@Opus 17
Thanks for your input. I'm feeling that perhaps my initial analysis might not have been accurate. Reading through the previous reference in this thread courtesy of @DaveF1006 of IRS Topic 511, I was caught by the line:
You can deduct travel expenses paid or incurred in connection with a temporary work assignment away from home.
For clarity, my travel from WA to CA is typically for a 2 week period of time, and happens about 6 times a year. To my thinking, this strikes me as satisfying temporary work assignment away from home, even though I might do this mulitple times a year. Perhaps that's my subjective interpretation because that's how I might want to read it to be saying. If my circumstances are, or would be, considered temporary work assignments, then perhaps I can claim the travel costs on that basis.
The other aspect I have trouble getting my head around is that examples given (here or by the IRS) about this travel issue seem to essentially be where people COULD daily commute those distances by car, but for whatever reason don't. Whereas for me, living in WA and working in CA, a daily commute clearly isn't even thinkable. Again, I admit I might be interpreting that to suit me, but it was something I did notice.
