Random Empire Builder Pics

Amtrak Cascades locomotive. The Cascades runs from Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC

The Empire Builder at the end of the line-King Street Station, Seattle WA

Everett WA, home of the Boeing assembly plant.

Observation car aboard the Empire Builder

We stopped in Minot, ND to change locomotives.

Seattle: December 12, 2008: Roeing and Blogging

So I was up again at 4 a.m. PST and couldn’t sleep. It was raining cats and dogs outside between snow flurries. I had planned on exploring Freemont and Ballard, two neighborhoods, but decided to stay in Belltown/Capitol Hill for the day and just chill out. I walked down 4th Avenue and turned left onto Pike and walked up to the 900 block of Pike. I skipped breakfast and chilled out with some coffee and a croissant at a local coffee shop on Pike. Seattle magazine raved about the Pike Street Fish Fry and I went in as soon as they opened. It is a small fish and chips place with about 4-5 different kinds of fried fish and veggie tempura. If you go to Seattle, you have to eat at this place. The veggie tempura was perfect with battered and deep friend string beans which brings the sweetness out. The fried catfish was great and the deep fried lemon wedge was an excellent accompaniment to it. I washed it down with a local beer and then spent a lazy afternoon reading Aravind Adiga’s “The White Tiger” at the Tully’s at Pike and Broadway.
I spent a good 3 hours there and finished the book, walked down Pike back to the hotel, and took an afternoon nap before my evening spa appointment. I had a quick dinner back at Shiro’s and they had the uni special. Uni is a sea urchin and its roe is prized and delicious. I had seen Ming Tsai do an episode of cooking with the roe. I asked for two salmon roe, two lumpfish roe, and the uni. It was bitterly cold outside and I ordered a hot sake. The uni was excellent and the sushi chef was entertaining with stories of how women in Japan dive deep to fish for them. He described the roe as sea chocolate and he was right- it has the consistency and the silkiness of milk chocolate without an overpowering fishy taste. It was served on the half uni shell and looked and tasted interesting. The salmon roe was perfect, just like Wednesday night. The sushi chef told me that they buy the salmon roe everyday at the Pike Place Fish Market. Instead of gobbling up the piece of sushi with the roe on top, I took my time picking up each egg with a chopstick and biting into it. Mmmmmmmm. Pick up salmon roe with chopstick, bite into it and savor the salty fishy taste, take a swig of hot sake, rinse and repeat!
It is said that Winston Churchill liked his martinis so dry that he never added any Vermouth in them. He prepared the martini with gin and then held his glass up in the direction of the Vermouth and acknowledged his glass to it and that was it! Shiro’s sashimi was so good that I didn’t need any soy sauce or wasabi. I picked up the piece of sashimi, acknowledged it to the soy sauce and enjoyed it.  I used the gari as a palate cleanser at the end of each piece of sushi. I finished the meal with some hot green tea and walked out into the frigid night.


I watched Chris Matthews scream on the T.V. again and then went back to Ummelina’s for my appointment. I had signed up for the Crowning Glory treatment, which was a head, neck and shoulder massage, went through the sanctuary ritual and then was escorted back by the therapist who started by massaging rosemary oil into my hair. While that was taking effect, she massaged my neck and shoulders, and then drizzled hot rosemary oil for what seemed like 5 full minutes drop by drop on my forehead as the oil soaked my head and fell to the sides onto a towel. She then wrapped my head with the towel and let it stay there for a while and when I was done I took the 7 jet shower to rinse it all off. It was a short massage but the therapist told me how she trained in Ayurveda and has a bachelor’s degree in herbal sciences.
I floated back to the hotel with a bottle of Moet Chandon, toasted the Space Needle, and enjoyed the bubbly sip by sip as I watched the Bourne Supremacy on HBO. It was a quite last night in Seattle, but a fabulous one. 

Seattle: December 11, 2008: Capitol Hill, the International District and "Simply the Best"

Obama fever and clever marketing in Capitol Hill.

