Los Angeles, Southwest Chief and Flagstaff – a prelude

 

Flew out of Melbourne early on Thursday 28th of March and arrived in LA early on Thursday 28th of March.

Had a nice day in LA waiting for our 6 pm overnight train to Flagstaff on the Amtrak Southwest Chief.

Walked around Downtown admiring architecture.

Union station LA

Had lunch at Grand Central Market, a buzzing food market.

Visited The Broad Museum of Contemporary Art and particularly loved the oversized furniture.

First night on the Southwest Chief – good practice for three weeks later when we did two nights and three days.  Had a lovely dinner in the Dining Car with Wendy and Jim from San Diego, who were embarking on a two-week holiday of the Southwest based around the April 8 total eclipse.  Everyone seemed to be heading to southwest Texas.

The little Roomette was a comfortable way to travel during the day and converted to bunk beds at night

Our Carlton neighbours, Sandra and Gary, kindly collected us in FREEZING Flagstaff at 5.30 am.  Flagstaff’s altitude is higher than anywhere in Australia.  Sandra and Gary divide their time between Melbourne and Flagstaff, where Sandra lived for 37 years and was a professor at the University of Northern Arizona before moving to Melbourne in the early 2000s to be with Gary.

We spent the day provisioning for our 16-day camping trip, with lots of help from Sandra and Gary, including picking up our gynormous Ford Expedition MAX.  

Even before we arrived, Sandra and Gary, and their family and friends, had put together a bunch of supplies for us.  The piece de resistance was the camp kitchen donated by their sister-in-law Judy, which had been made by her father.

In the evening Sandra and Gary hosted one of their famous soirees so that we could meet some of their Flagstaff gang.  They have a wonderful, friendly, warm and interesting social circle in Melbourne that we are lucky to be a part of – and we discovered that they have the equivalent circle of friends in Flagstaff.  It was like being in an alternative universe.  We had a wonderful evening and feel so privileged to be able to meet and socialize with their wonderful friends.