and jacaranda blossoms blanketing the grass, and you’ve already disappeared. When the very feeling of the city slowing down is that palpable, you know you’ve cheated time. Whoever said that running away doesn’t solve anything was wrong. It works like a charm.
Time is a measure of distance, yet time is lost traversing the iron horse conduit from San Diego to Los Angeles Union Station. Soft shimmies and shakes will massage you in your seat aboard the northbound Surfliner. You will watch blurred vistas of muted shades of brown and green whiz by under blue-gray clouds. Between Trestles Beach and San Clemente Pier you can wave back to beachcombers and surfers. Miles are marked by the sounds of the trackety track and horn toots: long, long, short, long, played with Doppler affected clanging bells. You may see urban sprawl and industrial backsides, but what you will remember most is leaving through your exit portal, historic Union Station.
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