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!

2153: Acela Express First Class

So Thursday night as we were packing, someone (not me) started complaining about going to Boston before going back down to Philly. We hadn't yet printed our tickets out, so I checked out amtrak.com to see how much it would cost to switch to an earlier train. For those of you that don't know, right now there are no change fees when taking amtrak. If you change trains, the only amount that you pay is the fare differential. If you switch to a cheaper train, you get a refund, and if you take a more expensive train, you pay the difference.

I noticed that if we took the 2153, departing PVD at 6:45 am, that there would be no additional charge so off I went to the train station to swap out our tickets. In less than five minutes I was walking out of the station with two first class tickets for the 2153. Note that I kept my tickets as departing from BOS, even though we planned to board in PVD. This is so that we could receive the 750 points for the BOS - PHL segment (select city pairs). If I was just ticketed from PVD - PHL I would have saved $8 per person but I would have only received 2 points per dollar spent (so about 350 points each). It is well worth the $8 surcharge to get the city pair bonus.

Someone (not me!) insisted that we get up very early because the parking lot at the train station can fill up. By 5:45 am we left our house and were parked and at the train station in about 10 minutes. We waited in PVD until the train pulled up a few minutes early and boarded the FC car at the back of the train.

Strawberry Pancakes & Cereal and Bagel

The car was pretty empty and we were thrilled to be able to grab one of the tables with single seats facing each other on the left hand (east facing) side of the train. This is the side with the best views heading south. We had two very friendly attendants and we had our breakfast and coffee in about 10 minutes.

I had the strawberry pancakes with vegetarian sausage and T had the the cereal and bagel. We both got coffee and some melon with our breakfast.  We had an uneventful and peaceful ride down the coast, and before I knew it, we were pulling into NYP. The train cleared out and only us and one other person remained in the car.

The car filled up in NYP, and it looked like all of the single seats and many of the groups of two were filled as we continued south towards PHL. T got a bloody mary, and since it was now 10 AM, I joined him. The attendants came by offering a second round of food service, but they were still doing breakfast. I opted for just a bagel with cream cheese and so did T. They were great. The bloody's kept coming, and I ended up holding off since we weren't too far from our destination.

Bloody Mary - round 1!

The last hour went the quickest. I was nearing the end of my latest book (Dances with Dragons, book 5 in the Game of Thrones saga!) and couldn't tear myself away from it. Before I knew it, I saw the Philadelphia skyline to the left and then we were heading past the Schukyl River and the art museum and into the station. We detrained, and this was the first time in a few years that T had been to 30th Street Station. He marveled at the station and the big Solari board and then we headed out to the taxi line.

Later today T will be taking his first trip on SEPTA as we will take the Market Frankford line to the rehearsal dinner and wedding that we are attending. Our trip southbound was so comfortable and convenient. While at a barbecue last weekend I met a new woman who seemed surprised that I would take the train to Philadelphia instead of fly. The train comes out ahead when traveling from Providence to New York or Philly every time because it is just so convenient. The station is so close to our house, the parking is easy and inexpensive, and the acela is quick and comfortable. I can board the train without taking off my shoes and I enjoy the friendly staff.

Triple Points Run to Philly

I just got off the phone with amtrak to confirm my upgrade for my trip on Friday. My husband and I will be heading to Philadelphia for a wedding. Armed with my 48 hour upgrade coupons that my husband received in his Select+ packet this year, I called 1800-USA-RAIL 48 hours before the trip. The call was completed and my first class seats were obtained in less than 5 minutes on the phone, and I even received an email confirmation of the switch.

Friday morning we will get up early and take the 66 into Boston. Then we'll hang out in the Club Acela for about an hour before boarding our train to Philadelphia. The reason for this madness is a) it will ensure we can grab one of our favorite tables for two and b) its triple points this week!  National Train Day is this Saturday, and in honor of it, amtrak is offering triple points this entire week. With this trip on Friday I will receive 750 points (BOS - PHL select city pair) x 3 = 2250 + S bonus (187) + 300 (PVD - BOS) + S bonus (25) = 2,762 points. Not bad for a fun day of riding trains!

