Day 12: THE FINAL LEG! Oxnard to San Diego!

I woke up very early in the morning, excited for the day but a bit sad that the trip was ending! We called our last taxi of the trip, and rode to the train station. The Oxnard AMTRAK station had a convenient building to wait in, and we bought our tickets at a machine outside on the platform. We were about to catch the Metrolink commuter rail to Los Angeles Union Station, so we had to wait on the platform to get on the train while it made a brief stop. A short while later, the train arrived.

Oxnard platform

The brand new train rushes in to the station

New interior of the Metrolink train

It was a pretty long ride on the Ventura County Line Metrolink, so I was asleep for most of the way. Eventually, the train opened its doors at the LA Union Station platform. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to visit Los Angeles, so we took the stairs from the island platform to the underground station area. We had a quick croissant breakfast at the Starbucks, then took the stairs back up to the platform labeled by an LED dot display showing "Orange County 800 Oceanside". This train was very important. If we missed it, we would have to wait 6 hours and only get to San Diego in the evening. 800 was one of the few trains that went all the way from LA to Oceanside.

Train 800 at the Union Station

People exiting a train

Interior of an older Metrolink car
Very similar to the Sounder commuter rail, but with different pattern.

View from the train

After a relaxing 2 hour ride, train 800 pulled into Oceanside station. This was where we would transfer to the very last train of our trip: the COASTER commuter rail. But we had about an hour to wait, so we headed down to the beach. Some people were taking a surfing lesson on the cloudy day (no way would I do that!), and I used my trusty NOOK for the last time of the trip. 

Back at the station, we bought our tickets at the TVM, and (with some delays from the credit card) we got our tickets: the last of the trip. Very many people were about to board this train, so we quickly walked to the right platform. It was pretty much the standard west coast commuter rail train, with the bright blue COASTER livery.

It was another scenic ride, like countless buses and trains before in the trip. But this was the last. No more getting up early in the mornings to catch a bus to some far off place, no more Pacific Ocean scenery as a standard part of the day, no more new regions to explore but San Diego.
Getting off the train, I was greeted by a bright red San Diego Trolley car, one of the really old ones.

We walked to our very last hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Old Town. Dropping off our backpacks, we immediately came back to the station. We still had one last thing to do.
The Trolley Blue Line took us all the way to our destination all along: the Mexican border! On the train, we met a man who used to be in the Marines, and is now the owner of a business which sells home security systems.
Once we got off the trolley, we were immediately greeted by a McDonalds, and many signs indicating the walking path across the border.

A short walk, then we were told that we couldn't go any further without going into Mexico. Here we were, at the Mexican border. The end of the trip!
(Note: More pix coming soon)