All Aboard: See the USA!

A little history…

Train trips are nothing new to Nigel and me. We used to catch the Amtrak train to Chicago out of either Nappanee or Waterloo. I think it was about a four hour ride. Luckily, we found out about the South Shore commuter train. Now, we drive to Dune Park (one of the stations on the line) and catch the South Shore to get to Chicago. We’ve also ridden trains several times in the UK but just for short jaunts. This post is a long one with lots of words and photos! So, grab a beverage, settle into your favorite cozy place, and come along with me!

Amtrak…

In April, 2018, Nigel and I set off on an adventure. For years, we had talked about taking a long train trip. Several years before, we’d taken Amtrak to Washington, DC. Not knowing any better, we rode Coach. The seats on Amtrak trains are larger than on a bus. But, we spent over 24 hours on trains, got lost trying to make our connection in Philadelphia, and finally made it to our hotel! We were exhausted.

A few years later, we started researching trips and found the perfect one for us. We started in Chicago, traveled to Seattle, down the coast to Los Angeles, over to New Orleans, and back to Chicago! We had a blast! The first train was the Empire Builder. The second was the Coast Starlight. Next was the Sunset Limited. And, finally, the one Nigel was most thrilled to ride was the City of New Orleans.

Room types…

We booked the Southern Rail Experience through Amtrak Vacations which is a separate entity from Amtrak, I think. With Amtrak Vacations, our hotel accommodations as well as several excursions/experiences were included in our trip. We studied the different kinds of rooms to figure out which would work best for us. There are five types of rooms including accessible rooms. You can read about the different rooms, amenities, and sizes here. We watched a lot of YouTube videos showing the different rooms. I thought I wanted a Bedroom until I saw the toilet was in the shower…which…no, nope, no way, not gonna happen! As you know, I’m not a big person nor is Nigel. We actually got out a tape measure and duct tape and laid out the size of a Roomette. It’s not big…not at all. But, it is cozy! Ultimately, we did decide on a Roomette for a couple of reasons with the biggest one being the price. The other was we didn’t intend to spend a lot of time in it. There is an observation car as well as a cafe so you can easily escape find another place to be. Just a note…your rooms lock from the inside but not the outside. We kept all valuables (like iPads and such) with us. I had a Vera Bradley bag that was perfect for that.

Perks of a room…

With the rooms, you are allowed to enter the Lounge at the train stations. Some of them have a very nice selection of munchies and drinks. Others just have packaged treats. Room status also allows you early boarding though that’s not such a great thing as your room is reserved. You also get access to showers and toilets on your car. You also have a place to store your luggage as well as a dedicated car attendant. The biggest perk is the food is free in the dining car. And, the food, my friends, is delicious! When we’d gone to Washington years before, the dining was basically those frozen meals heated up. That is not what you get on the western routes. Your food is cooked to order with a few items pre-made (like desserts). Nigel ordered a steak almost every night. I usually tried something new, but you can only do that so many times because the menu is the same for all western train routes. The desserts were tasty but nothing to write home about. Oh, and alcohol was not free.

You are probably far wiser than I am! I thought everyone on the train was doing the same thing as we were. In reality, they were all going from Point A to Point B with some or even lots of stops in between. It took me until we got to Seattle to figure that one out! We did meet a fellow, George, who was doing the same thing as us except he wasn’t going back to Chicago from New Orleans. He was going on to Washington, DC then to Chicago.

The Empire Builder…

The Empire Builder crosses the northern US, stopping in cities like Milwaukee, Fargo, Minot, East Glacier Park, Spokane, Portland, and terminates in Seattle. We were on the Empire Builder for a two nights and most of three days, if I’m remembering correctly. We left Chicago on a snowy afternoon on April 9, 2018. As we traveled west, the landscape changed form urban to rural. One thing you need to know…trains do not, as a rule, go through the nicest parts of town. The conductor or car attendant would announce how long stops were because there was absolutely no smoking on the train. In fact, during one stop, a passenger was disembarked for smoking. Nigel almost always got up and went out. I did, depending on the weather. I had packed a lightweight winter jacket so I wasn’t really very keen getting out when it was really cold.

At night, the car attendant would make up the beds for you. Most nights, we just did it ourselves after watching because those attendants are busy. The two chairs facing each other slide down into position and create a not quite twin bed. The bunk drops down from the top of the roomette. The first time I tried to get into it, I got stuck. You don’t climb up, sit up, and get arranged. You have to kind of slither into place. Once you’re in for the night, a netting is clipped into place to ensure you don’t roll out. If you notice where my carryon is in the photo…that’s where the step was to hoist myself up! I was really worried about being claustrophobic up there, but I found it really roomy and easy to get situated. I had no problems getting down in the middle of the night for biology breaks.

