Our last day on the train

At 12 pm on our second day on the LSL (Friday), Ernesto came by and told us we should head down for lunch. He reminded us that the train separates at Albany and the dining car goes with it. We had just finished breakfast at 11 am, but we decided to head down anyway since we were still remembering our rumbling stomachs after we missed lunch the day of the bus bridge (Wednesday).

We went down to the dining car and were seated immediately at a table with two people holding a baby. Their daughter was sitting behind them at a table with three kids, and they had the youngest one with them. The baby was fussing, and again there seemed to be no sense of urgency in getting any orders taken. After sitting in the diner for 15 minutes without even being greeted by the server, we gave up and went back to the sleeper to nap the afternoon away. We started to get hungry around 4:30 pm, and just when we were about to go the lounge car to grab a hot dog or something, an announcement came on that the lounge car would be closing in preparation for the train separating in Albany.

At this point we were delayed anywhere between 2-3 hours. The bad news is that we were now going to miss our final connection, the little stub train (an engine and two coaches) that travels between Springfield and New Haven. It travels through south Hartford and Wallingford and provides connections in New Haven to the Northeast Regional and Acela trains.

After the trains separated in Albany, Ernesto asked us to come down to the lounge car for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at the dinner service on the 448 for the sleeper pax. They closed the lounge car to coach pax, and our SCA acted as our waiter. There were no menus, but the two options for dinner was a cold beef medallion meal with rice or a warm pasta dish. We opted for the warm pasta dish and ate with Bill and Mary again. We had such a nice time with them!

While in the lounge car, the conductor came by and asked if any of the sleeper pax had connections in Springfield. We mentioned that we were supposed to connect to the 479, and the conductor said that they would find us a way home. We weren't enthused by the idea of a taxi all the way back to Wallingford, so thankfully my in-laws agreed to pick us up.

We finally pulled into SPG at around 8:15 PM, about 2.5 hours late. I really enjoyed the scenery through the Berkshires from ALB - SPG. Also the train was nice and quiet and there were only a few people left on the train. It was nice and calm - how I envisioned our entire trip being!

Overall, despite the extended delay, I enjoyed the trip, although I am glad to be home. I think I might keep my long distance train travel to just one overnight trip, instead of an extended cross country trip. But in any case, we had a great adventure, and it is one that we definitely won't forget.

On the Lake Shore Limited

Tim and I both were very tired, so we put our beds down and tried to sleep. After about 10 minutes, we came to a hard stop. Tim asked me to get out the scanner to see what was going on. Anytime there is a delay, a train scanner is an amazing tool, because you can hear the communications between the conductor, engineer, and dispatcher.  I learned that we had some sort of hose on the back of the baggage car that came loose. Supposedly it was something used for back up moves, but the hose was shredded and the train staff warned the dispatcher that whoever came through this section of track next might want to move slowly. They also said they would need a few moments to get everything secured. We lost HEP (head end power) for about five minutes, but then the HEP was restored and we were on our way. That delay was about 20 minutes.

I finally fell asleep and woke up the next morning at 9:30 AM, eastern time. Wow! That is the latest I have slept on the train during this trip, but it felt great to sleep in. We got nervous that we might miss out on breakfast in the dining car, so we rushed down there to eat.

The dining car was completely full and we were asked to just wait at the end of the car. Let’s just say that the crew on the LSL was not quite as happy and chipper as the crew on either one of our Empire Builder trains. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table to be ready for us. Our server Miles was downright surly, and he had a frown on his face the entire time I was in the car. He walked away while the other couple we were seated with was asking him a question, and when we asked for more coffee, he also just walked away. He did come back with the coffee pot, but I wasn’t sure what we were going to get. We had tipped the staff on the EB generously even though the meals are included with the ticket price, but I refused to tip Miles after he had such an attitude.

I also noticed that there was a young family sitting across from us in the dining car. I am not sure if they were Amish, Hutterite or Mennonite, but they were speaking a language that was somewhere between English and German. The adults looked to be in their early 20s and they had two young daughters (I would estimate 2 and 4 years old). I am going to have to look up more information about these groups on google, and I also noticed a large party of members of this group in one of the coaches.

