trip report 002, a train to oceanside

Trip Date: March 20th, 2025

Metrolink Orange County Line: Irvine -> Oceanside

I’ve wanted to take the Metrolink down to Oceanside for a long while now. After taking the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Los Angeles Union Station to Emeryville last spring, I had been itching to hop on a train with a view of the ocean again. Something about just watching the water whizz by, the waves glittering under the sky, brings me a sense of ease.

After finishing an online final (intro to psych), I immediately packed my things and headed to the train station.

The Irvine Metrolink Station is alright for what it is. It certainly doesn’t have the size and grandeur of the LA Union Station and it looks a little worn, but at least there is a building with some shelter. When I was passing through, there was barely anyone there though. Only one Amtrack window was open - all Metrolink tickets were sold through a kiosk outside of the building.

On that note, I was using a student ticket, so I didn’t need to pay for any of my Metrolink tickets. I didn’t use the kiosk either, since my ticket was on my phone. I wished I could get a paper ticket to remember the trip, but it is what it is.

The train ride itself was exactly what I wanted it to be: a relaxing hour of knitting and staring out at the ocean. Well, only about half an hour was spent right next to the water, but it was enough for me. Another thing about public transit is that there’s all kinds of people around. There were two elderly women who sat behind me on the train, and the entire train ride, one of them kept worrying about how she had prescription sunglasses at the train station while the other tried to keep her friend’s mind off the lost glasses. There were also two girls, around college age, who were catching up and talking about how much their first jobs were paying.

I will say, as someone who has been on the Amtrak before, the Metrolink trains seemed to trigger my motion sickness a bit more. I think the Metrolink carriages sway a lot more than the Amtrak ones, but I’m not too sure.

Oceanside City Beach

The beach was surprisingly busy for a late morning on a random Thursday. I stood in the water for a moment and then walked back towards the sand where I sat around for a good part of an hour. There were a lot of families with kids roaming around and surfers with their boards. People apparently really like walking their dogs on the sand as well.

I found the rocks in the sand a little strange. Every beach I had ever been to only had sand where the water meets land, but this beach had rocks and shells. And you could see that as you walked towards the water, the rocks gradually became smoother. The smoothest stones were far into the water, and the waves seemed to crawl up the shore and pull on the rocks, the stones tumbling away from you.

Once I got bored of people watching and thinking about life, I headed towards the pier.

Oceanside Municipal Pier

This was probably the longest pier I’d seen in a while. There were a lot of people just walking around on the pier, but there were also a lot of people fishing off the pier. Those who came to fish came prepared - they brought foldable camping chairs, multiple fishing poles, entire boxes of what I assume is bait. There were so many people fishing that there was a little shop at the halfway point of the pier selling snacks, merch, and bait. They also had fishing poles available to rend for those who came unprepared.

While walking towards the water on the pier, I saw a kid who wanted to try fishing and kept bugging his dad to rent a fishing pole. The dad kept insisting that he wouldn’t catch anything. Thing is, once I walked to the end of the pier and then walked all the way back towards the shore, I saw the pair again. This time, the dad and son were having fun fishing with their rented fishing poles. I didn’t see them catch anything, they were just laughing together on the pier.

Maybe I have something I can learn from the father and son. I often tell myself not to spend money, not to waste time on seemingly pointless things. But maybe sometimes its ok to have a bit of fun, go the long way sometimes.

I also saw an elderly man sitting in a foldable camping chair, with his fishing line in the water, the fishing pole leaning against the wooden railing of the pier… and his phone in his hands, mindlessly and repeatedly pulling the crank on a virtual slot machine. I find it funny that he was essentially gambling in two different places at once.

Pier View Coffee

While walking back to the ocean from a nearby farmers market, I decided to grab food at a little cafe. I had been planning to get pasta at a nearby restaurant, but saw that it was undergoing renovations and was not selling pasta at the time.

Pier View Coffee is a quaint little cafe at a relatively quiet street corner with seating both inside and outside. The inside is quite nice with warm lighting and plants. There were a few customers doing work at the cafe - made me wish I brought my laptop to study a bit as well. Unfortunately, I do not believe you can directly see the pier from the cafe.

I ordered a sandwich and then brought it to one of the tables outside before I decided that I wanted to finish the sandwich at the beach. I honestly don’t have sandwiches that often so I can’t say whether it was a good sandwich, but it tasted great to me.

Top Gun House

While planning this trip, I found that the “Top Gun House” was a few minutes walk away from the pier. I believe this was the house that was used in the filming of the first Top Gun movie. Google maps showed that the house was still standing, but was turned into a store selling small hand pies.

A short disclaimer: I’ve never watched the first Top Gun movie, but I did watch the second one. Thus, I didn’t really recognize much. I was mostly there to take pictures for a friend who’s a big fan of the Top Gun movies.

When I got there, the store had a constant stream of visitors taking pictures. There was also a motorcycle out at the front, apparently a replica of a motorcycle in the movie. The inside of the store was also decked out in memorabilia, including pictures of the characters and a signed movie poster framed and hung on the wall.

I wasn’t interested in pie, so I got a Fizzy Lemon Tea drink instead. It looked really pretty and tasted great, though I realized around an hour later that I basically got a carbonated Arnold Palmer. They also sold coffee, brownies, and other little sweets.

Metrolink Orange County Line: Oceanside -> Irvine

The trip back was pretty similar to the trip there. I spent another hour knitting and staring out the window at the ocean while sipping on my carbonated lemon tea. I thought the yellow-orange of the drink complemented the light blue of the sky and ocean.

The train conductor came around and scanned my ticket on my phone this time around (no one checked if I had a ticked on the train there). He didn’t stike up any conversation with me, but I heard him chatting with the other riders.

I’m glad I went on the trip. Though my main goal was to see the ocean by train, I had a good time walking around Oceanside and people watching. For anyone who has the chance, I would highly recommend any train along the water purely for the ocean views.

On Public Transit

When I made this trip to Oceanside, I was using a Student Adventure Pass ticket, which meant that my Metrolink tickets were free of charge.

Since then, on May 1st, I received news stating that Metrolink is planning to discontinue the Student Adventure Pass, replacing it with a new 50% discounted student/youth ticket. A portion of the email reads:

Dear Student Rider,

We want to share an important update about the Student Adventure Pass.

First, thank you for joining us on this incredible journey! Due to the program’s overwhelming success, the available grant funding for the Student Adventure Pass pilot - which initially helped cover 100% of student fares – can no longer fully sustain the program. So, we must make a change.

We know this program has made a big difference for so many students, and while it’s coming to a close June 30, 2025, we’re excited to continue helping you save. Starting July 1, students can receive 50% off Metrolink tickets with our new Student/Youth discount, which will be available in the Metrolink app and at ticket machines. That’s double the 25% discount that was offered before the Student Adventure Pass began. Just be sure to carry your student ID when you ride.

The email then continues to link a short survey for feedback and thank students for participating in the program.

One reason why I wanted to make the trip by train is because I do not like driving. While learning to drive, I always felt a sense of anxiety behind the wheel - I could control my car, but I had to somehow trust that everyone else around me could also reasonably control their car. I had no choice in the matter either - I live in a car-dependent suburbia where public transit is nearly non-existant. Getting home from high school meant fishing for three quarters in my backpack or walking three miles. Either option meant getting home took a good 45 minutes to an hour. Driving would take less than 15 minutes.

I believe that access to public transit allows those who do not own a car to expand their world. Before I could drive, my world was a circle around my house with a radius of about 3 miles. It would be great if everyone had a larger world to explore without having to worry about the price.

I’m lucky to have been able to travel a bit and explore the world. I hope others get the chance as well.