Coast Starlight Day 1
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Our journey begins today when we board the Amtrak Coast Starlight for a 30 hour train trip from San Luis Obispo to Seattle. The train isn’t scheduled to leave until 3:05 PM so on this trip we didn't have to get up early, but we couldn’t sleep in too late, as we had a lot of last minute things to take care of. It was a busier morning than expected, as I kept remembering last minute things I had to do around the house before we left.
We did have a bit of a mix-up though, late in the morning Val said I’d better get ready as her friend Marsha would be here any minute to take us to the train station. I was startled as I still had to take a shower and put on my traveling clothes. I checked the time, and it was just before noon, and we weren’t supposed to leave until one; it turned out Val and I had a miscommunication and Val had given Marsha the wrong time. Val said she would call her, but just at that moment there was a knock at the door and there was Marsha. We quickly apologized and Marsha said she would run some errands and come back in an hour.
An hour later we were already to go, Marsha came back, and we were on our way to San Luis Obispo and the train station. As a thank you to Marsha, we treated her to lunch at the Bon Temps CreoleCafé, a Cajun restaurant near the train station. After lunch it was just about time for the train to arrive so we headed over to the train station only to find out the train would be twenty minutes late. Marsha wanted to stay until we left, so we sat and chatted until the train arrived. It finally arrived and Val and I said our goodbyes to Marsha and boarded the train. Thank you so much Marsh for taking us to the train station and waiting with us in the depot.
This is the first train trip for Val and I in quite a few years and we were looking forward to it. We were pretty excited as we started on our almost 30 hour journey to Seattle. We settled in and watched the scenery roll by until it was time for dinner. We are traveling in a bedroom compartment, so our meals are all included with our tickets.
Since dining car seating is limited and the tables are for four, you usually end up sharing a table with someone else. We have met some very nice and interesting people over the years on our train trips and tonight was no exception. We were seated across from two very nice young men who were traveling from Orange County to San Jose to visit some friends. We had a great conversation with them and along the way found out that one of them was the son of Mike Espy, the Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton Administration. He had some great stories to tell, but actually hadn’t even been born yet when his dad was in Washington. The conversation and food were both great and we very much enjoyed our dinner. After dinner we read for a bit and then had the attendant make up our beds. Bedtime usually comes early on the train, and we were in bed before ten. It was a great start to the first day of our trip.
Coast Starlight Day 2
Thursday, June 6, 2024
It’s usually hard to get a good night’s sleep on the train, but we both slept pretty well last night. Sleeping on the train is a little like camping out, it’s doable but there are some inconveniences and getting up in the morning is one of them. When both upper and lower beds are down, there is not much room left to move around so getting up and dressed is a little challenging. Val and I have worked out a routine where, since she sleeps in the lower berth, she gets up first and gets ready and then I get up and we put the lower berth up and I have room to get ready while she can sit on the couch which is the bed when pulled out.
That done, we decided to go the dining car and get some breakfast. Neither Val nor I are big eaters right after we get up, so we opted for a light continental breakfast that turned out to be quite good. The fresh fruit and croissants were excellent. After breakfast we returned to our room and spent the morning mostly watching the world go by from our window. It seems like that would be pretty boring, but it’s constantly changing and for me, interesting to watch. I will say though, that the constant motions of the train made us a bit drowsy, and we would doze off occasionally.
Last night’s Coast Starlight got into Seattle at five in the morning, nine hours late! I was worried about that happening to us, so I was tracking our arrival times at the various stops on the Amtrak app as we rolled along, and we seemed to be always running 15 to 25 minutes late. That’s not bad, but I sure didn’t want it to be worse, I really didn’t want to arrive in the middle of the night and then make our way to our hotel.
We decided to have a late lunch and made a reservation for 2:00 in the
dining car. Train food is not gourmet,
but we find it quite good considering it’s being prepared in a small train kitchen. Today we were seated across from a couple from Austria. They had been traveling across Canada and now were headed down to Los Angeles. We really enjoyed talking to them and hearing about there travels and home in Austria.
After our lunch, we spent the afternoon doing much the same as we had done in the morning. As we neared Seattle, we got our things together and prepared to get off the train. We arrived in Seattle just before eight in the evening, happily only four minutes late.
We got off the train and headed for the terminal, but just before we got there Val stopped and said "where’s my phone!?". She couldn’t find it, so I ran back to our car on the train and thankfully found it on the couch in our room. In the rush to get things together and off the train she had left it laying there. Disaster averted, we made our way through the station, found a cab and made it to our hotel twenty minutes later.
We had decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel for our three-night stay in Seattle and picked one called the Inn at the Market, that is right at the Pike Place Market. We also booked a water view room, so our hopes were high, but often what is advertised is not what it actually is, but this time we hit the jackpot. We had a corner room on the top floor and when we walked into the room the first thing we saw was floor-to-ceiling windows with a great view of Elliot Bay and the Seattle Harbor and skyline. The sun was going down and we watched a nice sunset as we settled in. We were both quite tired, so it wasn’t long before we called it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment