We have discovered what has to be a “best spot” for fine dining on our trip to San Francisco this New Year’s, and it is all thanks to Cal Train. Well, almost…..

Our winter sojourn down the coast has been quite a drive this year. Storms and heavy rains have made the Northern California weather notable, and we have been witnessing swollen rivers all along the way. After leaving Vancouver December 26, it has been a very rainy and stormy way south. We have made good time, first night at Cannon Beach, then next at Bandon, Oregon, then Ukiah, CA and we are here in the Bay area by December 29th. The rains let up and we enjoyed San Francisco and the Fisherman’s Wharf area, then moved south to Burlingame where we had booked our three nights on Holiday Inn points to stop and see 2006 in. The Burlingame location turned out to be wonderful, right on San Francisco Bay with lots of wildlife to observe. Great photography, it turned out, and some great restaurants as well.

Which brings us to the story of today, December 30. You see, the hotel is just a short walk from the Burlingame-Broadway Cal Train station, so that is how we intend to get around for the next couple of days. Around 0845 we walk across to the station and buy ourselves day passes ($10 each) for Cal Train with plans to head to San Jose today (it is supposed to be dry there). Having bought our passes we look across the tracks and note a sign that says “This station no longer served on weekdays, take shuttle to Millbrae”!

Not too pleased, we look for the shuttle stop and as we walk to it, pass by what has to be the former SP station there, now a restaurant named Pisces. Making a note, the shuttle arrives and we head north to Millbrae to board a southbound train for San Jose. As we pull out on the bus, we note the 0906 train that we had intended to catch scoot through the station at speed. We arrive Millbrae, and head to the platform just as a southbound arrives, consisting of an MP 36 unit and four new Bombardier cars (like we have on West Coast Express). Turns out to be one of the new “Baby Bullet” express schedules, and we rocket south to San Jose with just three stops, overtaking the 0906 local that we would have been on, and arriving San Jose five minutes earlier than planned. Well, that worked ok!

We enjoy San Jose—especially “Christmas in San Jose—a Family Tradition” still open in the major plaza area of the city, with sponsored trees and animated scenes that make the Woodward’s windows and Christmas at Canada Place look second rate (and I dearly love the preserved Woodward’s windows). But this is an incredible outdoor animated and fully sponsored Christmas extravaganza.

After enjoying San Jose, we hop Cal Train express #249 north around 1240 for Palo Alto, then after walking the town there, back to Millbrae on another Cal Train. A great day, but due the heavy rain now falling we hop a taxi back to the hotel.

After relaxing a bit, it’s time for dinner. Where to go—why not try that restaurant we saw over at the former train station? We head over, and are in for a treat. Not cheap, but a wonderful five course meal, a great bottle of wine, and a stream of entertainment flying by the windows. I can’t recall the number of northbounds vs southbounds, but both directions are busy. In the short space of one hour and a half, there have been a total of 16 trains pass by at full speed, leading to the “title” question and reply as we were finishing the main course and waiting for dessert.

Fine food, wonderful surroundings, exquisite company, and the passing by of trains at speed all combine into the best night yet of the trip. “This was so good we should come back”, she says—”should we try it again tomorrow?” If they can take us, I say—and so—we shortly have a New Year’s Eve reservation. Tomorrow being a weekend it will be different—the trains stop at this station here on the weekends!

PS: New Year’s Eve at Pisces was wonderful in every regard as well—more courses to the meal, champagne (of course), and fewer trains at slower speeds as they stopped out side the window! But it is a New Year’s Eve to remember, especially after a very flooded day earlier in San Francisco—but that’s another story!