San Diego to Chicago departing January 17 from Chicago

[Steve4031]

I am getting excited about this trip. I was initially going to fly into Los Angeles on Friday, January 17th, but now I will be flying into San Diego. Hyatt does not have the best selection of properties. The amount of points required for a redemption is high for what you get. And the airport property, while okay, was just not interesting to me this time. I was going to stay at the Shat, which was in Culver City, right by the light rail and In n Out Burger. There was also a pizza place nearby and a bagel place. That was perfect until the fires started up. They were too close for comfort, so I moved my flight to San Diego and booked the Manchester Grand Hyatt for 20k points vs the 25 required for the Shay.

I also investigated switching to a different train from the West Coast to Chicago. I have done many trips on the Zephyr, so I investigated 28 out of Portland. There was a 600-dollar roomette that was enticing. I am glad I resisted because the Empire Builder was canceled this weekend due to cold weather.

This is final exam week for the end of the first semester. I will have plenty of time to check the train status map to see how 3 is doing into Los Angeles on Saturday. It has been 3 hours late a couple of times, and 4 still got out on time. When 3 was very late they must have swapped out the equipment for 2 to get 4 out on time.

 

[OBS]

Good luck with your trip!

 

[Steve4031]

Part of being a teacher Is ensuring your grades are in order at the end of the quarter. This involves following various administrative directives that help students earn better grades. I agree with this because some teachers can be capricious in grading. Once everything is entered into the computer, you must use a series of commands to upload the grades to a central location where the report cards are printed and given to the students. I have just completed this process. The deadline is 8 a.m. tomorrow. I have learned that if you wait too long, the system struggles to upload your grades because all the teachers across the city are doing the same thing. Now that mine are uploaded, I am allowing myself to check the status of 3 and 4. Both are on time this morning. The Chief departing today will likely be my consist when I leave Los Angeles on Saturday. Thus, the serious train status checking will start this evening.

My flight is on schedule. So all is well.

 

[Steve4031]

I am glad I stayed the course with the taking the Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago. At one point I considered taking 28 back to Chicago from Portland. I would have changed my flight to fly from Chicago to Portland. There was a 600 dollar roomette which was enticeing because of the railfan window. I am glad I resisted because the Empire Builder was canceled this weekend do to cold weather.

The flight from Chicago to San Deiego was e uneventful. The San Diego airport is much easier to use than Los Angeles. And adding the extra train ride along the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles is an enjoyable addition. Here are some photos from today. I am staying at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Great view from the room. But the hotel is huge and overtly crowded. The room is great. The dinner I had had in the Bar 39 was good.

I used a club pass to try the lounge. But I got up there and saw nothing complimentaryl. And it was over run by loud drunk people. I will try it for Breakfast in the morning.

 

[Cal]

Welcome to Socal! I will say I do think people generally overhype the 15 minutes of coastal viewing on the southern part of the Surfliner, but that doesn't mean it isn't pretty -- just very short.

By the way, some of the pictures didn't complete finish loading which make them unviewable from AU itself. We can still see them by downloading them, however.