I managed to squeeze in my annual cross-country ski trip just before everything shut down for the pandemic. Actually, I didn't do any skiing because the snow was crusty, icy, and generally beyond my current skill and comfort level, but I did snowshoe and some snow hiking wearing spikes on my boots. As usual, I rode up on the Acela the day before, rented a car in Boston, drove up to Portland, spent the night, met the rest of the group at PWM and drove up to the mountains. After the trip, I drove back to Boston, stopping in Freeport to check out LL Bean, spent the night in Boston and then rode home on the Acela. As usual, the trip report will not discuss boring stuff like railroad infrastructure, equipment and operations, but will focus on the food, as this is what seems to interest AUers most.
The Amtrak part of the trip went very well, the trains were dead on time in both directions, and the food was OK.
March 2
I have a big duffle with snowshoes, boots and other bulky winter gear, plus my skis that I need to send up as checked baggage because they won't fit into the overhead bins on the Acela. My trip was o2150n March 4, so I could have sent them up on the NER 66 that leaves on March 3, but ever since the last days of the Heritage baggage cars, when it was hit or miss about whether 66 would have a baggage car, I've dropped off my bags 2 days early. Now that I'm retired, I can come down to Penn Station in the middle of the day. Before that, I would leave them in the car in the garage, go to work in DC, and check the bags when returned from work. This was about 6 PM, so I would be competing for the attention of the baggage handler with folks traveling on 97. It was much nicer to come down in the middle of the day. No problem checking the bags, they charged me $10 for the skis, as usual. It was lunchtime, and I was a lot hungry because I got up late and didn't have breakfast. My wife was with me, and I misunderstood her and thought she didn't want to go wandering around the neighborhood to find a place. (I was thinking of the Milk and Honey on Lanvale St.) Thus, I just ducked into the Java Moon Cafe, which pretty much serves fare similar to that of your typical Northeast Regional cafe car at about the same prices. My wife was a little ticked because there was nothing she wanted to eat (Agian, I misunderstood, and thought she wasn't hungry), but I got a sandwich, which was OK, but neither of us were particularly impressed with the place. But it was kind of cool sitting at the tables and listening to the train arrival announcements.
I also upgraded my reservation to First class using one of my upgrade coupons. Used the app, worked like a charm. Of course, being only 48 hours ahead of departure, a lot of seats were taken, so I was put at a 4 seater table with a seatmate, fortunately, I had the window seat and was facing forward. Looking at the seating chart, there really weren't any better seats, so I just kept it.
March 4
My Acela 2150 leaves Baltimore at 5:30 AM, which means my Uber picked me up at about 4:50 AM. Just like old times from my working days! Arrived at Penn Station without incident, and waited about 20 minutes for the train. The departure board had the familiar roster of MARC trains running to DC between 5 and 6, and of course Acela 2150 and NER 170 to Boston and NER 67 to Newport News.
The train came in on time, and I was soon seated. I asked to wait until we left Wilmington before I got breakfast, as 5:30 is too early for me to eat.
Breakfast was "Denver Egg Bites," with sweet potato fires and a piece of Canadian bacon. Also had coffee.
We zipped through NEC south and arrived in New York on time. There we picked up a larger number of passengers than rode from the south, and two guys sat in the facing seats at my table. When the conductor came around, it turned out that one of the guys was supposed to be sitting next to me, but he already had his laptop and stuff out, so he didn't want to move. A check by the conductor quickly revealed that the seat he was in was not going to be occupied further down the line, so need to move, and I gt to ride without a seatmate, even though, of course, I had 2 guys facing me across the table.
We left NYP, passed through Queens, over the Hel... er "Heck" Gate Bridge and slowly creed from New Rochelle into New Haven, all the while running on schedule. For my second meal service, I took the fruit plate, plus another cup of coffee.
I think this is Niantic.
After the obligatory 150 mph running in Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts, we arrived in Boston dead on time. I went and retrieved my bags from the baggage dept., hauled them over to the door by the Metropolitan Lounge (I think that's what they now call it in Boston) and left them with the redcap. I then went up to the lounge, called Enterprise was waited for my car in comfort. When they called, I went down, collected the redcap, who dumped my stuff on a car, too it out to the curb with me, and helped me load it into the car. A $5 tip worth every penny.