By the time we finished breakfast it was 11 am, and we headed back to the sleeper to relax and nap. Ernesto, our SCA, showed up right when we returned and wanted to know about changing the linens. Well, we had left the beds down and the door open when we went to breakfast and were gone for 90 minutes, so I told him he would have to do it later. Ernesto suggested we go to lunch at 12 pm so we could be sure to get into the diner before the train separated in Albany, but frankly, I am not hungry at all. However, I want to be sure that we do get some food and don't have a day without lunch again.

I joked with Tim that we now have only about 5 hours left of our journey to Springfield, MA and that it was actually less time than the trip from Minneapolis to Chicago. He joked that it made him feel worse - not better - about the time left on the train. I don't think multi-day train travel will be in his future...

We are now approaching Rochester and then we will go onwards to Albany!

Chicago and the Lake Shore Limited

We lost a little time on the way between Minneapolis and Chicago, so I started to get nervous again about making the Lake Shore Limited. However, two customer service reps hopped on board on train from the westbound #7 when the two trains met somewhere before Milwaukee.

The customer service reps assured me that the Lake Shore Limited would be departing late that evening and that we would have no trouble making the train. They told other folks that had tickets for the previous day's train to head to the ticket counter or the lounge to swap out their tickets for today. I also noticed the customer service reps on the train handing out hotel vouchers to folks that were going to be on the next day's Capitol Limited, which had obviously already departed.

KFC for dinner

For dinner, the train staff pulled on subway sandwiches for the coach pax and KFC for the sleeper pax. They loaded everything into the train at Wisconsin Dells. Eric brought over two boxes of KFC into our bedroom. This was the best KFC I have ever eaten. We each got two huge pieces of fried chicken, a biscuit, mashed potatoes & gravy, and some coleslaw. We ravenously devoured it, since I had basically only bread with butter for lunch as I couldn't choke down any of the "chicken fricasse."

We pulled into Chicago Union Station at 9:15ish. We hustled over to the Metropolitan Lounge to check in. The Metropolitan Lounge is the lounge for sleeper passengers or those with Select+ Status on amtrak. It is much bigger than the Club Acela in NYP, BOS, PHL or WAS, but not as nice. The soda machine had signs on it saying it wasn't working and there were no free snacks like in the Club Acela.  In any case, we breathed a huge sigh of relief that we were going to make our train.

We were called down for the "kindergarten walk" around 10:15ish. This is when they have all the sleeping car passengers line up at the back of the lounge, and then a staff person escorts you out to the platform. I am not sure why they can't just tell you the track and have you go, but this has apparently always been the rule in Chicago.

The Lake Shore Limited train has two parts. After Albany, the first part of the train goes to Boston, and the second part of the train goes to New York City. Since we were in the Boston sleeper, we had a very long walk with our stuff down the platform. I believe the consist of this train is engine - engine - boston sleeper - coach - coach - coach - lounge car - coach - coach - coach - dining car - NY sleeper - NY sleeper - dorm. So we have to walk through a lot of cars to find the dining car!

After boarding the train, we were invited to the dining car for a wine and cheese party. This is standard on this train since it leaves after dinner. We were actually hungry since we picked at our lunch and had KFC over five hours ago, and I was really pleased with the giant plate of grapes, cheese and crackers that we got. Everyone got their own plate, and I had two glasses of chardonnay. We enjoyed sitting in the dining car with another couple (Bill & Mary) that had been in our sleeper on the #8 Empire Builder out of Chicago. They were also traveling to Springfield, MA and we became friends en route. Hopefully Bill is going to email me a video of our travels on the train!

One other interesting thing I noticed about this train is that I think they added an extra coach to accommodate some of the displaced pax from the western delays. I noted that one of the coaches is the Amfleet II style that is used on the Northeast Regional trains. This is different from the Amfleet I coaches that are standard for long distance train travel. The long distance coaches generally have a foot rest and a calf/leg rest that are sort of like a little lazy boy recliner. There is also greater pitch between the seats to allow for a deeper recline and more leg room.