We passed through fields that were still snow covered and saw old telephone poles with the glass insulators. The only wildlife we saw was human. I really wish we had seen some moose or even deer. As it was April, it got dark rather early. Unfortunately, that was the case as we went through Glacier National Park. The little bit of landscape I saw before darkness fell was amazing!

In the morning of the the third day, we reached Seattle. I’d already learned the one thing Amtrak Vacations didn’t cover was transportation from train stations to hotels and vice versa. We quickly learned how to Uber! Unfortunately, our Uber driver had difficulty finding our hotel. Honestly, I would have, too, because it didn’t seem to really have a front entrance. We got lucky and were upgraded to a Hyatt House. Our suite was probably bigger than many apartments in large cities and was located at the base of the Space Needle.

We walked to Pike Place Market, missed the fish throwing, saw amazing produce, flowers and crafts, went on a boat trip around the city, and ate lunch somewhere (this was five years ago, folks). A guardian angel probably walked along with us because we just walked to and from our hotel a couple of times. I’m sure there were some streets/alleys we probably shouldn’t have gone! The next day, we went to the Chihuly Gardens and loved every minute of it (well, I did), went up in the Space Needle (which was being renovated so the restaurant was closed), and spent too short a time at MoPOP, the Museum of Pop Culture. If you’re a Star Trek fan, this is the place to be! Luckily, all of these places were right across the street from our hotel!

When we returned to the King Street Station after spending a day and half in Seattle, I was able to really look at the station. It is gorgeous! There is a compass rose made from marble tiles in the center of the Compass room. Marble abounds in this room. It was here we met Herb Eiseman. He regaled us with tales of his life. I was entranced. You can read more about that visit here. Oh, and his wife just happens to be Leatrice Eiseman, one of the people who decide the Pantone Color of the Year!

Coast Starlight…

We were both very excited about this portion of our trip. The train, the Coast Starlight, is purported to take you past ocean views you can’t see anywhere but from the train. I think we missed those! The scenery was beautiful, and the food was delicious, though we only ate lunch on this part. At one of the train stops, a historian or docent of some kind may get on and tell you a little about the history of what you’re going past. We were lucky enough to have a wonderfully interesting and intelligent man get on our train. He was born in China, emigrated to the US when he was 15 (all alone), attended a prestigious university, and majored (I think) in engineering. How do I know this guy was intelligent? He had eidetic memory aka photographic memory. He was too poor to buy books so he’d borrow them from friends or the library, read or scan through them, and et voilà, he had the book in his head. He told us many interesting things as we traveled down the coast, but that’s the one that stuck with me!

Los Angeles…

I have been in my fair share of large cities, but Los Angeles totally intimidates me. We were only there for one evening and part of a day. Our excursion called for a double decker bus ride around the city. I loved that part because I didn’t have to worry about navigating. I loved seeing old theaters, landmarks from old movies, the Hollywood sign, and snapping photos of stars’ stars! I couldn’t believe, though, how small the La Brea Tar Pits were. In all fairness, we only saw them from the top of a bus and were past them in a blink of an eye. Union Station is another gorgeous train station. It is a bit like a mini mall with stores and eateries around. We were running a bit late so we made for the Lounge where we grabbed some bottles of water and granola bars. This time, we rode on golf carts to our train car!

Sunset Limited…

OK, this train may be an ok train, but it goes through lots and lots and lots and lots of desert. We were on that train for eleventy million miles, and I swear they all looked the same! I have a friend who lives in Houston and always talks about how hot it is. Guess what? She’s not kidding! It was really hot…like sweat running down the back of my body hot! And, just a few short days before, we’d been wearing multiple layers to stay warm! We were only there for a bit, but it was long enough for me to pick up a couple of pairs of earrings from a vendor at the station. Food and room were the same as on the Empire Builder.

Now might be a good time to talk about the dining car on these trains. You select a time you want to eat for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is come during serving hours. When your time is called (and only when your time is called), you make your way to the dining car and wait at the entrance for the server to lead you to your seat. These are 2 x 2 bench seat combos like in an old time cafeteria. You and your traveling companion are seated side by side so that another couple can sit across from you. You are, basically, forced to make conversation or be extremely rude. I have to tell you that was one of the high points to the trip. We met some of the most amazing people on this trip. We ate with a minister’s wife and her son, two different couples from the UK (including one on their honeymoon), and one extremely fascinating young man. I think we ever only met one man with whom we didn’t enjoy talking.