We drove over to the Enterprise office on Dorchester Ave. I had called the day before asking for them to make an effort to be sure the SUV I rented had 4WD or all wheel drive. I have been given 2WD SUVs on previous trips, much to my annoyance when stuck at the bottom of an icy hill. They not only had an AWD SUV for me, it was a Range Rover! I had reserved something more like a RAV4, but there was no extra charge for the upgrade. Actually, I wasn't too impressed, certainly not impressed enough to actually want to buy one with my own money. Aside from the fact that I couldn't figure out how to adjust the volume on the sound system, it had a weird little dial to shift gear, I could never figure out how to get it into the lower drive gears (fotunately I didn't need to), and it requires 91 Octane (i.e. hi-test) gasoline. Damn thing cost a fortune each time I filled it up. Fuel economy was about 24 mpg.
For many years, I'd get a lobster roll for lunch at Yankee Lobster in the Boston seaport. This year, I decided to get out of town as fast as I could and look for a place along the road. A study of Google maps revealed some possibilities in Ipswich, which is a little off 95, but not too far off. I made my way to the Big Dig, then got on US 1, over the Tobin Bridge, and through the usual mess of old-style suburban sprawl. At Danvers, I stopped at a CVS to see if I could find some hand sanitizer. Big mistake, nothing available. Oh well, I'll just need to wash my hands. I made my way to Ipswich and found the Clam Box, a classic New England seafood joint and enjoyed a lobster roll and a cup of New England clam chowder.
After lunch, I didn't go right back to 95, but drove through Newburyport, Salisbury Beach and Hampton Beach before heading back to the freeway. After a short stop in the New Hampshire Liquor in Portsmouth to get cocktail hour fixings for the cabin, I entered Maine and was soon in Portland, looking over the harbor from the rooftop lounge at my hotel.
Off to dinner. First, over to the Eventide Oyster Company for some local Maine bivalves accompanied by a nice glass of Gruner Vetleiner.
Then to Scales, down the docks. Upscale seafood. Smoked mackerel to start.
Then a grilled swordfish over spinach and beans. Very well cooked and tasty, but the sauce was a bit too salty for my taste.
For dessert, the New England classic, Indian Pudding.
One of the nice things about going to Portland in March rather than July is that I had no trouble finding seats at either of these very popular places. I just showed and, and the seated me.
In any event, sated from dinner, I returned to the hotel and prepared to sleep it all off.
--more to come
The Amtrak part of the trip went very well, the trains were dead on time in both directions, and the food was OK.
March 2
I have a big duffle with snowshoes, boots and other bulky winter gear, plus my skis that I need to send up as checked baggage because they won't fit into the overhead bins on the Acela. My trip was o2150n March 4, so I could have sent them up on the NER 66 that leaves on March 3, but ever since the last days of the Heritage baggage cars, when it was hit or miss about whether 66 would have a baggage car, I've dropped off my bags 2 days early. Now that I'm retired, I can come down to Penn Station in the middle of the day. Before that, I would leave them in the car in the garage, go to work in DC, and check the bags when returned from work. This was about 6 PM, so I would be competing for the attention of the baggage handler with folks traveling on 97. It was much nicer to come down in the middle of the day. No problem checking the bags, they charged me $10 for the skis, as usual. It was lunchtime, and I was a lot hungry because I got up late and didn't have breakfast. My wife was with me, and I misunderstood her and thought she didn't want to go wandering around the neighborhood to find a place. (I was thinking of the Milk and Honey on Lanvale St.) Thus, I just ducked into the Java Moon Cafe, which pretty much serves fare similar to that of your typical Northeast Regional cafe car at about the same prices. My wife was a little ticked because there was nothing she wanted to eat (Agian, I misunderstood, and thought she wasn't hungry), but I got a sandwich, which was OK, but neither of us were particularly impressed with the place. But it was kind of cool sitting at the tables and listening to the train arrival announcements.
I also upgraded my reservation to First class using one of my upgrade coupons. Used the app, worked like a charm. Of course, being only 48 hours ahead of departure, a lot of seats were taken, so I was put at a 4 seater table with a seatmate, fortunately, I had the window seat and was facing forward. Looking at the seating chart, there really weren't any better seats, so I just kept it.
