Photos

I've finally posted some photos from our trip. Photos from the days they were taken appear on their respective blog posts. You can also see some mobile photos I took with my cell phone here and here.

March 14

We woke up this morning somewhere in Ohio not far from Buffalo. Then it was just a little bit longer to Syracuse, where we made it in one piece (and immediately bought coffee).

Now we’re hanging out in Syracuse for the night with Robin, who has Internet, so I can finally update this blog. I’ll post pictures soon!

March 13

Today we pulled into Chicago around 4:00 and walked the long walk back into the station. We shoved our bags into a locker (since we were no longer fancy sleeping car patrons with free baggage storage), found where our boarding gate would be, and headed back out into the city of Chicago. We walked down Jackson Street all the way to the lake, then turned around to find the red line El so we could go to Wrigley and eat in Wrigleyville since our train didn’t leave until 10:00. Turns out this wasn’t as simple a task as we had planned. We saw elevated train tracks and so logically followed them to find our El train. No dice. We found every other color train line but red. After walking around for about an hour we finally found a map in Walgreens—which showed us that the stations we were looking for were where we had already looked. It was a little frustrating. Finally we saw the entrance to the red line ELEVATED train . . . underground.

We got on the SUBWAY to Addison, got off, took a picture of the Wrigley sign, walked around Wrigleyville at bit, then hopped back on the red line back to the city. We didn’t want to risk dinner in Wrigleyville since we wanted to be back at the station by 8:00, so I can’t make any Wrigleyville dining recommendations, but it was a cool area with a lot of options. And bleacher seating on the rooftops. Once again we forgot to take camera pictures, but you can see my mobile photo here.

Then it was back to Union Station and back to coach. When traveling coach as a couple or group I highly recommend getting to the waiting area early (like two hours early) and then getting in the waiting line as soon as it starts. We did it last night and we not only got seats together we got to choose which seats. The train left at 10:00 and we were standing in line at 9:00. Ridiculous but worth it.

We watched four or five episodes of the West Wing and then went to sleep.


Mississippi River.

March 12

So when you set your alarm clock for 7:00 a.m. in Pacific Time and switch to Mountain Time overnight, it will go off at 8:00 a.m. Not to worry; I woke up at 7:00 naturally this morning. Sleeping until 8:00 would not have been a big whoop, but we wanted to see Glacier National Park in the morning this time, which we did, while eating breakfast. We sat with an Amtrak employee who we believe was a quality assurance or customer service person. Not sure. Either way, she was nice. She likes grits and lives in Seattle and has a little dog who doesn’t like the snow. Seattle had a hard winter, as did Portland we hear.

Between breakfast and lunch I got a lot of work done. We got out to walk in Shelby, Montana, mostly to say we had been in Shelby, Montana. This is where our breakfast mate was getting off and hoping her shoes were appropriate. We went to lunch late and so ended up eating without company. So we had to talk to each other. Yes, our day today is a bit focused on meals, but it is what gets us away from our room (and reading). Luckily it’s seven cars away, which makes us walk and get off our butts. They let me have the macaroni and cheese off of the kids menu for lunch. It came with potato chips. It was awesome.

At 3:00 today we had another wine and cheese tasting. It was the same wine and cheese as offered on the way west, but still great nonetheless. (Minnesota cheese and Washington wine.) However, during this particular tasting, trivia was played for which we could win bottles of wine. Tim and I each won one. Luckily we shared a bottle at dinner tonight, and are now working on the other. At the wine tasting we sat with a community organizer originally from Ithaca (!) and a man who lives in Washington going to North Dakota to visit his parents, his mother suffering from dementia; he and his five brothers were taking turns visiting. At dinner we sat with a woman from New Zealand. She lives in Oregon now with her American husband. She’s meeting him in Chicago. She likes Oregon. She had some of our shiraz.

We’re now in Central Time again, and will be until Chicago. I’m looking forward to seeing Wrigley, but not really looking forward to sitting in coach again. Hopefully we can sit together.

Montana farm.




Montana mountains.

Sunset on the snow.




Sunset on the tracks.

March 11

Today began early, before the sun came up, to catch our little bus to Corvallis. We were actually joined by another person at 5:45 a.m. this morning, which surprised me. The Greyhound from Corvallis to Portland was packed, as Greyhounds always seem to be no matter where they are going. No one talked loudly on the phone or had BO or too much perfume—or watched movies or listened to their headphones too loud—so we got some reading done and even napped a little.

We got into Portland at about 10:00 a.m., and our train didn’t board until 4:00 p.m., so we had a lot of time to spend in the city. It was a clear, sunny day, probably midforties. We walked up to the rose garden, about two and half miles from the train station and mostly uphill. The roses weren’t in bloom of course, but the walk up the hill was worth it for the view of the city and Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Hood in the distance. Then we ate lunch at the Portland City Grill on the 30th floor, where we also had a great view of Portland. Sit in the lounge. We realized when we got back to the train station that even though we had our camera with us, we did not take any pictures of Portland. I took photos with my cell phone, though, which you can see here.

