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Hello hello o7 Here's the belated blog post on the San Clemente & Oceanside day trip. On Sunday, July 19, 2026, I went to San Clemente and Oceanside! In the last blog post, I said I was gonna write this post Tuesday, which obviously didn't happen LOL. Let's just say I've been, ah, preoccupied. This is, of course, yet another Metrolink trip; I had a friend with me as well. Now that I think about it, I haven't done a long-distance solo trip by myself in a while now. I might go somewhere this week but probably won't write about it.
On this day I experienced one of the best and worst train trips of my life. Still, I would consider this one of my favorite trips I've done :D Had a lot of fun despite the uh, unfortunate return trip.
The view on the way to San Clemente was gorgeous! The Metrolink OC line mostly runs through industrial buildings up until you get close to the coast. It's the exact same route as the Pacific Surfliner, so definitely worth a trip if you want to experience the ocean view from a train on a cheaper price :]
// San Clemente Pier
This weekend just so happens to be the annual San Clemente Ocean Festival, which explains why the section of the beach near the pier was extremely crowded. Lots of booths from various organizations and tons of people. There was an OCTA booth that I wanted to check out, but I didn't dare to go anywhere near the crowd because there was just way too many people. Very overwhelming, plus I wasn't dressed in proper beach attire anyway and had no desire to walk on the beach sands LOL.
Luckily, the pier itself was much calmer. Unlike the Santa Monica Pier, the San Clemente Pier is just a regular pier with no touristy attractions, which I'm glad! I much, much prefer a simple boardwalk like this. There were so many pigeons huddling together sunbathing on the pier it was adorable <3 I didn't know pigeons could be this fluffy awww. Pigeon loaf.
The SoCal stereotype is true: there are lots of surfers here. The videos are compressed on purpose, both to make sure no one's face is identifiable and also so save on storage. Nonetheless, I hope the beauty of the ocean will still come through. I might not be much of a beach person, but I don't take living near the coast for granted! Seeing the ocean will never get old for me. There's something smoothing about seeing the vastness of the ocean up close, watching the waves clash onto the shore in a rhythmic pattern.
// Railfanning
Can't have a Metrolink trip without some foamer activities now, can we?
Like I said, I didn't want to walk on beach sands and neither of us really wanted to be near the crowds, so we mostly stayed on the concrete trail that ran along the beach. The trail was right next to a train track so you know what that means... train spotting!! (Hmm but people don't really use this term like they do with plane spotting nowadays, don't they?) So, while we were waiting for a Pacific Surfliner to come by, we drew some stuff on a wooden plank to kill time. I'm pretty sure the charcoals were leftovers from a random barbecue. All of my artistic abilities went into the Amtrak logo and the Metrolink logo came out kinda crappy. I wish Metrolink kept their old arrow logo around it had so much aura. We were standing near one of those big umbrella shades and some guy came over to us and was like "are you guys using the umbrella," to which my friend responded "no we're just hanging out." It was kind of funny because that guy was slightly weirded out LMAO we probably looked like we were loitering.
This might be one of my favorite train videos I've taken so far. The "swoosh" near the end is so satisfying to look at. I think I had the camera at 0.6x zoom here? I'm pretty sure the third train car — the one with the bigger windows — is a Superliner. Hopefully I'll be able to ride one soon.
// Lunch Time
Didn't stay in San Clemente for too long, because why go to one beach, when you can go to two? :D The next stop is, Oceanside!
I know the filter may not make the pizza look enticing but trust me it was delicious LOL. This nendoroid really is perfect for food photos; chef Miku I love you <3 While I was eating this interesting "party" bus drove by. It's The Blazing Mary Bus. Intriguing, indeed.
While walking around Oceanside I took this really sweet video of a Metrolink passing through a grade crossing. God this video makes me feel so transit-pilled. Really makes me wish we have more and better transit-oriented urban development. While grade separation might be ideal, you gotta admit grade crossing has more aura. Didn't do much in the city, just walked around the general area around the train station because there was a more important business to take care of: riding the Sprinter!
// The Sprinter
The Sprinter is a commuter rail service operated by the NCTD (North County Transit District), which ran every 30 minutes between Oceanside and Escondido. The trains are Siemens Desiro diesel units. Man I'm so not used to these small-ish European trains lol, the interior reminds me of the Arrow in San Bernardino (see the previous blog post for more). I didn't have time to ride the Coaster today, but I will definitely be back one day for it!
