The Sendoff Party

The long-awaited Trainweb.com 10th Anniversary Party had finally arrived, Dec. 6, 2006, 5 to 7 p.m.  I left our home in Placentia, CA, not more than a 20 minute drive to the site of the party, The Rail Restaurant, in Fullerton, CA.  You might know the feeling if you are a Rail Traveler, I would be boarding the Amtrak Southwest Chief this night for a trip of nearly 2,000 miles.  I often go to the Fullerton Station about 7 pm just to see it begin its journey from Los Angeles to Chicago, but this night I'd actually board and have a roomette in which to spend 2 nights and a day! 

At the Fullerton Amtrak Station, there is a multi-level parking structure in which you can leave your car for up to 14 days IF you get a window sticker the day of your departure and place it in the back window.  I pulled into the garage and the 3rd place in, on the first floor was open.  This is exciting considering the structure is 4 levels with no elevator!  I got the sticker, placed it in my window and left my luggage in the car and walked to the Rail Restaurant, a half block away.  Arriving at 5:15, there were hardly any places left.  It turned out that 24 people came for the celebration.  As an Anniversary gift, I gave Barbara, one of the four partners of TrainWeb.com, a bottle of wine with a photo note card I made with a closeup photo of a cluster of grapes of the same variety used in the wine.  (Earlier in the week I'd given Steve Grande, another partner of TrainWeb.com,  a framed 12 x 18 photo of the Amtrak Surfliner in Carlsbad, CA, passing under Hwy. 101, on the cliff above the Pacific Ocean.)

Everyone signed the list of attendees at this Anniversary Celebration, then the staff took the dinner orders of those of us who were leaving on the Southwest Chief this evening.  I ordered, and thoroughly enjoyed the Salmon dinner.