While I am super excited for this wedding, I am slightly bummed to be missing out on the train day festivities. Unfortunately I won't have time to head over to 30th Street Station to view the private varnish, sleepers and other train car displays. However, if you love trains, check out www.nationaltrainday.com  to see if there is an event in your area this Saturday, May 12, 2012.

Acela - PVD to PHL roundtrip

I rode the Acela from Providence to Philadelphia on Thursday, 2/23 to visit my family and throw a baby shower for my sister. While I was excited for the party, I was almost just as excited for another acela ride!

Thanks to some excellent friends I have made on Amtrak Unlimited, a discussion forum for railfans, I was armed with two extra upgrade coupons to First Class. I had used all mine for the year, which goes from March 1 to the end of February, so I was grateful to them for the opportunity for a free upgrade. I had one 12 hour upgrade and one 48 hour upgrade, so I decided to use the 12 hour coupon for my trip on Thursday as I figured the train would be less crowded, and use the 48 hour coupon on the Sunday return home.

I was originally booked on a 3:15 acela from BOS - PHL, which I had hoped to board in PVD at 4 PM, right after work. However, after being at work until 9 pm on both Tuesday & Wednesday, I decided to take the day off, sleep in, and go railfanning. I bought myself a coach ticket PVD - BOS so I could hang out in Boston in the Club Acela and listen to some train noise on my scanner. I arrived in PVD ready to board a train at about 11:45 north to BOS, when I noticed a  southbound acela hitting PVD at 11:56 AM. I decided to talk to the ticket agent about the possiblity of changing my tickets and just boarding the southbound train. As luck would have it, I got a super nice ticket agent who changed me to the upcoming acela without even jumping the price to the next fare bucket for me.

I almost went down to the platform as the amtrak trains almost always board from the same platform, but I noticed that the track numbers had been removed from the solari board for the next few trains. About 5 minutes before scheduled departure, they announced that we would be boarding on track 5, which is the opposite platform from where we normally board. I went down to track 5 and noticed what appeared to be a stranded acela train set just outside the station on track 1. That explains it!

Two of us boarded the First Class car, which was at the rear of the train, in PVD. I was first on and luckily snagged the only remaining single seat. I was seated backwards but that was OK because I was in a single seat! Huzzah. The car was about half full, and the pleasant attendant immediately hooked me up with a cocktail and some lunch. I had the chicken enchiladas, which were pretty cheesy and not bad. They were served on a bed of rice. The ride was smooth and on time all the way to NYP.

In NYP a few people detrained, and then the car started to get hopping. We appeared to be completely full heading south out of NYP. Sadly they also ran out of bourbon out of NYP - I didn't even get one bottle as they were out of it by the time I placed my initial drink order. How strange! But the sweet attendant apologized and gave me some crown royal, so it was all good. We arrived in PHL right on time at 4 PM.

I had a great weekend with my family - and my sister's baby shower was pretty wonderful. She was surrounded by friends and family, and I think everyone had a nice time. I called amtrak at about 46 hours ahead of departure to upgrade my reservation to first class and also change to the 2252 train which leaves PHL at 12:37 PM, as I was originally booked for the last acela of the day, which leaves PHL at 5:37 on Sundays. I had to pay an additional $50 to change trains, but it was worth it to get home a little earlier.

However, I awoke early at my friend's house on Sunday and decided to head over to 30th Street Station and try to catch the 2250 if at all possible, which leaves PHL at 10:37 AM. I also love the crew that generally works this train. I checked the amtrak app on my phone which showed the train sold out, but I figured it was worth a shot. I immediately headed to the Club Acela in PHL, which is one of the best clubs in the entire amtrak system. It is located above the tracks and has these cool elevators that you can take directly from the club to the platform. It is nice because you can avoid the riff-raff. :)

The attendant at the club was super friendly, and informed that the train was showing as sold out. However, he told me to grab a seat and he would see what he could do to put me on the 2250. No more than five minutes later, he came by with a ticket for 2250! I have no idea what he did - as my iphone was still showing the entire train as sold out - but it was awesome. The guy was super friendly, and he spoke in slightly accented English. I think he might have been European. In any case, he also didn't charge me for changing trains. Normally with amtrak there is no change fee, but you do have to pay the current/prevailing fare for the train when you change. I can't believe how lucky I was to not get charged the high bucket fare on both my way down and my return home.

