Coasting on a dream / by An

Instead of being reasonable and flying back home, this summer I decided to take the train from Los Angeles to Seattle. The ride was more beautiful than I imagined, and the 36-hour trip wouldn't be enough to stop me from doing it again in a heartbeat. Here is a collection of snapshots I took with my phone from various points of the trip. They will tell the story better than I can write.

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And then the sun began to fall.
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Colors. Colors everywhere.
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I woke up to the sillohette of conifers, the first I had seen in a while. It was a welcoming sight.
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Morning has broken.
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Once we reached Portland, it began to rain. I couldn't stop smiling.
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And then I was home.
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“(...) the train goes fast and is going fast when it crosses a little trestle. You catch the sober, metallic, pure, late-light, unriffled glint of the water between the little banks, under the sky, and see the cow standing in the water upstream near the single leaning willow. And all at once you feel like crying. But the train is going fast, and almost immediately whatever you feel is taken away from you, too.”

- Robert Penn Warren

And just like that, summer is over. Tomorrow is my first official day as a CEPster. 8:30am classes for days... WHERE DID THE FREAKING TIME GO.