The Amtrak thruway bus was scheduled to pick me, and any other passengers, up at 7:25am.
Advice from Amtrak suggested being there a half-hour early.
It was about a half-hour walk from the hostel to the bus stop in the early morning, with no pack to carry.

Given all of that, I’m not sure why it was necessary to be able to take the picture below at 6:05am.

In the interests of not getting murdered by the other residents of the dorm room, I packed up the night before & left my clothes laid out where I could grab & go without needing to turn on lights, though I did use my torch a bit to make sure all was well.

The bus arrived more or less when it was expected, though the other bus turning up was a tad confusing; Both the Oakland & Emeryville thruway connections leave from there, about ten minutes apart, and there’s nothing on them to indicate which is which.

There was an Australian Mother & Son and a trio of Romanian backpackers also waiting.
The Australians had somehow attracted the attention of a possibly drunk, possibly stoned, probably orbiting Neptune chap; He was doing a lot of topic changes based on words which rhymed or sounded alike, so there was a pattern to the rambling.
Friendly, but not good at noticing that they really weren’t that into talking to him.

From here on, it’s mostly pictures.

As we got closer to the coast, the mist rolled in.

And I’m keeping this one because I rather like the effect.

We got into LA Union Station early, which was just fine by me; I’d been feeling steadily less well over the course of the trip, and decided that I would not be taking a commuter train or bus to the hostel in Santa Monica.
Not when taxis exist & the roads are reasonably clear.

Well worth it.