Amtrak provides pleasant ride on California coast

Years ago, I had driven California's Highway 1 along the intoxicating zigs and zags of coastline from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It was a great trip, but I didn't get to see much of it. My wife gawked; I watched the road.

There's such a thing as death by sightseeing, and Highway 1 can be dangerous, with its treacherous turns high above the Pacific Ocean.

Wanting to finish the trip north to Seattle, I figured I might need a designated driver for the remaining 800 miles.

Between the price of gas and the minimum $1,000 rate I was finding online for renting a car one way, I had reason to consider making Amtrak that driver.

So we spent a weekend in San Francisco, then caught Amtrak's Coast Starlight to Seattle.

We stayed a couple of nights in San Francisco's beautifully restored Palace Hotel, then hopped a ferry to Oakland, Calif.'s, Jack London Square. We waited at a bar there before heading a few blocks to the sleek, clean Amtrak station around 9 p.m.

Then a little after 9:30, I heard it. I spend more than two hours on commuter trains every day, but I felt an honest-to-God jolt of a thrill when that horn blared out the train's approach. It was right on time.

When we boarded, an attendant guided us to our "roomette," then later helped convert it into a sleeping space. It was getting late, and we would sleep through wine country.

The total for two adults in one roomette aboard Amtrak: $451.80. For that we got a private compartment with two generous, comfortable seats that folded into one bunk, another bunk that folded down from the ceiling, a picture window, meals and all the bottled water we could pour down our gullets.

With a roomette, we shared a bathroom. I'm the only one who used the shower, which was clean but not plush.

Hey, it's a train.

I always bought into the notion that sleeping in a bunk on a train would resemble being rocked in my mother's arms. Well, it turned out to be a nervous mother, more unevenly shaky than I expected because of the tracks. So sleep in the upper berth didn't come as easily as I had hoped, though when I peeked down at my wife in the larger lower bunk, she was actually smiling, her eyes closed. She slept fine; I slept eventually.

But when I saw daylight, I climbed down from my windowless berth and got a visual wake-up call: Mount Shasta, white with snow in the morning sun. The payoff for taking a train had begun. And now, breakfast.

The shy will not remain that way in an Amtrak dining car. You will be seated with fellow passengers, and you will enjoy it. Really.

As for the food, my breakfast omelet and bacon were terrific. Lunch (I chose a vegetarian salad) and dinner (herb-roasted chicken) were less than I would expect at a great restaurant but very good considering where I was. More upscale eats are available for sleeper passengers in the parlor car; all it takes is a reservation.

I found Amtrak personnel to be all business but also personable. When I mentioned that in those close quarters, one jerky passenger could foul the whole experience, one attendant said, "People like that are invited off the train. We don't tolerate them."

I liked that.

Friends warned me that this train is notoriously late. About 22 hours after leaving Oakland, we arrived at the King Street Station in Seattle - half an hour early. We wheeled our bags a mile to the Inn at the Market, steps from Pike Street Market, with a rooftop deck overlooking Puget Sound.

Leaving the train felt just a little abrupt, however. After all, we'd just gotten to know each other. Then again, there's always the southbound.

For Amtrak reservations, visit amtrak.com or call 800-872-7245. Do not wait long; prices go up as the travel date approaches, and compartments can be in high demand. Roomettes are the bottom of the line for sleepers. Also available are family bedrooms for four and full bedrooms and baths for two.