Didn't really feel like going all the way to Escondido, so we got off at College Boulevard and went to this Warhammer store. There was someone painting minifigs in the store so that was pretty cool to see. The store staff was a hardcore Warhammer fan and answered my I-don't-know-anything-about-warhammer questions with great enthusiasm. I always love listening to people being passionate about their interests/hobbies, even if I personally have no interest in it. It's so endearing to me because the happiness is contagious! Apparently there's fantasy football in Warhammer. Reminds me of 17776.
There was this 88 Ranch grocery store that caught my attention because I'm pretty sure it's a knock-off of 99 Ranch Market? I mean, why else would the names be so similar lol.
// Back to Oceanside
Had some time before the return train so we walked along the beach at Oceanside, and man was it beautiful. I've said this before and I'll say it again: I'm not much of a beach person. I don't like the sensation of sand on my feet, the moisture in the fair, and least of all the crowds — and yet I find myself drawn to the ocean again and again. I might not like beach, but I like walking alongside it, and seeing the ocean up-close. It's relaxing. Even better when the sun is occasionally blocked by the clouds and there's a light breeze comes by.
The Oceanside pier isn't that different from the one at San Clemente. I enjoyed it just as much. Overall I really appreciated my time in both cities. I got sunburned but it was worth it. (Yeah I'm definitely putting on some sun screen the next time I'm planning on walking under the sun for 3+ hours.)
Departing Oceanside, the train passed by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear power plant that was shutdown in 2013 due to defects in the steam generators. I think there's also some kind of air force base nearby, because I also saw a big poster advertising an air show.
Going from Oceanside towards San Clemente, you couldn't see the ocean during the first 10 minutes or so. The train was pretty empty; there was only one other person in the car. I remember looking out the windows on the opposite side, watching the scenery rush past, and thinking to myself: wouldn't it be nice if this lasted forever? No responsibilities to think about, just a calm train ride, peace and tranquility. And then I quickly corrected myself: well, maybe not forever, but it sure would be nice to experience this every once in a while.
Of course, seeing the ocean this close on the train will always be amazing. Blasting at 80 to almost 90 MPH is awesome. If this doesn't make you want to be on a train then I don't know what will!
The train got very crowded after the stop at San Clemente Pier. In my car, there were three families on vacation together and they all had kids so you can imagine it got pretty chaotic LOL. Just an absolute explosion of sounds when the doors opened. The kids were pretty well-behaved though they didn't cause any troubles. Unfortunately, it only goes downhill from here.
On the way back, the train hit an abandoned motorcycle on the track. Luckily it was just the motorcycle; no one was on it. I didn't feel the train hit the motorcycle — not even a slight shake — but I did feel the emergency brake and the deceleration that followed. Eventually, the train came to a stop at a grade crossing. I feel so bad for the conductor and engineer, I can't imagine how much stress this put them through. The driver's voice sounded shaky over the speaker when he announced that we're stopping so that the conductor can inspect the train and they can perform all the safety protocols. Two local authorities also showed up to speak with the conductor. All in all this caused a delay of about 40 minutes, which isn't too bad, and we were able to continue moving finally.
And just when you think it couldn't get worse, it got worse.
Everyone's tired as hell at this point. The energy in the train car is at an all-time low. I'm sitting in the lowest floor, and I hear commotion above me: sounds like someone's running around. Then I hear shouting that gets, closer, and closer. Some guy with a big bag barges in, angrily shouting at no one in particular, screaming about how he's going to murder and kill someone. I couldn't make out half of the things he was saying and I was fucking terrified. At least I was an adult and had someone with me, but I felt so horrible for the kids that were in the train. I really hope this didn't ruin train trips for them entirely, but I also wouldn't blame the parents for being more vary of public transit from now on. It's just a terrible situation to be in. In the end, maybe after 5 minutes or so, the guy left and I presume went into the other cars to continue terrorizing passengers. I didn't even notice when he left, since the entire time I was so zoned out and was just staring out the window pretending I was elsewhere. After that the train was dead silent and no one spoke a single word. (Edit: So uhh according to my friend, apparently the guy didn't leave the train and just went quiet for some reason.)
What a way to end a day.
// To end on a positive note
Despite the unfortunate way the trip came to a close, I still had a lot of fun! I'd say my enjoyment of the beach and everything that happened earlier in the day makes up for the incidents on the way home. I'm hoping to return to San Clemente soon and go to the mall there.