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.