In any case, after the wine and cheese party we went out to the platform to walk the length of the train back to the sleeper. Walking through the coaches proved impossible because they were being loaded and people with their stuff were trying to get settled. We ran back to our sleeper, popped a bottle of hard cider that we picked up in Sequim, had a drink, and then put our beds down and went to sleep.

Somewhere west of Chicago

So after Tim and I walked around Glasgow, we headed back to the train car to relax for a while. We got called down to the diner for lunch, but right after we placed our order, we were informed that the buses were here to take us to the other train on the other side of the derailment.

Tim on the second train - post derailment

We cancelled our orders and scurried down to the sleeper to get our stuff and run off the train. We got into a bus that was a little tight, but was OK for the 45 minute ride. Upon arriving at the new train, we dragged all of our stuff over to the new sleeper which was identical to the first one. It was also a renovated Superliner I car, but because they had to reverse the engines, we ended up with the sleepers at the rear of the train and with our bench seat facing forward.

We got pretty excited once we got to the train at about 2 pm, hoping that we would be departing shortly. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough buses to bring everyone over from our train in one trip. So, after they dropped off the sleeper pax, then reloaded the bus with new passengers in Wolf Point, they had to drive back to Glasgow and then refill up the buses with passengers from our train, then head back to Wolf Point with more passengers. We had first heard that we would be departing Wolf Point at 4:30ish, which would be exactly 24 hours behind, but by the time we got everyone and their stuff over to our train it was 6:30, which was exactly when our crew timed out. Basically, there is a federal regulation that the operating crew (conductor and engineer) can only work for 12 hours. It is a safety regulation.

I also tripped and fell flat on my face stepping out of the train in Wolf Point. I sprained my ankle, bruised both knees, and cut up my hands. Not fun!

In any case, by the time we got our new crew and were underway, it was past 8 PM. UH OH - 28 hours late. Now I started to get worried about the possibility that we would miss our connection in Chicago to the 48 (Lake Shore Limited), which leaves Chicago at 9:30 PM.

We got called down to the dining car for dinner, and they informed us that they were giving free meals to all passengers on board, not just the sleeping pax. I understand that they needed to give food to everyone, but this meant that we didn't get salads or rolls. We also got half servings of steak and Tim had the smallest bowl of about 10 pieces of pasta. We also weren't able to order any alcohol with dinner.

We headed back to our bedroom and sat sullenly for a while, feeling very hungry and sorry for ourselves. When I heard a last call for the diner, I asked our sleeping car attendant if there was any way to get any more food. He came back with two more plates of food from the dining car - chicken legs, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables.

We went to sleep with the hope that when we woke up we might be a little more on time. I woke up at about 7 AM, and started calculating where we were and what time we might get to Chicago. I called the folks at Amtrak Guest Rewards, since I was booked an award trip, to see if they might be able to change me to a sleeper reservation home on Friday night (instead of Thursday). I called and she told me that we were scheduled to arrive into Chicago at 7:30 PM so there was nothing to worry about.

I hung up, but started to get more nervous. Tim and I headed down to the dining car for breakfast, which was also a sad meal. There was only one choice - scrambled eggs - and it came with a hamburger bun and some very, very sad looking potatoes. Tim and I tossed our scrambled eggs onto our hamburgers buns, added some ketchup, and made little sandwiches.

We headed back to the sleeper, and I called AGR back to see if we could switch to the Friday train. That way we wouldn't have to stress about heading home in coach if we missed the train tonight. Unfortunately, amtrak had at this point blocked off all rooms and seats on the train for tomorrow. They often do this when they are misconnects because they want to hold them for the passengers - like us - who might be missing their original connection. So now we have nothing left to do but keep our fingers crossed, hope and pray that we get to to Chicago by 9:15ish to make our connection.

We arrived into Minneapolis about 12:15 pm, and I ran into the station to print out our tickets for tonight's journey. It is only about an 8 hour journey from MSP to CHI, so when we pulled out of the station at 12:45, I was feeling pretty good about our prospects for making our connection.

However, we have had some signal problems and we had to wait for a drawbridge at one point, so we seem to be slowly losing time on our way into Chicago. The conductor just said that her best guess is that we would arrive in Chicago between 9 and 9:30 PM.

