Thursday, May 21, 2015

San Francisco Train Ride to Sotto Mare Restaurant

May 20, 2015, a Wednesday.

Five of Gobo's Lunch Bunch start the day at the Stockton Amtrak station.  We did stop at Lindy's Donuts for a donut each to go.  Ken, Elsa, Patti, Brenda and Don (me) are today's Lunch Bunchers.

Of course the ladies are going shopping after lunch.

The 711 train is suppose to leave Stockton at 9:01 AM.  But today it is delayed since Amtrak shares the rails with all the freight trains.


This is an earlier notification.  We finally left at 9:30 AM


 The first stop for the train is at Antioch which is 32 miles and 35 minutes by train.  By car the same trip will cover 38 miles and take 55 minutes via State Hwy 4.  The discrepancy in travel time is the railroad tracks are laid in a straight line between Stockton and Antioch, but since the intervening land is all peat dirt islands Hwy 4 is windy has levee roads and a couple of bridge crossings.
A farm on Lower Roberts Island just barely west of Stockton.

Working on another farm

Yet one more farm on Lower Roberts

 Not everyone is working.  Here are two fisherman.
I think this is somewhere on Middle River.
We are now between Antioch and Martinez looking back at the long arch known as the Antioch Bridge which is part of State Hwy 160.


 Just as we go under the Carquinez Bridge which is I-80 we pass by the Nantucket Restaurant {hot link}.

The first restaurant was opened in this location in 1930.  Ken & Jackie Carver have owned the marina since 1977 and on Labor Day, 1994, they opened The Nantucket Restaurant.
The parking lot is on the other side of the railroad tracks.

The train ends for us at Emeryville, home of Pixar Animation Studios.  From there we board an Amtrak bus that takes us over the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.
Salvaging the old eastern section of the Bay Bridge.

Treasure Island




We are dropped off the bus at Moscone Center where we have to walk a block to catch the SF Muni.  The Muni bus takes us through the heart of Chinatown to North Beach.  Our lunch destination the

Sotto Mare Oysteria and Seafood Restaurant {hot link}.


Elsa and I split the Crab Cioppino with Seafood.  A bargain at $41.00 since the pot includes enough for two very generous servings about three bowls each.




 Brenda has the Prawn Saute and a bowl of Clam Chowder.

Patti had the Sea Scallop Saute but her photo did not come out okay she was chomping down on her food.  So I thought not to include that photo.  :-)

 The Cioppino pot after our first serving each.


Ken had the Grilled Halibut with olive oil and chopped garlic.



After everyone is through shopping we are waiting to catch the Amtrak bus to Emeryville.  Elsa, Patti and Brenda are in the pic, but Ken is sitting just to the right of the photo at the bus stop.


 Ending this episode with three pics of the old east portion of the Bay Bridge which is being salvaged for scrap metal.





We arrived back at the Stockton Amtrak at 8:00 PM about 20 minutes behind schedule.


~end

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