I love exploring a new city and one of the best ways to do it is to get lost. I woke up today refreshed from my amazing massage and read the latest issue of Seattle magazine and DK Guide’s Seattle Top 10. I first heard of Capitol Hill when I saw CNN coverage of people going crazy in the streets (like we did in D.C.) in this part of Seattle on election night. I cannot emphasize how Democratic this city seems. I haven’t seen a single McCain/Palin poster and restaurants, book stores and other businesses have red and blue posters of Obama and Andy Warhol-style multicolored prints of JFK side by side with words like “HOPE” and “PEACE” written under them.
So I figured the best way to start exploring Capitol Hill and other Seattle neighborhoods was to start walking. I walked out of the hotel down 4th Avenue and turned left on Pine Street and walked about 8 blocks, across a highway, and was in Capitol Hill. I saw the Jimi Hendrix statue at Broadway and Pine and then walked up Broadway past the Seattle Community College to the Broadway Café for breakfast, which was recommended as a good breakfast spot by the clerk at the Walgreen’s. It was closed so I went to Julia’s café next door and was greeted by huge portraits of drag queens with slogans under them. The portrait of a drag queen impersonating Tina Turner had the slogan “Simply the Best.” LOLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!
Breakfast was a Spicy Baja Omelet, which was an omelet with pepper jack cheese and red pepper flakes topped with a spicy, lemony guacamole. One thing I have noticed about Seattle is that people take their food seriously. Everything is properly salted and spiced and the ingredients are fresh and the best. After breakfast I decided to get lost again and, grabbing a large jasmine pearls tea from the corner Peet’s, I walked down Broadway towards Pike crossing Pine and turned right on Pike, heading back towards 4th Avenue. It was a lovely walk in a hilly area as Capitol Hill merged back into Belltown.
Once I got to 4th Avenue past the glitzy mall with the Nordstrom and H&M, I turned left on 4th and walked for a good 16 blocks, mostly downhill, thankfully, to Jackson Street in the International District/Chinatown. I wanted to try the Chinese food but sushi beckoned me again. So I slipped into a sushi restaurant and was greeted by an elderly lady. I got the lunch special, which was a cold noodle salad, miso soup, tuna, squid, and salmon sashimi and yellowtail maki, all washed down with some hot sake. It was excellent and I was stuffed as I walked down Jackson Street to King Street to Seattle’s Best Tea, where I was greeted by the owners’ dog and bought half a pound of Jasmine tea (not from the dog, of course!) For a change of scenery, I walked to 2nd Avenue and then walked uphill 16 blocks back to the hotel. My thighs and feet screamed bloody murder but they were in for a treat.
I had made another appointment at Ummelina’s Spa and I showed up on the dot for my massage. I told the therapist that I needed her to focus on my legs and when I told her that I had walked from Belltown to Capitol Hill to the International District and back to Belltown she must have thought I was crazy. I went through the ritual of the foot soak and the warm lavender water felt miraculous to my poor barking dogs! This time around, I took the 7 jet shower first, with the same cucumber scented body wash I used the day before, and I almost drifted off to sleep while I waited for the therapist in the massage room. She was a different therapist and used deeper massage techniques, which were excellent for my battered legs and shoulders. I tried the bergamot massage oil the first day but today I tried the calming lavender oil. Every few minutes during the massage she would spray a lavender mist near my face so I could inhale the calming scent as part of the aromatherapy. I went through the same gong ritual as the day before when I finished, got dressed and went back to the hotel to relax and took a nap as I watched Chris Matthews screaming on the T.V. for a bit, and went to Wild Ginger for dinner.
One of the hottest restaurants in town, Wild Ginger is an Asian seafood place that focuses on fresh ingredients. There were no tables available so I got a seat at the bar for dinner. I started with a Wild Ginger martini. The bartender told me that he cuts ginger up into one inch cubes, plops them into a bottle of Stoli, leaves it there for a month and then makes martinis with it. When he made my martini I could still see the pieces of ginger in the bottle. Now, it doesn’t sound too appetizing, does it? It is a strong martini but it tastes great. For dinner I had the Cantonese salmon. Fresh, just-flown-in wild Alaska salmon was steamed with a hint of ginger, salt and scallions. The salmon was done just right and was full of flavor.
I walked around admiring the Christmas decorations at the Macy’s and made it an early night plopping down on the bed, tipsy from the strong ginger martini. 

