Adventure Chronicles of Becky, Krista, Lindsey, and Valencia

I made my third trip this summer up to the LA/OC area on Saturday to hang out with my favorite Biola roommates Becky and Krista. The plan was to meet in San Juan Capistrano, have lunch, do some shopping, and hang out at the beach. We accomplished some of the plan, but mostly just had fun. :)

Valencia caught a very crowded train in Solana Beach thanks to an Angel's game that afternoon. Fortunately, being disabled gives me a better chance of actually securing a seat, which we did. The girls found me without any additional trouble or too much getting lost, and we drove down to Dana Point. We decided lunch would be a good thing to do first. No problem, we'll just drive into town and find a place to eat.

Well, beach towns tend to be very spread out, and a little sparse on the shopping centers. All we managed to find was a shady looking taco stand, a Quizno's, and a Big Lots. We opted to head back into San Juan Capistrano, which proved to be difficult since we couldn't find our way back to the street we needed. Oh well, at least we were together.

Once back in SJC, we quickly found a nice Mexican place. Lunch was good and we ahred a flan between us for dessert, yum! After lunch we drove back down to San Juan Capistrano Park Beach. It was beautiful and not crowded at all. We got to spend about an hour playing in the waves with Valencia and finding pretty stones and shells in the sand.

Desiring to not repeat my last train fiasco in Orange County (see "California Adventures" for more info) we made it back to the station with about 15 minutes to spare. We crossed the tracks, like I always do when I go south on Amtrak, and looked around at the shops there.



Taken right as my train pulled up about 40 feet away. No problem. I waved a quick goodbye to the girls and ran to hop on. Except...uhoh. The door I ran up to wasn't open. "hmm, that's odd" I thought. I started running down the train to the next one and found myself in gravel, sloping down, making the door (which was not open) too high. "Crap! I'm on the wrong side of the tracks!!!"

San Juan Capistrano barely has a station. There is only one track and only one platform, and we were definitely on the wrong side. A very nice man offered to help me run around the train, but he began running to the front, and there was no way I was going to cross tracks *in front of* a train that was about to leave the station.

Thankfully, my friends were still there. I ashamedly called home and said I would be on the next train, and then we went to cool off and wait at a donut shop a couple blocks down.

And I definitely made sure I satyed on the correct side of the tracks the second time. I think two missed trains means I'm done with trips to LA for the summer :o)