Emergency rations on the train for lunch

For lunch, again everyone on the train was treated to a complimentary meal. They had to dig deep and bust out the canned chicken stew over rice and rolls with butter. It was perhaps one of the most disgusting things I have seen in my life. What was so frustrating about the food is that I know they needed to feed everyone, but as sleeper passengers, the meals were included in the cost of our tickets. These emergency rations - including singular eggs on hamburger buns for breakfast and gruel for lunch - were not what we paid for.

In any case, we are now in Wisconsin and we will have a better idea of what time we will arrive in Chicago a little later. Here is a screenshot of our train status from amtrak.com:

Freight Derailment & Glasgow

On the way into Havre, I had the train scanner on and noticed that the engineer said to the conductor that some "cars were on fire" just east of Glasgow, MT. We continued our way to Glasgow, MT, where we stopped at about 5 PM on Tuesday. The conductor let us know that we were going to be here for quite some time, and estimated that the delay would be 12 hours at a minimum.

The bustling downtown of Glasgow, MT

Apparently 16-17 freight cars derailed, and there were some hazardous materials on board that caused a fire go large that even the road was shut down. So we went and had our previously scheduled dinner in the diner, polished off a bottle of wine that we won at the wine and cheese tasting earlier that afternoon, and headed back to our room to sleep the night away. Folks, I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to just go back to our compartment and lie down.

Bottle of Wine from Wine Tasting

I woke up at 6 am to find us still stopped in Glasgow. Fun times! I took a shower, got dressed, and headed down to the dining car. Luckily they were serving away, so I got the last order of the railroad french toast and some regular sausage. Two cups of coffee, too!

After Tim showered, we headed off to walk around the bustling metropolis of Glasgow. Let's just say that I am pretty sure we can all be very thankful that we don't live in a town this small. Tim missed breakfast because he was sleeping, so we stopped at McDonalds for an iced coffee. It took 30 minutes to get his iced coffee and sausage mcmuffin because they were totally overwhelmed. We also saw a Mennonite family there.

Now we are back on the train, and have been stopped in Glasgow for approximately 18 hours. They have buses coming to take us around the derailment and to the train that was headed to Seattle that is on the other side of the derailment. We will then switch trains - the one on the East side will take us back to Chicago, and our train will turn around and take the folks from the other side of the derailment back to Seattle.

So we definitely will not be having dinner this evening at the Girl and the Goat in Chicago, and I am now keeping my fingers crossed that we will be no more than 27ish hours delayed so that we can catch our train on Thursday evening back to the East Coast. Stay tuned for an update on the bus bridge!

Day 2 of the Empire Builder

Omelette of the Day at Breakfast

Since we had left the curtains to our bedroom open, we woke up when the sun came up around 5 AM. The previous night we had marveled at the spectacular scenery - first we had the Puget Sound, then we headed into the Cascades and saw beautiful mountains and forests. We also enjoyed the apple trees and fruit trees. When we woke up in the morning, I noticed a bright green river out the window. We followed this river for hours over the border of Idaho and into Montana. Once we passed the border into Montana we jumped ahead one hour into Mountain Time, and I realized that the dining car was open for breakfast.

Since we were up, we headed there in search of coffee. We were seated with an older woman who was traveling from the Seattle area to Montana to see family, and a gentleman who was a professor at Macalester College in Minnesota. Both were riding in coach and they wanted to hear all about the sleeping car. We both had the omelette of the day - with onions, peppers and cheese - accompanied by the standard amtrak burnt potatoes and biscuit. I tried the maple apple chicken sausage this time, which is an item I don't remember seeing on my cross country journey last year, and it was terrible. Like a hockey puck or a piece of paper towel. I won't be ordering that again!

Some scenery of Western Montana

After breakfast we headed back to our bedroom. Tim took a nap for about 4 hours - he said he slept terribly the night before - and I watched the scenery glide by. We passed through Glacier National Park and then the Continental Divide. At just over 5,000 feet, this pass was one of the lowest places to go through the continental divide across the entire country and also the highest point of our journey.

Izaak Walton Inn, Essex MT

After passing through all of that, the land started to flatten and we entered into the Big Sky country of eastern Montana. Let's just say that there are a lot of brown and green fields dotted with cattle as far as the eye can see in all directions.

We headed back to the dining car for an early lunch, and we were seated with a retired couple on a month long trip across the country. They had stayed in Glacier for a few days and just boarded the train on the way back to Toledo. They regaled us at lunch with their tales of their time in Glacier, Yellowstone, the Tetons and Mt. Rushmore. We all had the lunch special, which was macaroni and cheese from Beecher's Creamery at Pike Place Market. It was delicious - by far one of the best meals I have ever had on any amtrak service. We also made a reservation to attend the wine and cheese tasting later today. Now we are back in our room, watching the prairies and the small towns roll by.

Our train adventure begins!

We slept in on Monday, but unfortunately weren't able to get a late check out at the hotel. By the time we were showered and packed, it was 12 pm and time to check out. How did we sleep away the entire morning?!

Bloody Mary at Local 360

After we stored our bags at the front desk and arranged for a car to take us to the train station in the afternoon, we headed out to savor our last few hours in Seattle. We walked around downtown, visited the market (again!), and got a gift for our in-laws to thank them for watching our sweet little pug while we have been on the trip. Then we realized that we hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day, and pulled up Yelp to try to find a lunch place. Have I mentioned how much I love this app?!

We found Local 360, and I was able to make us a reservation for lunch. We walked the few blocks over there from the market, and we knew it was a good sign when there was a chalkboard at the entrance with the same quote that Tim used for his sign at the Wickenden Pub when he finished his beer card. Which reminds me, when we get home, we need to go see if our names are finally up on the wall.

In any case, Tim had a delicious bloody mary and I had a blueberry Tom Collins. Both were heavenly. This restaurant was packed, and it had a great rustic decor and very chill vibe. I had chicken and waffles for lunch, and they were better than the ones I had in Harlem that were named after Al Sharpton at Amy Ruth's. We finished off lunch with a pair of very strong cappuccinos, and then meandered our way back to the hotel.

King Street Station Interior

I had arranged for a town car to take us to the train station, which was wonderful, because it was definitely too far to walk with all of our stuff. We arrived at King Street Station about an hour before departure. This station is currently under renovation, but the newly reopened ticketing and baggage areas were beautiful. If the rest of the station looks like that when they are done, then the renovation will be well worth the small and cramped seating/waiting area that exists at the station right now. We got our tickets, and then boarded our sleeper about 20 minutes before departure.

Our sleeping car attendant greeted us warmly at the door to the train and checked our names off the list. Soon after departure, he came to the door of our bedroom to give us some champagne and to explain how everything works on the train. Shortly after we departed Seattle - on time - we rolled to a stop. I turned on my train scanner so that I could overhear the conductors, engineers and dispatchers chatting with one another. It turns out that there was a suspicious package on the tracks, although the conductor told the passengers that there were "trespassers" on the tracks and that we were also waiting for marine traffic at the Ballard Locks. In any case, we were held up for about an hour before continuing our way.

Rib Dinner

We headed to dinner at 6 pm with beautiful views of Puget Sound out the window of the dining car. We both had the rib special for dinner, accompanied by the standard amtrak roll, amtrak salad of iceberg lettuce and cherry tomatoes, and of course the powdered mashed potatoes.  The one thing I noticed is that the roll is indeed the same roll that they are currently serving on acela, which changed at some point over the winter from the previous roll. I liked the old roll better! We had dinner with a nice couple from Seattle who were heading to visit family in North Dakota. We talked about the boom that has occurred in this area due to mining and fracking.

Lounging in bedroom B of car 0831

We headed back to our bedroom after dinner and opened up our bottle of rum. Eventually we got sleepy and found our car attendant to put down the beds. He happily obliged and found us a bottle opener so we could drink a bottle of hard cider before retiring for the evening. Tim lasted about 15 minutes in the upper bunk before climbing into the bottom bunk with me. It is a good thing we have the bigger bedroom! We were actually both quite comfortable in the bottom bed, and we nodded off to sleep until we got to Spokane just after midnight.

