Finishing up my report five days after I returned home, mainly because my computer was in the shop and it's very tedious for me to try to type on my phone. 
Day 2 on the Starlight found us somehow losing an hour sitting in the Sacramento station, so we were now 1 1/2 hrs behind. I have no idea what the problem was, as I was sound asleep at the time. I awoke and took a shower at the same precise place I always seem to wake up and take a shower northbound on the CS: at Dunsmuir. I have taken four northbound trips on the CS and have awoke and showered at Dunsmuir all four times. While we had won the CS lottery with regards to the ocean view, we of course lost it with regards to viewing Mt. Shasta. I was in the parlor car by this time, with my uncle and chatting with our companions of the night before, and as I was unable to get a right hand seat, missed it. I'm told, though, it was especially pretty. We had breakfast with our two companions. I was daring again and tried the breakfast special, the breakfast burrito. It was very good! We'd made up about half an hour of time between Sacramento and Dunsmuir, and half an hour more at Klamath Falls, so we were only about 30 minutes down out of Klamath Falls. Unfortunately we lost time out of Klamath due to some mandatory inspection and due to freight traffic. At least we were stopped next to Klamath Lake, giving us something of interest to ponder while we waited. And speaking of freights, between Dunsmuir and Eugene, I saw more freights on this trip than I had the other times combined. Other than this one instance, though, we didn't have to wait for any.
We quickly lost time out of Klamath, and we were about an hour down into Chemult. The day was sunny and gorgeous, giving us great weather for sightseeing through the Oregon Cascades. At lunch, we were seated with a couple, probably in their late 50s or early 60s, from Australia. The man was originally from Germany, and he was visiting the United States for the first time ever. He and his wife had flown from Brisbane to Los Angeles, and, on a reccomendation from friends of the couple, took the train from LA to Seattle. After a week or so in Seattle, they were going to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car, and travel to some of the national parks throughout the west, including the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Canyon de Chelly. A possible trip to Yellowstone was in the cards as well. They would then return to Las Vegas and fly home. They were just amazed at the beauty of the Northwest and asked us many questions about the area and the US in general as well. They were very impressed by what they'd seen so far of our country. I had the usual, the Angus burger slathered with cheese and bacon, and it was good as usual. We continued to be about an hour late into Eugene, and made up a bit of time at both Albany and Salem. At Portland, we'd made up about half an hour, so the connection between the CS and EB was not an issue. At Portland, we lost one of our engines, as apparently the engine on the EB was DOA, so they had to borrow one of hours. Fortunately we didn't lose our one remaining engine between Portland and Seattle.
We promptly began losing time out of Portland, but still ultimately arrived in Seattle 20 minutes early. With the amount of heavy freight traffic from both the UP and BNSF the line sees, the tracks were extremely rough. We had dinner with a couple around 70, and it was interesting to say the least. They were from Los Angeles, and the man had a mouthful of sour owls look about him, and seemed unhappy with life in general. As far as I was concerned, it was soon apparent why. His wife, an otherwise pleasant, talkative woman, nagged and yanged at him about every little thing, telling him what to eat, how much to eat, criticizing about every thing he did, with the man all the while griping right back. If I had a wife like that, I' be sour too. Nonetheless, when she wasn't micromanaging every move hubby made, she was interesting to talk to. As we had with our companions from the parlor car and dinner the night before and breakfast this day, we gave the couple a tutorial about how the AGR program works. In both cases, our companions had lots of questions and lots of misconceptions, and we were able to set them straight. I think AGR ought to compensate us for our roles as AGR spokesmen! :lol:
We got into Seattle as I said 20 minutes early, caught a cab to our hotel, the Moore, and crashed. The next day, after breakfast and an early trip around Pike Place Market, we decided to ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island. I'd never been to Bainbridge other than to get off one ferry and right back on another during the 2011 gathering, and my uncle had never been on a ferry at all. We toured the shopping area on Bainbridge, which didn't do much for either of us. Upon our return to Seattle, we walked back to our hotel. On the way, we had to walk a block or two out of the way, as a several square block area had been sealed off and was crawling with cops and news media. Turns out a guy had shot a bus driver, tried to hijack a private vehicle and city maintenance truck, jumped on another bus with the idea of hijacking it, and ended up shot to death by the cops, even with passengers still on the bus. We didn't know this at the time, however. You don't see that kind of excitement in Wishram, WA! :lol:
After catching our breath at the hotel, we wandered back down to Pike Place, had lunch, and wandered around the shops and the general vicinity downtown, doing some souvenir shopping. We eventually made our way down to the Crab Pot, on the Seattle waterfront, where we met my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, his wife and their two sons for dinner. The meal was good and a good time was had by all. Afterward, we retired to our hotel. We both had to fly back home early the next morning, so we took the light rail from Westlake to the airport. We parted ways at the Alaska/Horizon airlines ticket kiosks. Just to irritate the I-hate-flying-and-anyone-who-flies crowd :lol: I will touch on a few things about the flight. Three things I'd never seen before: 1) There are two security lines at Sea-Tac, at least at the Alaska gates. One is for regular folk, and the other for premium ticket holders and for those of us on a Portland or Spokane shuttle. Our line was the shorter of the two. After finishing the TSA circus, I found a place for breakfast. The flight was on a small prop jet, and here I saw the other two things I'd never seen: one is that passengers loaded at both the front and back doors of the plane, and there was a cart for people to use for carry-ons that they didn't want to stow above their seats. Both saved a lot of time both loading and unloading the plane. The flight back to Spokane was uneventful, except I actually had a conversation with the woman seated next to me. I can go several years on planes without a real conversation. And that ended that!!