March 4
My Acela 2150 leaves Baltimore at 5:30 AM, which means my Uber picked me up at about 4:50 AM. Just like old times from my working days! Arrived at Penn Station without incident, and waited about 20 minutes for the train. The departure board had the familiar roster of MARC trains running to DC between 5 and 6, and of course Acela 2150 and NER 170 to Boston and NER 67 to Newport News.
The train came in on time, and I was soon seated. I asked to wait until we left Wilmington before I got breakfast, as 5:30 is too early for me to eat.
Breakfast was "Denver Egg Bites," with sweet potato fires and a piece of Canadian bacon. Also had coffee.
We zipped through NEC south and arrived in New York on time. There we picked up a larger number of passengers than rode from the south, and two guys sat in the facing seats at my table. When the conductor came around, it turned out that one of the guys was supposed to be sitting next to me, but he already had his laptop and stuff out, so he didn't want to move. A check by the conductor quickly revealed that the seat he was in was not going to be occupied further down the line, so need to move, and I gt to ride without a seatmate, even though, of course, I had 2 guys facing me across the table.
We left NYP, passed through Queens, over the Hel... er "Heck" Gate Bridge and slowly creed from New Rochelle into New Haven, all the while running on schedule. For my second meal service, I took the fruit plate, plus another cup of coffee.
I think this is Niantic.
After the obligatory 150 mph running in Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts, we arrived in Boston dead on time. I went and retrieved my bags from the baggage dept., hauled them over to the door by the Metropolitan Lounge (I think that's what they now call it in Boston) and left them with the redcap. I then went up to the lounge, called Enterprise was waited for my car in comfort. When they called, I went down, collected the redcap, who dumped my stuff on a car, too it out to the curb with me, and helped me load it into the car. A $5 tip worth every penny.
We drove over to the Enterprise office on Dorchester Ave. I had called the day before asking for them to make an effort to be sure the SUV I rented had 4WD or all wheel drive. I have been given 2WD SUVs on previous trips, much to my annoyance when stuck at the bottom of an icy hill. They not only had an AWD SUV for me, it was a Range Rover! I had reserved something more like a RAV4, but there was no extra charge for the upgrade. Actually, I wasn't too impressed, certainly not impressed enough to actually want to buy one with my own money. Aside from the fact that I couldn't figure out how to adjust the volume on the sound system, it had a weird little dial to shift gear, I could never figure out how to get it into the lower drive gears (fotunately I didn't need to), and it requires 91 Octane (i.e. hi-test) gasoline. Damn thing cost a fortune each time I filled it up. Fuel economy was about 24 mpg.
For many years, I'd get a lobster roll for lunch at Yankee Lobster in the Boston seaport. This year, I decided to get out of town as fast as I could and look for a place along the road. A study of Google maps revealed some possibilities in Ipswich, which is a little off 95, but not too far off. I made my way to the Big Dig, then got on US 1, over the Tobin Bridge, and through the usual mess of old-style suburban sprawl. At Danvers, I stopped at a CVS to see if I could find some hand sanitizer. Big mistake, nothing available. Oh well, I'll just need to wash my hands. I made my way to Ipswich and found the Clam Box, a classic New England seafood joint and enjoyed a lobster roll and a cup of New England clam chowder.
After lunch, I didn't go right back to 95, but drove through Newburyport, Salisbury Beach and Hampton Beach before heading back to the freeway. After a short stop in the New Hampshire Liquor in Portsmouth to get cocktail hour fixings for the cabin, I entered Maine and was soon in Portland, looking over the harbor from the rooftop lounge at my hotel.
Off to dinner. First, over to the Eventide Oyster Company for some local Maine bivalves accompanied by a nice glass of Gruner Vetleiner.
Then to Scales, down the docks. Upscale seafood. Smoked mackerel to start.
Then a grilled swordfish over spinach and beans. Very well cooked and tasty, but the sauce was a bit too salty for my taste.
For dessert, the New England classic, Indian Pudding.
One of the nice things about going to Portland in March rather than July is that I had no trouble finding seats at either of these very popular places. I just showed and, and the seated me.
In any event, sated from dinner, I returned to the hotel and prepared to sleep it all off.
--more to come