In Spokane, the Seattle section (#8) and the Portland section (#28) combine to form one long train that continues on to Chicago together. We woke up in SPK as it got rather hot - they have to turn off the power to the cars to connect them all together, so the a/c got turned off. We also both noticed that our neighbor in bedroom C had his scanner on - and it was loudly squawking. It was actually really annoying and loud, even with earplugs in.

Once the power came back on, the noise from the vents and other train rattling tuned out our neighbor's scanner, and Tim and I both fell back asleep.

Sunday in Seattle

Sunday we woke up early to head back to Seattle. The day was cloudy and rainy again, so we didn't make it down to Dungeness Spit. Oh well, I will have to put it on my list for our next visit to the area.

We decided to take the northern ferry back to Seattle, so we drove East to Kingston. This route was a little faster, and we made it just in time for the 10:25 AM ferry. 20 minutes later we were back on land on the Eastern side of Puget Sound. We dropped off my parents at my sister's house, and headed into Seattle for our downtown adventure.

We stayed at the Alexis Hotel, which is a Kimpton, one of my favorite hotel chains. We arrived about 12 pm, and our room wasn't ready yet, so we stored our bags, dropped off the rental car, and set off in search of some Seattle beer and food.

Living Room, Alexis Hotel Room

Dining Room, Alexis Hotel Room

With the help of Yelp and google we stumbled upon the Taphouse. This place was amazing! They had over 100 beers on tap - yup - on tap, not in bottles. We both decided to start off with a beer sampler. I got the Northwest Sampler and Tim tried the local seasonal sampler. Then we switched to pints. Keeping up with the theme of the trip, I had the Snoqualmie Steam Train Porter. It was delicious! Tim had a cream ale and an ESB. With our bellies full and feeling slightly tipsy, we returned to the Hotel after walking through Pike Place Market.

It was past 3 pm (the designated check in time) when we arrived back at the hotel, so when we our room still wasn't ready, the very nice front desk attendant said she would give us an upgrade. Imagine our delight when we strolled into our ginormous suite with a living room, dining room and separate bedroom.  The room was huge - and possibly bigger than our condo in Salem! It was past 3 pm (the designated check in time) when we arrived back at the hotel, so when we our room still wasn't ready, the very nice front desk attendant said she would give us an upgrade. Imagine our delight when we strolled into our ginormous suite with a living room, dining room and separate bedroom.  The room was huge - and possibly bigger than our condo in Salem!

After a nice nap, we woke up feeling hungry and a little antsy. Tim discovered he had left his credit card at the Taphouse, so we walked back over there and then headed over to Serious Pie, a Tom Douglas restaurant. It is supposed to be some of the best pizza in Seattle, but there was a long wait for a table so we got a pizza to go.

On the way back to our hotel with the pizza, we had 3 different people ask us if they could have our leftovers. That was interesting. I would have been happy to give the food away if it was in fact leftovers, but I was feeling pretty hungry at this point! We enjoyed our pizza back in the room while watching the Hunger Games. The pizza was very good, but I do think I preferred Pagliacci's, which we had at my sister's house last week.

All in all, it was a great Seattle day.

Hurricane Ridge

Olympic Range of Mountains, Olympic National Park

The day dawned bright and sunny, so we decided to head to Hurricane Ridge, which we heard was a highlight at Olympic National Park. The drive up to Hurricane Ridge is a 17 mile ascent up the mountain. My ears popped the entire way, and when we arrived at the top, I could tell that the air was thinner. There was a gorgeous view from the top of many snow covered peaks. I believe you can see Mt Misery and Mt Deception from this vantage point. Those are such interesting names, and I keep wondering how and why they got them.

Visitor Center

We headed into the visitor center where a very nice ranger gave us the low-down on the hikes we could do from up here. There were several very short paved trails (less than one mile) from the parking lot, but we were advised that one of them was still completely covered in ice. We opted to drive about another mile down the road and do the Hurricane Hill hike. This is a 1.6 mile (each way) hike up to the top of a ridge. At the top are great mountain views.

