A couple of weeks ago I took a trip from Spokane, first to Seattle, and then to East Glacier before returning to Spokane. I departed on June 23rd. Because of the horrendous timekeeping of the EB, I began tracking the EASTBOUND EB of June 18th. This would be the train that would arrive (hopefully) in Chicago on the 20th and turned the next day to become the #7 I would catch in Spokane on the 23rd. #8(18) "only" arrived in Chicago about 8 hours late, enough time to get it ready for an on-time departure on the 21st. I was actually hoping it would be several hours late into Spokane so that I could make the 1 hour drive in daylight hours. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for everyone aboard 7(21) the train actually was doing well, for it, timewise. I usually get a good sense of when it will arrive by the time it gets to Havre; it looked to be less than 2 hours late into Spokane, insuring yet another dead of the night drive to Spokane. After a late dinner in Spokane, I got to the station right around the time #7 was to arrive in Spokane (3:15 AM) and continue to track its progress. It arrived in Spokane a little after 5, and we left around 5:30 AM, "only" 1:45 behind schedule. This allowed me the opportunity to see all that non-scenery of Eastern and Central Washington in daylight. I tried to doze, but had little success. I gave up around 7:15 AM and went to breakfast. I should have tried to sleep. I usually have no quarrel with AmChow but this breakfast was probably the worst meal I'd had on Amtrak. I tried the fricatta, sort of a vegetarian omelette, and it tasted like moldy alfalfa. And the croissant was disappointing, too: instead of light and flaky it was heavy, soggy, half-warm, and looked very much like a hamburger bun with a hole in it. And while I'm bitching :lol: I can also say my companions at the table weren't too scintillating either. All four of us were solo travelers, and only one said much, an older gentleman who carried on a non-sequitur monologue the whole time. I couldn't get out of the diner and back to my coach seat fast enough. The day was beautiful, and we ended up making up some time into Seattle. We ended up about an hour and 20 minutes late, acceptable by my book especially when it had been 8-9 hours late on a regular basis. My uncle from Illinois had flown into Seattle the day before and met me at King Street Station. It was my first look at the new and improved King Street Station, and while it was much better than having to avoid tripping over scaffolding, construction equipment, and workers, not to mention having to use temporary restrooms located outside the building, IMHO there is room for improvement yet.
We were staying in the Moore Hotel, just up the hill from Pike Place Market, and caught the Link Light Rail to Westlake, about 3 blocks from the hotel. I dropped my bags off and headed to what has become my favorite restaurant choice, Lowell's in Pike Place Market, for lunch. After lunch, we wandered down to the waterfront, and after some deliberation, decided to purchase a city pass. Seattle, like many other large cities, offers a ticket book with discounted tickets to many of the attractions the city has to offer. We used one of the tickets, for a harbor tour offered by Argosy Cruises. I have taken these tours several times, but they never get old. At the end of the cruise we wandered back to the hotel so I could catch up on sleep, having been up for 28 hours.
June 24 (Seattle)
On Tuesday the 24th, we used more of our tickets in the city pass book. After breakfast at Lowell's again, where I just HAD to have their dungeness crab omelette, (much better than an Amtrak fricotta :lol) we caught a city bus for the Woodland Park Zoo. It had changed a little bit since the last time I was there, not too surprising since "the last time I was there" was in 1966, when I was six years old. :lol: About all I remember from 48 years ago was a tall totem pole and GN 1246, a Great Northern class F-8 2-8-0 steam locomotive. Both were long gone. After walking around the grounds of the zoo, and seeing just about all parts of it, we headed back to our hotel. After lunch we took the monorail to the Space Needle. Like the harbor tours, I've been to the Space Needle several times but it never gets old. After spending some time there, we went down to the waterfront and met my sister, bro-in-law, niece, nephew, his wife, and their two young sons for dinner at the Crab Pot. Dining there is an experience; if you order a big combo meal they don't bother with plates. They throw the food out on the table and let everyone fend for themselves. Kinda like the way Amtrak is headed with their dining car experience.