The fascinating young man…

One morning, this young guy was seated across from us. We placed our orders and then proceeded with the small talk. Eventually, he told us his story. He had been riding his motorcycle when someone hit him and took off. Luckily, he was found, but he spent the next several weeks in a coma. At one point, he actually died. When he woke up and looked at the little whiteboards they put in hospital rooms now, it read a year later than it actually was. Someone had goofed, and this poor guy thought he’d been in a coma for over a year! He decided, when he got out of the hospital, to save up some money and then see the country before settling back down into whatever life he chose. Those are the kinds of people you might meet on a train!

The Big Easy…

I couldn’t wait to get to New Orleans! I was so excited to see this city. My parents had gone there on one of their few vacations alone. For many years, Mom had a hurricane glass from Pat O’Brien’s. We never did find it, but we did discover beignets! Oh, my goodness!!! They are delicious. The thought is making my mouth water! We spent lots of time wandering around the waterfront before our tour started. Again, this was included in our package.

You can’t go to New Orleans without visiting a cemetery or two! We stopped for a moment at one, but the one we spent the most time in was the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. We actually had a tour guide for this one. As we wound our way through the cemetery, she pointed out where some of the walls had buckled, the different types of tombs, and the tombs of the famous and infamous. You can read more here. Nigel was thrilled to see the grave of Marie Laveau. I’ve included a YouTube video of the song that made her famous to him. You’ll notice on some of the graves XXX. The tour guide said this was to mark her possible grave, but she said the actual one is the one Nigel is standing in front of. Another tomb I’m including is not presently occupied. It belongs to Nicolas Cage. Notice all the lipstick on it! It’s also engraved with the words, “Omnia Ab Uno” which mean “Everything from One.” Our tour was cut short for some reason, and we had to leave as they were closing the cemetery.

As part of that same tour, we went to the New Orleans City Park. This place is amazing! There’s a cute cafe where we probably ate beignets and drank Diet Coke! We also posed for a selfie under the McDonogh Oak. You can read more here. As we made our way back to the waterfront, we passed through lots of neighborhoods that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It was remarkable to see so little damage, but there were occasional homes still marked with those Xs on the door. I loved seeing the architecture including the shotgun houses and the vibrant colors of both homes and landscaping. After a long day in the heat, we sat by the water people watching before walking back to our hotel.

The City of New Orleans…

Nigel was thrilled to finally get to this point of the trip. He was going to ride the City of New Orleans…I can’t tell you how many times he sang that song to me before, during, and after the trip! In the video I’ve shared below, you can see a good shot of the dining car as well as scenery similar to what we saw as we left New Orleans. We didn’t change cars in Memphis, though. Oh, and that scene where the car attendant is helping the woman up the ladder into her bed…that must be very old! We spent one night on that train. Let me tell you something about sleeping on a train. I found it to be very relaxing…the slight swaying and the clickety clack of the rails. I loved it! We arrived in Chicago the next day in the afternoon, walked to the South Shore station, and headed home.

Packing…

I knew we would be experiencing a couple of different kinds of weather on this trip so I tried to pack accordingly. Although you have access to your luggage on the train, it’s a pain to get into it. So, I tried to pack strategically. I packed in layers. In other words, I packed what I was going to wear on the last day at the bottom of the bag and moved up to what I would be wearing first. Each night we were in a hotel, I would rearrange the layers. I also wrote out what I was taking and how to mix and match the items to cut down on how much I would need to pack. Some would call that a capsule wardrobe, I guess. I don’t think there was anything I didn’t wear so that was a big win for me! Skincare and makeup were in my carryon which stayed in the roomette with us.

Wrap it up, Marsha!

You know, if I got paid by the word on my blog (if I got paid period), this one post would pay for a month of groceries! I apologize for the length, but believe me when I tell you I edited it to make it shorter! I love train trips. In fact, we went back to New Orleans and over to San Antonio later that year in November. Those trips we booked ourselves through the Amtrak site. By doing that, we had to arrange our own hotels as well as any sightseeing trips. Since we’d been to New Orleans and Nigel had been to San Antonio, we felt comfortable in doing that. A year or so later, we went to the Grand Canyon and again booked through Amtrak Vacations which would be the only way I would do that because of connections and such. So, can we talk? Are you a fan of riding the rails? Have you met fascinating people on your trips (train or otherwise)? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise I do respond as quickly as possible.

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