Seattle: December 10, 2008: Flying Fish, Soothed Muscles, and Buttery Roe

I checked into the hotel at 3 p.m. after lunch at the Pike Place Fish Market. This is where they throw fish around and catch it too! I had the clam chowder, which was creamy and hot on a cold day like this one and then had the mixed grill with Pacific Salmon, tiger shrimp and Dungenous crab cakes with a spicy horseradish sauce on top. Mmm so good. After lunch I browsed around the market and then went for my spa treatment at Ummelina spa. I checked in and was escorted to the changing rooms where I changed into cotton pajama-type things and a cotton top and stored all my belongings in a garment bag. I then had to ring a gong to say I was ready to enter the sanctuary. The therapist escorted me into a darkened room with candles and different scents in the air and offered me water with lemon and some herbal tea to soothe me before the treatment. I was in the room with the other people who were getting different treatments and I found I was the only man in there. No sweat. There were some ladies of a certain age getting massages and it was like a girls’ night out, in the middle of the week. A guy came along and gave me a foot soak and foot scrub with bergamot and citrus scented water. That itself did so much to take the stress off my feet.

I was then escorted into the treatment room. I lay on the massage table and was given a choice of oils-bergamot/citrus or the lavender. I chose the bergamot. The massage was great and the therapist worked on all my problem areas like my shoulders and I felt the stress melting away. It was not as rigorous as the massage I had had at the Jiva spa in Goa, but it was deep tissue and I felt like I was flying after the treatment. I then took a 7 jet shower with cucumber scented body wash and it felt like I was wrapped in a glove of hot water. Soooooo good!!!! When I was done I was escorted back into the sanctuary and given a hot pillow to place around my neck, more herbal tea and lemon water and was told I could relax until I was ready to leave. After about 20 minutes, I got dressed and floated back onto 4^th Avenue.

After the spa I didn’t want to eat anything heavy so the concierge recommended Shiro’s sushi. I thought I had had great sushi in San Francisco, but this sushi was out of this world. I had the sushi dinner, which is an assortment of different types of sushi and some sashimi with miso soup and hot sake. The hot sake really hit the spot on a cold, damp day. I had the fatty tuna sushi which tasted like butter and the sushi topped with salmon roe. The salmon roe had the right amount of salt and burst in my mouth in little buttery pops. I got talking to an aerospace engineer for Boeing (of course) sitting next to me and we were comparing the different types and sushi and sake.

I don’t recommend too much sake after a massage because you’re already floating on air and alcohol only makes you feel airborne! I floated and staggered back to the hotel, plopped on the bed, opened up the curtains and fell asleep looking at the Space Needle outside my window.

Sleepless in Seattle

Well, I finally made it to Seattle. The Empire Builder was awesome and I won a bottle of Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot mix in a trivia game we played aboard the train. Well, I won by default because the last bottle left was given to the youngest person in the room, and that was me, by about 30 years! Well, I guess there are some advantages to being 32! All is not lost!! Anyway, I blogged along the way and since I couldn't find a wireless hotspot in Minot, ND, I thought I'd post all my musings along the way. So here goes:

12/07/2008

1605 EST- we are supposed to leave now but the train’s been delayed due to mechanical problems. I’m reading Around the World in 80 Days and the more I read it, the more I feel like Phileas Fogg. Well, there’s no 20000 pounds waiting for me at the end of this journey!!!

1700 EST: We are finally underway. I tried to board the lower level car but some lady told me it was only for handicapped people. That’s not true. But, it wouldn’t be nice of me to argue. I’m on vacation, anyway. So I’ve settled into the upper level seat #28, which is still very spacious. Wonder what’s for dinner. We were delayed because there was a problem between the dining car and one of the sleeper coaches. Oh well, the train’s moving and NOTRE VOYAGE COMMENCE!!!!!!

1732 EST: approaching Rockville and watching Devil Wears Prada on my laptop. That’s all!

1924 EST: had a soggy ham sandwich and some horrible wine for dinner. Off to bed and up tomorrow morning in Chicago.

12/08/2008

0845 CST: We stopped overnight in Pittsburg for some freight traffic and are now 4 hours late getting into Chicago. Yuckies, but I can still make my connection to Seattle, I hope.

1225 CST: Made my connection and sitting in the relaxing sleeping accommodations lounge at Chicago Union Station. Got some authentic hot dogs and some Jamba Juice for lunch. Gorgeous Great Hall, bigger than the one at Union Station.

12/09/2008

0935 CST: I slept like a log last night. Just as we were approaching Minneapolis we heard over the PA system “Ladies and Gentlemen we need to stop because we have just been notified by the CP dispatch that there is a cracked rail up ahead and it will take an hour to be fixed.” OK. No problem. I was busy enjoying my gigantic lamb shank with rice and vegetables and a bottle, yes a bottle, of Chardonnay from Washington State.

