After a great night's sleep in my sleeping compartment, I was awakened by my cell phone. It was Tom Hancock (a work colleague). I demanded "Who is this!" and he replied, "Tom!" I said, "Who are you and why are you calling?" Turns out that they had heard of an Amtrak accident in California where some passengers got hurt, so he was calling to see if it was my train and if I was OK. Love you guys!!!!!

The sleeping compartments on Amtrak are considered First Class. In my opinion, they are well worth the cost, especially on a multi-day trip. You can have total privacy when you want, and when you decide to socialize, you can join others in the First Class Lounge, in the Observation Car, or in the open-to-all Cafe Car. Dining is communal - they seat 4 to a table, so unless you are part of a party of four, you'll be seated with strangers. The convention is that everyone at your table orders their meal from a menu and then someone starts the conversation by asking where the others are from, where they're going, the reason for the trip. That gets the ball rolling for some interesting and diverse conversations. For example, as I mentioned before, last night we got into a deep conversation about China. This morning at breakfast, we all got a little silly and played a game of naming all the breakfast cereals we could come up with, adding little stories - true or not - about an experience we've had or what they're made of, or how they were invented. As I said - you never know where the conversation is going! But it's always a fun trip.

I rented a car in Emeryville and headed across the Oakland Bridge to pick up my sisters at the San Francisco Airport. I had 90 minutes to get there, so thought I had no problem - until I hit a major traffic jam at the toll booth. But I finally got clear of that and was driving along the bridge when all of a sudden, I found myself in a tunnel. Wait. A tunnel??? I was on a bridge! I later discovered that that was Treasure Island, a "mountain" right under the bridge, and thus the tunnel.

Finally, I picked up my sisters, who by that time, had scarfed down most of the Ole Piper Inn pepperoni and sausage pizza they had brought from Minnesota (an old family favorite). My Mean Evil Sisters made me drive all the way through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge before they let me have a piece. But it was worth the wait.

Napa wasn't much farther and with our dueling Android Navigator and Tom Tom, we found our rented house.  After a little struggle unlocking the door, we piled ourselves and all our stuff in. And took a nap. We ARE on vacation! Cute little house - 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, 2.5 baths and a sweet back yard with a deck. And a neighbor's kitty who climbed up on a shed to peek over the fence at us.

We ate dinner at an upscale pub named Norman Rose in downtown Napa. It is amazing how many restaurants there are in Napa - it seems to be Foodie Heaven. Back at the house, we enjoyed some wine and after dozing while reading and watching TV, we stumbled to bed. Loving this!