Institutionalized: 1940

California Trip

It is September and we will be heading to Los Angeles, California in a few days. We have a few last minute things to do. One thing is to put our train tickets in our carry on luggage. Another thing we need to do is to get our citizen documents because we are going to another country. I checked to see if the proper documents are in order. They are in order. The final two things that we need to do is ask Ric to pick Ryliegh up. Also ask Ric to drive us to the train station. Ryliegh will be picked up the night before we leave for our trip, which is two days away. I asked Greg to call his parents to confirm a time to pick Ryliegh up. Also to confirm a time to pick us up and drive us to the train station the seventh of September.

It is the night before our adventure to California. Greg's parents and siblings have come to wish us a safe trip. James even told us the news of his marriage next month . Greg and I congratulated him. After a few hours, Ric started gathering all of Ryliegh's things and put them into his car. We said good bye to Ryliegh and told him to be a good cat for Ric and Donna. After we said our good byes, Donna grabbed Ryliegh's cage with him in it. After Donna went to the car, Ric came back in to tell us that he will be at our house by eight the next morning to drive us to the train station. We thanked him and told him that we would see him in the morning. I noticed I had a bit more room in my suitcase, so I decided to pack three extra under garments. I did the same thing in Greg's suitcase. I also moved the tickets from the suitcase to my purse, so they would not be misplaced. We are all ready for our trip tomorrow. We are getting excited. We will be on our way to California tomorrow.

It is the morning of our trip. We pack the last minute items such as toiletries. Ric is now hereready to drive us to the train station. We have arrived at the train station. Our train arrives in fifteen minutes. We have our tickets in an accessible place with our citizen documents. The train has arrived and we are boarding the train. We find seats near a window, so we can look out to see the scenery. Before the train leaves the station, a train worker asks to see our tickets. We show him our tickets. The worker also told us that that he would be coming by with a border officer to check our citizenship documents once we were at the border with the USA.

A few hours into our trip, a border officer was going around asking to see citizenship documents for those who were going into the USA that were Canadian. When the officer approached us and asked to see our papers, we took them out to show him. After that, we were served lunch.

We are going through Washington state right now. It is beautiful. We are one step closer to our destination. Washington is the state that borders British Columbia. This state also has a city called Vancouver. It is interesting to think that two very different places in two different countries would have the same namefor a cityso close together. We have been going through Washington state for a few hours now. It is dinner time. After dinner, we were wondering what the next state was on our journey a few hours later, it is time for bed. We heard the conductor say that we will be in Oregon in the morning. So the next state on our trip is Oregon.

The next morning, we were in oregon. The clerk went around telling everyone that Portland was our next stop. It is about an hour away. That hour went very quickly. There was an anouncement saying that we were arriving in Portland and not to forget personal belongings when leaving the train. There was another anouncement to the passengers staying and going to Los Angeles. That anouncement regarded Greg and I. This anouncement said that those who are going ahead to Los Angeles should get up and stretch our legs. We took that opportunity to walk around our rail car. After fifteen minutes, we were told to find our seats. Then an anouncement came on the PA that we are moving towards Los Angeles. This part of our train trip will take fifteen more hours. We are getting very excited. Los Angeles is very close we cannot wait to see our friends. I hope to see if they are going to meet us at the station.