I am now sitting in the observation lounge and watching the Great Plains go by. I had breakfast as the train stopped in Minot, ND to change engines. I met a lady from Pasco, OR who was returning home after Thanksgiving with her father in Wisconsin. We chatted about our families and about where we came from and stuff.

12/10/2008

0400 PST somewhere in Eastern Washington State: I am up because I am still on East Coast time. Dinner last night was with a guy going home to Olympia Washington who is a part time guitar player in a band and a water conservation specialist for the city of Olympia by day. Seated next to me was a lady going back home to Seattle. I had the baked chicken which was not as good as the baked chicken I had on the California Zephyr a few weeks ago. Still, it was good when washed down with more Washington State Chardonnay. I finished dinner and went back to my room and sipped the Cab-Merlot blend I won at the wine tasting and drifted off to sleep. Patrick woke me up and made my beds so I could sleep comfortably. Patrick was awesome throughout the journey. Just like Lonny on the Zephyr, he was attentive and jovial. Amtrak sometimes gets a bad rap but it is a surprisingly well-run service and the food is not half bad. The restrooms are always clean as are the showers.

0600 PST - We seem to be entering the Cascades and they are gorgeous. Streams and mountains just like you'd see in a National Geographic magazine. Snowy pine forests and log cabins here and there finish off this beautiful picture postcard of the Pacific Northwest.

0815 PST-Patrick announced that we're now in Everett, Washington home of the mighty Boeing. The Empire Builder guide says that you can sometimes see them test flying 747 and 777s but nothing today. The train is skimming along Puget Sound and will be in Seattle proper in an hour.

1000PST-A bit delayed, but we have finally pulled into Seattle King Street Station. 3200 miles more and another Amtrak line completed. If I do the Southwest Chief from Chicago to L.A., then I have done all the cross-country lines. This Amtrak thing is really growing on me!

1100 PST-The hotel room is not ready and I was asked to check in at 3 p.m. So I walked to the famous Pike Placae fish market, had some bang up seafood in a cute restarant overlooking Elliott Bay and walked around the city a bit. OMG I LOVE this city. The gray weather agrees with me!

1300 PST- Of course, little spa whore that I am, I made an appointment at the first spa I saw. Ummelina's looks really swanky. I'm going to check into the hotel in two hours, take a hot shower and hit the spa. Can't wait!! :-)

To the Space Needle

I'm working on my 15 page balanced scorecard paper (yuck) and will probably be up all night doing it. I leave for Union station tomorrow at 1400 and board the Capitol Limited to Chicago and leave Chicago Monday morning at 1400 on the Empire Builder to Seattle arriving 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I will have my shiny new laptop with me so I will try to blog live using what little bandwidth I can find along the way. If not I'll save everything and post it when I arrive in Seattle. Off I go again..........

Kerala

I had so much fun in India on July that I am planning on going back every year. We plan to visit a new state when we go every year. We're going to India in June 2009 and will see Kerala. The plan is to stay at the Taj Kovalam (and use the Jiva spa, of course) and then stay on a houseboat in the backwaters of the Arabian Sea. Can't wait.

No rest for you, Passepartout! We're off again!!! Across America to the Space Needle!

29 Capitol Limited	Washington, DC Union Station (WAS) 4:05 pm 07-DEC-08	Chicago, IL Union Station (CHI) 8:40 am 08-DEC-08	1 Lower Level Coach Seat
7 Empire Builder	Chicago, IL Union Station (CHI) 2:15 pm 08-DEC-08	Seattle, WA (SEA) 10:20 am 10-DEC-08	1 Superliner Roomette Room: 003 Car: 731

From Sea to Shining Sea: Day 4: Aboard the California Zephyr: (10/29/2008): Nevada to San Francisco

I was up early, as I usually am, and spent the time reading in the observation car. It was too dark to see anything outside the train so I relaxed and made small talk with a San Franciscan aging hippie type English teacher we decided to name Willow Rain. We met her the previous day in the sightseer lounge where she was correcting papers on Pride and Prejudice. She was returning from her father's funeral back east and was taking a slow train to San Francisco. She told us where the good Chinese restaurants were and we talked for a bit.