Deer in Parking Lot at Hurricane Ridge

Before we headed down to the Hurricane Hill trail-head, we noticed a deer wandering around the parking lot. It reminded me of the elk who roam around Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone. One of the deer even jumped almost in front of a car when working our way back down the mountain on the way out! Tim decided that this was the closest he had been to a deer. I guess I need to take him back to Prudence Island to hang with some deer. :)

We had some sandwiches to fuel us before the hike, and then we hit the trail. The trail meandered through some woods, and there was some snow across the trail. The ranger told us that the 700 foot elevation change was mostly at the end, but either she was lying or we were greatly affected by the thin air - or we are just totally out of shape. :)

Hurricane Hill Trail

The hike along the ridge was great, and then we huffed and puffed our way straight up to a switchback. We saw a marmot! Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture, but it was really cute. And a little sign said that the marmots are endangered. It was a little brown mammal that came out from a burrow in the ground in an alpine meadow. The wildflowers were beautiful and we saw patches of snow all across the landscape.

In the picture of us at the top at the trail, you can see the trail we hiked up on the right side as a sort of track right in the trees. It was quite steep for much of the trail, but we felt a great sense of accomplishment at the top.

We got back to our rental house in Sequim just in time for a nap, and then headed to the Alderwood Bistro for dinner. My father had read about it online and said that it had great reviews and had wanted to go there for the entire time we were out there, so with my sister and the baby going back to Seattle for the evening, we decided to head out to dinner. The Alderwood Bistro has a great wood fired oven and they do pizzas and entrees over the flames. Plus everything is local and delicious!

For dinner we had local prawns and salad to start with a local IPA and a local stout. Everything was so good! For the entrees we had meatloaf, cedar planked salmon, local dungeness crab and steak. We topped if off with an "upside down cheesecake" that was served in a coffee mug with salted apple cider caramel. It was heavenly! And then my mom got an ice wine which she graciously shared with us.

We had an early dinner, so we returned to the house to enjoy some of the cider we had picked up yesterday at Finn River and Eagle Mount and to take advantage of the hot tub at the rental house. All in all, we had a lovely day and the weather cooperated.  I highly recommend Alderwood Bistro to anyone who happens to find themselves in Sequim. We dined in the outdoor garden, surrounded by rosebushes and ornamental artichokes.

Tomorrow we head back to Seattle. Tim has never been to Seattle, so he is super excited. Anyone have any suggestions for stuff to do? We should have a full 24 hours in Seattle before we leave on the train.

Rainy Day on the Olympic Peninsula

Plans are meant to be broken, right?

Sometime in the middle of the night, everyone in the house woke up to thunder and lightning. When we finally rolled out of bed to start our day, the house was covered in fog and we couldn't see anything out the windows. It seemed like a day to do rainy day stuff, so we scrapped our original plans and decided to head to Port Townsend for a hard cider tasting tour.

NW Cider Association

Our first top was Finn River Cider & Winery. What a fun little place! They had 3 artisan type ciders that tasted like champagne, and were made in the same manner of champagne, and then 4 ciders that were more like Magner's or Angry Orchard. They also had two dessert wines. Who knew that there were this many types of cider? My favorite variety was a black currant and lavender cider, which is a special that they just made. Apparently Sequim is also a hotbed of lavender cultivation. We bought six bottles of cider and got an awesome little tote bag specifically made for a six pack. Score!

After Finn River we headed over to Eagle Mountain, less than five miles away. Unfortunately they were out of their ginger cider, but we did try their standard hard cider, a semi-sweet, a raspberry, pear, and then also four red wines there. Their "perry" cider was the best so we bought one of those. We started to think we might need more alcohol for our train trip (we are spending 70+ hours on board), so on the way back to town we stopped at the Native American gas station & store for some booze and cigars. They also had fireworks and a casino!

After lunch, we kept hoping that the rain would let up so we could go to Dungeness spit or perhaps Hurricane Ridge, but the rain, thunder and lightning kept on coming. So far we have had over 12 hours of thunder storms. The lightning is amazing - we can see specific lightning strikes out the window right now.