Now it’s dark in Washington, just past twilight, and we’re riding along the Columbia River. The green of the trees here in the northwest is the green trees should be everywhere. I love that we’re surrounded by evergreens. Cloudy weather is so much easier to handle when the trees aren’t gray and bare. We’re waiting to see if any stars come out.




Columbia River.




Washington evergreens.





Washington mountain.





Good moon rising.

March 10

This morning we woke up around 7:30, which 10:30 East Cost time, and after collecting muffins and bagels from the hotel lobby took a walk along the beach. It was a little windy but not too cold. We walked through historic Nye beach then onto Highway 101 to find a laundromat and place to buy an ethernet cable to get Internet at our hotel, which did not have wireless as we thought. It's not the hotel's fault; we interpreted "free Internet" to mean wireless. I needed to upload some edited files that were due before we returned, and since we learned that there really isn't any wireless available on the Empire Builder train route or readily in the Newport area we needed to buy the cable. The Pencil Pusher local office supply store was not open so we walked on to Staples. Across the street was the laundromat we sought.

We walked back to hotel, showered, gathered our dirty clothes, and headed out to the laundromat. We both worked a bit while we washed clothes for our return trip (and to get the wine out of my jeans that I spilled on the train in Montana). With us at the laundromat was an older couple with matching decorative fleece jackets. I posted the picture on Facebook.

At about 1:30 we headed across the Yaquina Bay bridge to Rogue Brewery. We took the tour, did a tasting, ate the awesome cheese soup and Kobe bacon cheeseburger, and made even more friends. It was aloha Tuesday. This was Brewery on the Bay, and it was a brewery on the bay. It was right next to the marina. Since tours didn't start until 3:00, and we got to the bay around 2:00, we took a walk around the marina to see if any boats had dirty names. We did not find any. It was a pleasurable experience nonetheless.

Once we got back from Rogue we went back to the beach and watched the sunset on the ocean. We found a sweet, fat log and popped a squat for the God show. We also saw some big red starfish in a tidal pool. We took pictures.

So we're packed up and ready to catch the shuttle bus to Corvallis at 5:45 a.m. We'll get into Portland about 9:30ish. Then we have time to wander until 4:45, when our train leaves. Portland has a metropolitan lounge for sleeper car passengers so we will be utilizing it for sure. We may have wireless at the Portland train station, but I'm not going to rely on it, so if I don't update this blog daily it's not because I forgot about you.

We really liked the Oregon coast and Newport and are a little sad to leave. The temprement of the coast fits our nature well. I'm glad we know this.

Check out my Twitter page for more up-to-date updates: http://twitter.com/tarabarnes

(Update March 28: Looking back, this was by far my favorite day. Only so many of our days are truly great days, and this was one of them. It even ended with pizza.)


Business across the street from our hotel.




Rogue Brewery tour.



Tara made a coaster that is now hanging up at the Rogue Brewery. Can you guess which one it is?



Tara watching the God show. And there was a dog running around.



Little Tara. Big ocean.



Oregon coast.



Big starfish in the water.



Big starfish on a rock.



Birds at sunset.



Seagull.



Sunset on the Pacific.

March 9

Our train managed to come in to Portland ahead of schedule, even with Daylight Savings Time. Good job conductor. So we got off at Union Station around 10:00, walked next door to the Greyhound station, bought tickets for the 12:20 bus to Newport, and then wandered Portland. We went into the Pearl District and ate cake and had coffee and chai tea at the Pearl Bakery. We changed bus at Corvallis, Oregon, where Oregon State University is located, and the train that took us to Newport was not a full Greyhound bus—it was shuttle bus. The scenery was just what I expected: dark green, hills, gray skies. I liked it. The weather moved quickly; it would pour rain, then be clear, then sleet, then snow, then clear up, all of this within an hour. It was overcast when we arrived in Newport but not raining. It didn’t rain today, really. Just a nice mist. We brought our umbrellas walking but didn’t use them.

We got to the hotel, showered and changed clothes, and then headed to the Rogue Brewery Public House. Such a good decision. Besides having good beer the food was great and the people were fun to be around. Suprisingly, it was more of a local bar than anything else, so we fit in. It was right near the docks.

By the way, even though I’m on the left coast, I know Terrell Owens is a Buffalo Bill now. Bring it on.

Sunrise on the rail yard.


Rock formation at Washington (State) train stop.

Washington mountains.

Oregon evergreens.

Pacific view from our (cheap) hotel room.