We were still in Nevada and as the sun came up, we were seated for breakfast with an elderly man originally from Germany who was going home to Lake Tahoe. Becky decided to call him Fritz, after the boy in Sound of Music (go figure.) Our conversation with Fritz was awesome. We talked about politics and the anti-intellectualism that is so rampant these days. He talked about his days when he was a law student at Georgetown and his subsequent law career in Chicago.

We then bummed around the sightseer lounge for some more Nevada desert scenery and just before lunch we crossed the border into California and into the Sierra Nevadas.

Nevada Scenery

The Donner Lake area was GORGEOUS!! We saw drops of 2000 feet and pine forests for miles.

Donner Lake hidden behind the pine forests in the Sierra Nevadas

We had lunch with a mother and son going home to Oakland after living in Missouri for 5 years.
A guy going home to Martinez, CA, who we called Martinez (duh) told us what to look out for as the train went slowly through eastern California. He had done this trip many times before and was returning home after hunting deer in the Rockies with some friends.

Curators from the train museum in Sacramento were on the train explaining the scenery on the PA system. They talked about the California Gold Rush and the small towns that sprang up around the Sierra Nevadas.

We spent the afternoon talking to a Canadian guy we met in Colorado. He is a truck driver based in Vancouver who hauled a load to Granby, CO with another driver based in Granby. When he got there, the other driver fired him on the spot, gave him $500 and told him to take a train home. He was supposed to haul a load back up to Vancouver but got fired and was now on the train with us going to Sacramento to change to the Coast Starlight to Seattle and then the Cascades to Vancouver.

As we approached Sacramento, the terrain became relatively flat and then the train went through the fields and fields and just before Martinez we saw the Bay. After stopping in Martinez for a bit the train went around the Bay and, since the tracks were right next to the water, it felt like we were on a cruise.

By now the train was almost empty and all the passengers were in their rooms packing up. Dining Car Donna was sitting in a corner all smiles, relieved that the trip was over. She told me that they had one night in Emeryville and then they had to turn around and go back to Chicago!! No wonder they were not always in a good mood.

We pulled into Emeryville, CA on time at the end of the line. We had just been on a train from sea to shining sea and now had to take an Amtrak bus across the bay into Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

Becky gets down from the train after 3 days!!

The California Zephyr in Emeryville, CA--The End of the Line.

Et, NOTRE VOYAGE FINIS!!! We had just come 3219 miles by train from Washington, D.C. to Emeryville, CA.

Benny and Bjorn, ACLU guy, Willow Rain and us piled into the Amtrak bus and as we rode across the bay we saw the fog rolling in over the Golden Gate Bridge! Wowwww. :-)

Having travled to 5 continents and 15 countries this was one of the best trips I've ever taken. I think what made it great were the people we met on the train. So many different people and characters with such interesting life stories.

After we got off the bus at Fisherman's Wharf, we said bye to Benny and Bjorn and ACLU guy and hopped in a cab to the B&B, Noe's Nest.

As we walked in we were confronted with Victorian Halloween decorations straight out of the Adams' Family! We check into the View Room, which had a huge picture window overlooking Noe Valley and the Mission.

Up the next morning, I looked out onto San Francisco.

View from the View Room at Noe's Nest

From Sea to Shining Sea: Day 3: Aboard the California Zephyr (10/28/2008): Nebraska to Utah

I woke up at 4 a.m. MDT somewhere in Nebraska. I spent the next few hours reading Babycakes, the 4th in the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. Maupin writes about San Francisco in the 70s and 80s as seen by his colorful characters who live at 28 Barbary Lane, a fictional place set in Russian Hill in San Francisco. I love the characters and their stories, especially Mrs. Madrigal, the transgendered eccentric landlady. I read the books along the journey to get me in the mood for San Francisco.

We pulled into Denver at 7 a.m. MDT and stayed there until 8. Becky woke up and we went to Dining Car Donna to get seated for breakfast. We were seated with our next set of dining buddies, an elderly couple going to Grand Junction, CO, a couple we affectionately called the Butterworths. Mr. Butterworth was a train buff and Mrs. Butterworth couldn't stop talking about their travels (15 times to England.) Mr. Butterworth would lovingly reproach Mrs. Butterworth by saying "stop talking dear and finish your breakfast." Awwwww. We were served by the grumpiest waiter I have seen in my life. Becky and I decided to call him Lurch because he was in a perpetual bad mood and got irritated when Becky tried to change her order. Lurch gave Mr. Butterworth my omelette and gave me his. We laughed it off and Lurch just sulked in the corner.