A few random ramblings: The service on the CS was great. Toni, our SCA, is very good at her job. The dining car staff was efficient if not particularly friendly, especially LSA Trisha. Nanette, in the parlor car, was of the same ilk: good and efficient at her job, but not really that friendly. On the TE part, we had the great Invisible SCA, Brad, and his tip was invisible too. The dining car staff, Chris and Thelma, were very good, if not fast. Having only two work the diner, even in the CCC, may have played a role in that. And Chris went above and beyond, allowing Jim Hudson to sit with us even though the CCC was packed and even though Jim was unable to have dinner with us. On the SL portion, again had an invisible SCA. Never did learn his name in fact. Our LSA, Veronica, whom I've seen in the parlor car, is very friendly, very upbeat, and very nice. A credit to Amtrak! She's also very young; I hope she doesn't become one of those veteran jaded Amtrak service attendants you see from time to time. And our server, C. Gamble, was very good, too. She even remembered which drinks we preferred from one day to the next! Very good employee as well. The food in most if not all cases was very good. The Mahi-Mahi in particular was excellent! My one disappointment was with the steak the first night. It wasn't thick like I remember in the past. It was thin and tough, and was about like trying to eat an old baseball glove (not that I've tried eating old baseball gloves :lol: ) The usual bland soggy vegetables were better than I remember. And they've upgraded the salads: you get two grape tomatoes instead of one! :lol:
This was a great trip. No real problems of any kind, good to excellent attendants, at least in the diner, and what time we lost on our way we eventually made up. Now I'm ready to go again next month!
I will add photos once I get my computer back again. It's still not 100% right (no sound and need my printer software back) so it goes back into the shop. Once I get it back will wade through the huge number of pictures I took and will post them at that time.
Day 2 on the Starlight found us somehow losing an hour sitting in the Sacramento station, so we were now 1 1/2 hrs behind. I have no idea what the problem was, as I was sound asleep at the time. I awoke and took a shower at the same precise place I always seem to wake up and take a shower northbound on the CS: at Dunsmuir. I have taken four northbound trips on the CS and have awoke and showered at Dunsmuir all four times. While we had won the CS lottery with regards to the ocean view, we of course lost it with regards to viewing Mt. Shasta. I was in the parlor car by this time, with my uncle and chatting with our companions of the night before, and as I was unable to get a right hand seat, missed it. I'm told, though, it was especially pretty. We had breakfast with our two companions. I was daring again and tried the breakfast special, the breakfast burrito. It was very good! We'd made up about half an hour of time between Sacramento and Dunsmuir, and half an hour more at Klamath Falls, so we were only about 30 minutes down out of Klamath Falls. Unfortunately we lost time out of Klamath due to some mandatory inspection and due to freight traffic. At least we were stopped next to Klamath Lake, giving us something of interest to ponder while we waited. And speaking of freights, between Dunsmuir and Eugene, I saw more freights on this trip than I had the other times combined. Other than this one instance, though, we didn't have to wait for any.
We quickly lost time out of Klamath, and we were about an hour down into Chemult. The day was sunny and gorgeous, giving us great weather for sightseeing through the Oregon Cascades. At lunch, we were seated with a couple, probably in their late 50s or early 60s, from Australia. The man was originally from Germany, and he was visiting the United States for the first time ever. He and his wife had flown from Brisbane to Los Angeles, and, on a reccomendation from friends of the couple, took the train from LA to Seattle. After a week or so in Seattle, they were going to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car, and travel to some of the national parks throughout the west, including the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Canyon de Chelly. A possible trip to Yellowstone was in the cards as well. They would then return to Las Vegas and fly home. They were just amazed at the beauty of the Northwest and asked us many questions about the area and the US in general as well. They were very impressed by what they'd seen so far of our country. I had the usual, the Angus burger slathered with cheese and bacon, and it was good as usual. We continued to be about an hour late into Eugene, and made up a bit of time at both Albany and Salem. At Portland, we'd made up about half an hour, so the connection between the CS and EB was not an issue. At Portland, we lost one of our engines, as apparently the engine on the EB was DOA, so they had to borrow one of hours. Fortunately we didn't lose our one remaining engine between Portland and Seattle.
