by MacKenzie Geidt, Sunset assistant travel editor

Since I clock some serious hours on the Caltrain Baby Bullet every day on my commute to work, I’ve gotta be honest when I say that the prospect of spending a full 12-hour day on a train made me nervous (not that they haven't served me well, but trains now have very specific employment associations.  Ride the train for fun?).  Would it end up feeling like a 12-hour commute??  I hesitantly accepted the offer from Trains Unlimited Tours to ride their private rail car trains from Oakland through the San Joaquin Valley down to Bakersfield and back--all in a single day.  What I was NOT expecting was the glamour, the relaxation, the scenery, the food, and nary an unpleasant commute association. The result? A striking epiphany--WHY in the world would you hit the road (and pay $4/gallon for gas!) or spend hours stranded on an airport tarmac, when you can hit the rails?!   Let's just say that I fell in love with trains all over again (okay, actually for the first time, but you know what I mean).

Check out my ride...all aboard the Silver Lariat! 

These beauties are former California Zephyr cars from the 1940s that had been abandoned (except by rogue rail-yard squatters).  Private owners bought them and painstakingly restored them to their original glory (murals, sleeper cars, glass-domed ceilings, fine china and all!).  The cars latch on to various Amtrak routes and you get the benefit on being on an Amtrak schedule, but with a LOT more style. 

If I could get breakfast like this on Caltrain every day, I'd have a whole new outlook on life:                     

On such a gorgeous trip, you've got to kick back and soak up the scenery (normally on my commuter train I've got my nose in a book so I don't look out the windows...what am I missing?).  What a reminder that so much of California is agricultural...check out the bounty from the window: (and how often can you use the word "bounty" and actually mean it?) Note: prepare for abominable photography skills...

Here's what dinner on the train looks like: (it's amazing that 3 impressive meals + pre-dinner appetizers were all created in the Lariat's galley kitchen--no bigger than my closet)

(We're about to eat pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes, and sugar snap peas....followed by apple cobbler, more white wine, and a sunset made even more beautiful with such a spread in front of us...)

I really can't remember when I've been more relaxed.  Now I've decided I want to see more of the West by train (and I definitely want to experience the sleeper cars....)  Maybe I'll ride the Silver Lariat to Santa Fe...or to Vancouver...or the Southern California Coast....or through the Rocky Mountains to Denver....I'd ride this train anywhere and everywhere it goes.  This is definitely a case where the journey is worth just as much as the destination.

To find out where the Silver Lariat is headed next, contact Trains Unlimited Tours: 800-359-4870.  You might see me aboard.