After breakfast and Denver came the most beautiful part of the journey.

The train left Denver station and started climbing the Rockies. It first went through a series of sharp turns to climb the front range and when we came out through our first tunnel we saw the red rocks of the Rockies and the pine forests with 1000 foot drops. Gorgeous!!!! The rest of the day was spent ooohing and aaahing at the amazing scenery while the train trundled through Aspen, and western Colorado into Utah. The train went through Blue canyon and other gorgeous canyons. We saw wild bald eagles sitting on a branch along the Colorado River and a lone cowboy herding cattle. Lunch was a warm sandwich and we were seated with ACLU guy and a lady from Fresno who we called Raisin Crisp (because Fresno is known for its raisins.) We made small talk about the upcoming elections and Raisin Crisp told us she voted for Prop 2, to give animals bigger cages and to stop animal cruelty. ACLU guy told us about his run in with the DEA. We spent the rest of the day in the lounge car watching the absolutely gorgeous canyons, rivers, and small towns along the way as we crossed into the relatively flat terrain of Utah as darkness fell.

Leaving Denver and climbing into the front range of the Rockies

Canyons in Colorado along the way

Colorado scenery

Utah sunset

We had steak for dinner and went to bed early.

Of course, Dining Car Donna came on the PA system and screamed"HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, FOLKS. REMEMBER, TOMORROW WE WILL BE ON PACIFIC TIME, TOMORROW WE WILL BE ON PACIFIC TIME."

From Sea to Shining Sea: Day 2: Aboard the California Zephyr (10/27/2008): Chicago to Nebraska

We got on car 512 on the California Zephyr and settled into room 11. The roomette we had was a little cramped for sitting but the seats converted into comfortable beds at night. We met our car attendant Lonny who was great to us for the next two days all the way to California. He made our beds at night and left mints on the pillows and made sure we were comfortable for the journey. The train pulled out of Chicago Union Station at 2:15 p.m. and we were off to California.

Outside the sleeping car in Emeryville, CA after 3 days on a train!!

The California Zephyr is one of Amtrak's most scenic trains. I took the Adirondack from NYC to Montreal in 2003, which went along the scenic route up the Hudson River, along Lake Champlain and into Canada.

This train was gorgeous. The observation car was the best, of course. As the Zephyr trundled on through Illinois and Iowa, we saw a spectacular sunset over the cornfields of Iowa. It was cornfields for miles and miles dotted by harvesting trucks and the odd yellow meadow with black and white Holstein cows.

Nap before dinner

After sunset we went to dinner and were introduced to the second of our dramatis personae: Dining Car Donna. Donna was "THE VOICE!!!" of the dining car. She would make announcements
about reservations and admonish the whole train for coming to the dining car too early. Here were some of her jewels:

"ATTENTION, THIS IS DONNA IN THE DINING CAR. PLEASE DON'T COME TO THE DINING CAR UNTIL YOUR RESERVATION TIME IS CALLED!!! WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEAT YOU!!!!!!"

"ATTENTION, WE ARE NOW SEATING FOR LUNCH, FIRST COME FIRST SERVED ONLY!!! DISCOVERY GROUP, DISCOVERY GROUP YOU ARE FIRST!!!"

We felt like scolded children throughout our trip. :-)

When Dining Car Donna finally summoned us we were seated with two Germans, father and son, traveling from Chicago to California. Becky decided that the son had a 70s haircut like Benny from ABBA and the father looked like Stig Andersson, the producer of ABBA. So, for the rest of the trip, they were called Benny and Stig. Whenever she saw Benny, Becky simply insisted on singing "Bennaayyyyyy, Bennaaaayyyy, Bennnnayyy and the Jetttssssssssssssssssssssssssss." LOL. They were really nice and we talked about American politics and the joys of rail travel in Europe and the U.S.