Anyway, the club attendant called the elevator for us and escorted us down to the platform a few minutes before the train came in. There was just two of us boarding in PHL, and I was surprised that the FC car only appeared to be about 1/3 full. I easily snagged a single seat on the water side, but unfortunately the person behind me insisted on having the drapes closed the ENTIRE RIDE. Oh well. I have seen the scenery before.

As luck would have it, my favorite crew WAS on that day. Well, it was my favorite lead attendant - the one who mostly takes the orders and brings the food - and she was accompanied by another guy that I had seen before as well as a new attendant that they were training. She told me it was her first time on the acela and she was a little nervous - but she did very well. The attendant definitely recognized me and joked that she was going to have to restock her liquor in NYP. UH OH! Am I really that memorable? :)

I was early enough for breakfast, so I got the stuffed french toast on the way north to NYP. We arrived right on time, and after a few people detrained, it started to get a little busy int he FC car. There were many announcements made over the loud speaker by the conductor that the train was 100% sold out and that every seat would be occupied. A family of three boarded and sat at the four person table across from my single seat. The mother was complaining for about 10 minutes that she didn't want to sit with a stranger. Luckily we appeared to have two extra seats in the FC car and no stranger was subjected to her complaints. I popped on my head phones to tune her out.

They came through to take orders and I asked to get the small plate of sliders after we departed New Haven, as I was still full from the French Toast. The service was great - as always with the crew on this train - and they brought me my lunch right as the train was entering New Haven. The sliders are cute - they are literally one bite apiece - and come with some potato chips. There were three different sliders with different varieties of cheese on each one. The new FC menus this year are pretty good - but I definitely miss the salads that they had last year on almost each menu, as well as the tiramisu. The dessert now that I have had on all my trips this year has been carrot cake. It has nuts in it - way to ruin a delicious cake!

We pulled into PVD right on time, and I waved good bye to the train. My next acela trip will be next month - when I go back to PHL for a bridal shower. I am armed with upgrade coupons and counting down the days until my next trip!

I have determined that at this point I am incredibly spoiled - the only way for me to go to NY or PHL at this point is via Acela. It is comfortable and convenient.

Next train trip booked!

So I haven't been posting much lately, because I haven't really been riding the train that much. But I am so excited to report that I have now booked my next cross country train trip for July!

I will be departing Seattle - King Street Station on Monday, July 16 on the Empire Builder. That train is two nights long, and then I will arrive in Chicago. After a few hour layover in Chicago, I will depart on the Lake Shore Limited again to travel to Springfield, MA. Hopefully we are on time to Springfield because after only about an hour layover there, I will take the stub train to Wallingford, CT which is where my in-laws live. So this train will be one full day and one night shorter than my previous trip, but it is much more direct.

The best part is that again I have used my amtrak guest rewards points to pay for the entire trip. The trip is 50,000 points and I actually booked it in two parts, SEA - TOL (Toledo, OH) for a two zone redemption and TOL - WFD for a one zone connection. This was necessary because at first I didn't have enough points for the whole trip, so I booked with points the first part and paid with cash for the second part. When I had enough points, I then called AGR and switched my paid reservation to a points reservation.

Additionally, I wanted this particular routing, and for some reason when one tries to book SEA - WFD, arrow (the amtrak software) forces one to take the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, DC with a transfer to a NE regional train from DC to WFD. That is a long train ride on the regional up the coast, followed by a stub train trip from New Haven to WFD, so I was thrilled to be able to book the trip in two sections and thus achieve the routing I wanted, which means I get to ride in my private sleeper bedroom for 95% of the trip.