More Travel

Now I’m seriously thinking of traveling during the two-day dialysis gap between Saturday and Tuesday. The only trip I’ve taken outside of LA during the past three years is to Del Mar Racetrack so getting on an airplane will be a big deal. I think the first trip will be somewhere close like San Francisco or Las Vegas instead of Toronto.

I checked our flights to San Francisco from both SNA and LAX. Even though LAX flights are cheaper, I’ll save lots of time and stress flying out of SNA. This itinerary looks good:

Flight	Date	From	Departure	To	Arrival
Alaska 3453	Feb 22	SNA	3:00 pm	SFO	4:35 pm
Alaska 3320	Feb 24	SFO	8:30 pm	SNA	10:06 pm

Interestingly, neither flight is operating by Alaska Airlines but by rather SkyWest Airlines. Both flights are on an Embraer 175 which only seats 76 passengers. One-way first class seats are only $139 compared to >$400 from LAX on a larger jet.

From there, it’s a 25 minute BART ride to Union Square area for ~$10. There are many 4-star hotels for ~$150/night and Chinatown is within walking distance. I think I’m going to plan this out for a weekend in February or March, once I’ve recovered from my PD catheter/fistula surgery. I only need to take one day off work. Maybe I’ll bring my mom since she doesn’t get out much.

I also checked out traveling by Amtrak to San Francisco. The Coast Starlight runs from LA Union Station to Oakland, and a bus will take you to several final destinations in San Francisco. The only problem is the train departs Union Station daily at 10:10 am. Even if I switch my dialysis time to first shift, it will be hard to get to downtown LA by 10:10 am. Also it takes 12+ hours to get to San Francisco by train/bus, and business class seats are $84. Compared to flying first class from SNA for $139, the train is too slow and too expensive.