Lonny had made our beds and we slept like babies, lulled by the gentle rocking of the Zephyr. Just as I was about to fall asleep, a bit tipsy from the bottle of Merlot I had at dinner, Dining Car Donna screamed "HAVE A GOOD EVENING!! PLEASE REMEMBER, WHEN YOU WAKE UP YOU WILL BE ON MOUNTAIN TIME! ONCE AGAIN, WHEN YOU WAKE UP, YOU WILL BE ON MOUNTAIN TIME!!!" like it was our fault we were going to be on Mountain Daylight Time. :-)

From Sea to Shining Sea: The Capitol Limited: Day 1 (10/26/2008)

1300 EDT. I finished my problem set for the week and spent so much time on it that when I closed my eyes, I only saw Excel rows and columns. I packed real quick-just some sweaters, jeans, toiletries and, to get me in the mood for Frisco, 4 of Maupin's Tales of the City series books (I've already read Tales, More Tales, and Further Tales.) I sent Becky a text to meet me at Union Station and off I went, with a duffel bag and a laptop bag with nothing but 3219 miles of track in front of me!

1545 EDT Becky and I got the second coach car and two lower level coach seats, which were as big and comfortable as business class airline seats. Since it was just one night, I figured we could rough it and get the sleeping accommodations for the Chicago-Emeryville leg.

1605 EDT: The Capitol Limited pulled out of Union Station, Washington D.C. Notre voyage commence!!!!

We got to talking to Dr. O, a pediatrician from Chicago interviewing for a job at Childrens' Hospital. She wanted to know about the different neighborhoods and we recommended Silver Spring.

2000 EDT: Dinner was trout with veggies and Becky had the pork. We were seated with a retiree from Philly and a freshman from Notre Dame going back to school in South Bend.

I dozed off in the comfy seat at about 10 and woke up at 0240 EDT when we stopped in Cleveland. Going back to sleep I woke up somewhere outside Chicago and stayed up till we pulled into Union Station, Chicago. Pulling into the station reminded me of that very forgettable 80s movie Silver Streak about a thriller that takes place on a long-distance train or something like that.

Dr. O suggested that we do breakfast at some place called Wishbone. Since we had sleeping accommodations on the California Zephyr, we could check into the first class lounge and store our bags while we went exploring around the city. We arrived in Chicago at around 0800 CDT and the California Zephyr was not due to leave until 1400 CDT so we had some time to kill.

The Big Bean in Chicago

As she got off the Capitol Limited, cousin Becky says "oooh where is Obama's headquarters? OOO where does Oprah live?" Dr. O was kind enough to drive us past Oprah's studios, which were on the way to Wishbone. The creamy cheddar grits and shrimp was just what the doctor ordered (sorry!!!) and hit the spot on a cold Chicago morning. All we saw all over Chicago were Obama posters! Yay!




After breakfast, Dr. O went home and we went about exploring Lake Michigan, the Magnificent Mile, some museum on elections, and a candy shop, where we bought some candy. After some Patel pictures at the shiny silver bean, we hopped a cab back to the station and relaxed in the lounge until we were ready to leave.

"TRAIN 5!!!! ALL PASSENGERS FOR TRAIN 5 PLEASE COME SEE ME!!" screamed the ticket lady. The California Zephyr was train 5 so we collected our bags, showed her our tickets, and followed her trainside to the California Zephyr.

We met many interesting people throughout our journey and didn't really know their names or didn't remember them. So we gave them all names, some less flattering than the others. The names were not meant to be mean-spirited in any way, but we had to identify them, so we did.

First on our list was ACLU guy. As we boarded our train and got into car 532, room 11, a DEA agent got on our car and conducted random bag searches. ACLU guy got upset and suggested it was profiling. When the DEA agent asked him if he was a lawyer he said "I don't have to answer that." So we assumed he worked for the ACLU and he was known as ACLU guy for the remainder of the trip all the way to Emeryville, which was also his final destination.

Flying south for the winter: Brazil

So Ed's turning the big 40 and a bunch of us are going to Sao Paulo and Bahia to celebrate in February and I get to add one more country to my list! :-)

Baltimore (BWI) Depart 5:50 am to Atlanta (ATL) Arrive 7:49 am Terminal SOUTH TERMINAL 578 mi (930 km) Duration: 1hr 59mn DL Flight: 725 3Economy/Coach Class ( 45A ), Boeing 757 Atlanta (ATL) Depart 9:50 am Terminal SOUTH TERMINAL to Sao Paulo (GRU) Arrive 10:35 pm Terminal 1 4,653 mi (7,488 km) Duration: 9hr 45mn DL Flight: 145 3Economy/Coach Class ( 43A ), Lunch, Boeing 767 Total distance: 5,231 mi (8,418 km) Total duration: 11hr 44mn (13hr 45mn with connections)