:lol: After dinner and after a short rest at the hotel, we went back to the Space Needle, for a nighttime visit. The city pass book allows for two visits to the Space Needle within a 24 hour period and we took full advantage of it. We were able to do some trainfanning from the top of the Needle as we observed the Empire Builder arrive, only about 9 hours behind schedule. I love the view from the Space Needle during the day but like it even more so at night when everything is all lit up. Around 10 PM we returned to our hotel and got things ready for our departure the next afternoon for Glacier Park.
June 25 (Seattle + Empire Builder)
On this day, we left for Glacier Park. After a quick breakfast at Mickey D's and after wandering around Pike Place Market for awhile, we checked out of our hotel, caught a cab to King Street Station, and prepared to board the train. We had a roomette from Seattle to Glacier, and left right on time. Our SCA was Tanner, who is an excellent SCA. Very attentive, and one that shows he cares about the passengers he's attending to. Very nice, too. A great combo. He had coffee hot and ready for those wanting it, and had several huge boxes of juice available. No ice, however. He explained apologetically that after the directive not to have ice readily available, some SCAs ignored the order, and got into trouble for it. He also said that Amtrak had gotten fined a couple of times for it. As we prefer Coke and had brough several two liter bottles of it with us, he was able to secure a large bucket full of ice from the diner for us. Kudos to Tanner!
At Edmonds, we ran into an example of some rather interesting dispatching. We sat at the Edmonds station for half an hour because, according to the conductor, who was very good about announcing things, #8 was awaiting instructions from the dispatcher. Half an hour to give us instructions?? Must have been a long coffee break. :lol: At any rate, we got going again, and we settled down to enjoy the view. It was another gorgeous day. We lucked out with weather in Seattle; it was perfect the whole time we were there. Soon Elliott, the LSA, came by for dinner reservations. Elliott did a good job of keeping the dining car in order, but if he'd entered a personality contest with a cigar store Indian, the Indian would have won. He wasn't unpleasant in any way, but just was devoid of personality. We were called to dinner during our run in the Cascades Tunnel. We were seated with a man and woman from Connecticut. He was, of all things, an Amtrak ticket agent. I didn't catch the name of the city where he worked out of. I had the salmon, and it was excellent. More than made up for the lousy breakfast I'd had two days prior. And the piddly salads had TWO, count 'em, TWO grape tomatoes instead of one!!!! Don't tell John Mica that!!!! While waiting for dinner, not too far out of the east portal of the Cascades Tunnel, we glided to a stop. The announcement was made that we were waiting for a westbound freight. So, while we enjoyed the conversation with the ticket agent and his wife, and the dinner, we waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally, after about an hour and 15 minutes, the offending train passed by. Only it wasn't a freight trundlng up the grade we were waiting for......it was a 10 hour late EB. Our own TraneMan was aboard that train; thanks a lot!!! :angry: :lol: As a result, we were about 2 hours late into Leavenworth, Wenatchee, and Ephrata. With padding in the schedule between Ephrata and Spokane, pulled into Spokane less than an hour late. By this time, we'd had Tanner get our beds ready for the night.. At Spokane, I got off long enough to see if the windows on my car, which I had parked in the parking lot run by the city at the Amtrak station were still intact and make sure I hadn't got a parking ticket. Fortunately for me, the answers were yes and no. I climbed back aboard and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to sleep after that.
June 26 and beyond (to be continued)
We were staying in the Moore Hotel, just up the hill from Pike Place Market, and caught the Link Light Rail to Westlake, about 3 blocks from the hotel. I dropped my bags off and headed to what has become my favorite restaurant choice, Lowell's in Pike Place Market, for lunch. After lunch, we wandered down to the waterfront, and after some deliberation, decided to purchase a city pass. Seattle, like many other large cities, offers a ticket book with discounted tickets to many of the attractions the city has to offer. We used one of the tickets, for a harbor tour offered by Argosy Cruises. I have taken these tours several times, but they never get old. At the end of the cruise we wandered back to the hotel so I could catch up on sleep, having been up for 28 hours.