We promptly began losing time out of Portland, but still ultimately arrived in Seattle 20 minutes early. With the amount of heavy freight traffic from both the UP and BNSF the line sees, the tracks were extremely rough. We had dinner with a couple around 70, and it was interesting to say the least. They were from Los Angeles, and the man had a mouthful of sour owls look about him, and seemed unhappy with life in general. As far as I was concerned, it was soon apparent why. His wife, an otherwise pleasant, talkative woman, nagged and yanged at him about every little thing, telling him what to eat, how much to eat, criticizing about every thing he did, with the man all the while griping right back. If I had a wife like that, I' be sour too.
Nonetheless, when she wasn't micromanaging every move hubby made, she was interesting to talk to. As we had with our companions from the parlor car and dinner the night before and breakfast this day, we gave the couple a tutorial about how the AGR program works. In both cases, our companions had lots of questions and lots of misconceptions, and we were able to set them straight. I think AGR ought to compensate us for our roles as AGR spokesmen! :lol:We got into Seattle as I said 20 minutes early, caught a cab to our hotel, the Moore, and crashed. The next day, after breakfast and an early trip around Pike Place Market, we decided to ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island. I'd never been to Bainbridge other than to get off one ferry and right back on another during the 2011 gathering, and my uncle had never been on a ferry at all. We toured the shopping area on Bainbridge, which didn't do much for either of us. Upon our return to Seattle, we walked back to our hotel. On the way, we had to walk a block or two out of the way, as a several square block area had been sealed off and was crawling with cops and news media. Turns out a guy had shot a bus driver, tried to hijack a private vehicle and city maintenance truck, jumped on another bus with the idea of hijacking it, and ended up shot to death by the cops, even with passengers still on the bus. We didn't know this at the time, however. You don't see that kind of excitement in Wishram, WA! :lol:
After catching our breath at the hotel, we wandered back down to Pike Place, had lunch, and wandered around the shops and the general vicinity downtown, doing some souvenir shopping. We eventually made our way down to the Crab Pot, on the Seattle waterfront, where we met my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, his wife and their two sons for dinner. The meal was good and a good time was had by all. Afterward, we retired to our hotel. We both had to fly back home early the next morning, so we took the light rail from Westlake to the airport. We parted ways at the Alaska/Horizon airlines ticket kiosks. Just to irritate the I-hate-flying-and-anyone-who-flies crowd :lol: I will touch on a few things about the flight. Three things I'd never seen before: 1) There are two security lines at Sea-Tac, at least at the Alaska gates. One is for regular folk, and the other for premium ticket holders and for those of us on a Portland or Spokane shuttle. Our line was the shorter of the two. After finishing the TSA circus, I found a place for breakfast. The flight was on a small prop jet, and here I saw the other two things I'd never seen: one is that passengers loaded at both the front and back doors of the plane, and there was a cart for people to use for carry-ons that they didn't want to stow above their seats. Both saved a lot of time both loading and unloading the plane. The flight back to Spokane was uneventful, except I actually had a conversation with the woman seated next to me. I can go several years on planes without a real conversation. And that ended that!!
A few random ramblings: The service on the CS was great. Toni, our SCA, is very good at her job. The dining car staff was efficient if not particularly friendly, especially LSA Trisha. Nanette, in the parlor car, was of the same ilk: good and efficient at her job, but not really that friendly. On the TE part, we had the great Invisible SCA, Brad, and his tip was invisible too. The dining car staff, Chris and Thelma, were very good, if not fast. Having only two work the diner, even in the CCC, may have played a role in that. And Chris went above and beyond, allowing Jim Hudson to sit with us even though the CCC was packed and even though Jim was unable to have dinner with us. On the SL portion, again had an invisible SCA. Never did learn his name in fact. Our LSA, Veronica, whom I've seen in the parlor car, is very friendly, very upbeat, and very nice. A credit to Amtrak! She's also very young; I hope she doesn't become one of those veteran jaded Amtrak service attendants you see from time to time. And our server, C. Gamble, was very good, too. She even remembered which drinks we preferred from one day to the next! Very good employee as well. The food in most if not all cases was very good. The Mahi-Mahi in particular was excellent! My one disappointment was with the steak the first night. It wasn't thick like I remember in the past. It was thin and tough, and was about like trying to eat an old baseball glove (not that I've tried eating old baseball gloves :lol: ) The usual bland soggy vegetables were better than I remember. And they've upgraded the salads: you get two grape tomatoes instead of one! :lol:
This was a great trip. No real problems of any kind, good to excellent attendants, at least in the diner, and what time we lost on our way we eventually made up. Now I'm ready to go again next month!
I will add photos once I get my computer back again. It's still not 100% right (no sound and need my printer software back) so it goes back into the shop. Once I get it back will wade through the huge number of pictures I took and will post them at that time.
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