My sister felt cooped up in all the house all day, so we trundled to downtown Sequim for some dinner. Let's just said we had slim pickings available for us in terms of choices with a fussy 9 week old baby, so we ended up at a random Mexican restaurant. I can't tell what is going on here with the building - is this an old grain elevator of sorts?  In any case, let's just say my mole enchiladas were underwhelming and I was pining for some Mijos taco truck.

Grain elevator, cell phone tower, or mexican restaurant?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sun comes out tomorrow, as it is our last full day on the Olympic Peninsula.

Only three days until we board the train!

Seattle to Sequim

We flew out to Seattle on Tuesday morning to spend some time with my sister and meet my niece. What a cutie she is! Here is a picture of the two of us together.  Our flight was a little scary as we almost missed our connection in Cleveland, but we made it out in one piece. After that flight, we are super excited to take the train home!

My niece

We spent the day with my sister and niece, enjoying the lovely weather in Seattle. Wednesday morning we woke up early to have coffee and pastries at Honore Bakery. We met a friend of mine, and after a delicious ham and cheese croissant, an orange scone and some nice iced americanos, we trundled off to the grocery store to get some provisions for our trip to the Olympic Peninsula. 

Our trip to the Olympic Peninsula started with a ferry ride from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride was about half an hour and the cars were loaded on by some staff that barely seemed interested in what they were doing. Tim and I got a cute picture of the Seattle skyline behind us as we pulled out of town. 

Seattle from the Ferry to Bainbridge Island

We could also see Mount Ranier to the right of the city as we pulled away. It was a little hazy and foggy, but we could see the snow covered peak. It has been such a treat to see snow covered mountains, which are not a common sight in Rhode Island.

Bainbridge has a very cute little main street, and we had lunch at the Hitchcock deli. The sandwiches were very good, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who passes through Bainbridge. We had dessert at Mora Ice Cream. 

We then continued on our way to Sequim. On the way we drove over the longest floating bridge across salt water in the world. In the 1970s part of it sank, and it took two years to rebuild it. We then continued through Port Townsend before arriving in Sequim and our rental house. From the porch on our rental house, we can see the Juan de Fuca strait and the snow capped Mt. Baker. We have also been able to see lots of deer running through the meadow in front of the porch.

Thursday we slept in, and then headed into Port Angeles. This is the biggest city in the Olympic Peninsula and was also part of the Twilight story. In fact, there are all these brochures in our rental house about going on a "Twilight tour." We are about 75 miles from Forks, where the story all takes place. After a quick drive through Port Angeles we headed into the Olympic National Park. The park is very big and takes up most of the Peninsula. It is the only place in the world with temperate rain forests, too!

Tim and I decided to do an 8 mile hike. It is a 4 mile, each way hike called the Spruce Railroad Trail. I picked it because of the name - if it has to do with a train, it must be good, right?!

Crescent Lake, Olympic National Park

The trail went along the northern edge of Lake Crescent, which was formed by glaciers. The water was bright blue and crystal clear, and the entire lake was framed by hills and mountains. It was so beautiful!

About 1.5 miles into the hike, we came upon this wooden and metal bridge. There were families jumping into the lake off the bridge. There was also a great little swimming hole on the side of the bridge. We found someone kind enough to take a picture of the two of us enjoying our hike. 

Enjoying our hike!

We continued to the end of the trail, and then turned around and made our way back to the trail head. Our 8 mile hike took about 2.5-3 hours and we had a great time.

We got nice and sweaty on our hike, and we wanted to do nothing more than jump in the beautiful crystal clear water of the lake. We hopped back in the rental car and headed over to East Beach, which was just a few miles down the road. A quick change in the car into our bathing suits, and we were enjoying the lake. We were hot, but the water was FREEZING! After just a few minutes we were nicely cooled down, and headed back to the car and back to the house to have dinner with the family.

Tomorrow we are planning on maybe heading to Hurricane Ridge, or perhaps down to the Dungeness Beach. The great thing about this peninsula is that we are right where the mountains meet the ocean, so there is a choice to see everything that one might want to see. We hope to also maybe head to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, on Saturday, or maybe do a hard cider tasting tour.

On Monday we will begin our second cross country train adventure - can't wait!