June 24 (Seattle)
On Tuesday the 24th, we used more of our tickets in the city pass book. After breakfast at Lowell's again, where I just HAD to have their dungeness crab omelette, (much better than an Amtrak fricotta :lol) we caught a city bus for the Woodland Park Zoo. It had changed a little bit since the last time I was there, not too surprising since "the last time I was there" was in 1966, when I was six years old. :lol: About all I remember from 48 years ago was a tall totem pole and GN 1246, a Great Northern class F-8 2-8-0 steam locomotive. Both were long gone. After walking around the grounds of the zoo, and seeing just about all parts of it, we headed back to our hotel. After lunch we took the monorail to the Space Needle. Like the harbor tours, I've been to the Space Needle several times but it never gets old. After spending some time there, we went down to the waterfront and met my sister, bro-in-law, niece, nephew, his wife, and their two young sons for dinner at the Crab Pot. Dining there is an experience; if you order a big combo meal they don't bother with plates. They throw the food out on the table and let everyone fend for themselves. Kinda like the way Amtrak is headed with their dining car experience.
:lol: After dinner and after a short rest at the hotel, we went back to the Space Needle, for a nighttime visit. The city pass book allows for two visits to the Space Needle within a 24 hour period and we took full advantage of it. We were able to do some trainfanning from the top of the Needle as we observed the Empire Builder arrive, only about 9 hours behind schedule. I love the view from the Space Needle during the day but like it even more so at night when everything is all lit up. Around 10 PM we returned to our hotel and got things ready for our departure the next afternoon for Glacier Park.June 25 (Seattle + Empire Builder)
On this day, we left for Glacier Park. After a quick breakfast at Mickey D's and after wandering around Pike Place Market for awhile, we checked out of our hotel, caught a cab to King Street Station, and prepared to board the train. We had a roomette from Seattle to Glacier, and left right on time. Our SCA was Tanner, who is an excellent SCA. Very attentive, and one that shows he cares about the passengers he's attending to. Very nice, too. A great combo. He had coffee hot and ready for those wanting it, and had several huge boxes of juice available. No ice, however. He explained apologetically that after the directive not to have ice readily available, some SCAs ignored the order, and got into trouble for it. He also said that Amtrak had gotten fined a couple of times for it. As we prefer Coke and had brough several two liter bottles of it with us, he was able to secure a large bucket full of ice from the diner for us. Kudos to Tanner!
At Edmonds, we ran into an example of some rather interesting dispatching. We sat at the Edmonds station for half an hour because, according to the conductor, who was very good about announcing things, #8 was awaiting instructions from the dispatcher. Half an hour to give us instructions?? Must have been a long coffee break. :lol: At any rate, we got going again, and we settled down to enjoy the view. It was another gorgeous day. We lucked out with weather in Seattle; it was perfect the whole time we were there. Soon Elliott, the LSA, came by for dinner reservations. Elliott did a good job of keeping the dining car in order, but if he'd entered a personality contest with a cigar store Indian, the Indian would have won. He wasn't unpleasant in any way, but just was devoid of personality. We were called to dinner during our run in the Cascades Tunnel. We were seated with a man and woman from Connecticut. He was, of all things, an Amtrak ticket agent. I didn't catch the name of the city where he worked out of. I had the salmon, and it was excellent. More than made up for the lousy breakfast I'd had two days prior. And the piddly salads had TWO, count 'em, TWO grape tomatoes instead of one!!!!
Don't tell John Mica that!!!! While waiting for dinner, not too far out of the east portal of the Cascades Tunnel, we glided to a stop. The announcement was made that we were waiting for a westbound freight. So, while we enjoyed the conversation with the ticket agent and his wife, and the dinner, we waited.....and waited.....and waited. Finally, after about an hour and 15 minutes, the offending train passed by. Only it wasn't a freight trundlng up the grade we were waiting for......it was a 10 hour late EB. Our own TraneMan was aboard that train; thanks a lot!!! :angry: :lol: As a result, we were about 2 hours late into Leavenworth, Wenatchee, and Ephrata. With padding in the schedule between Ephrata and Spokane, pulled into Spokane less than an hour late. By this time, we'd had Tanner get our beds ready for the night.. At Spokane, I got off long enough to see if the windows on my car, which I had parked in the parking lot run by the city at the Amtrak station were still intact and make sure I hadn't got a parking ticket. Fortunately for me, the answers were yes and no. I climbed back aboard and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to sleep after that.June 26 and beyond (to be continued)
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