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SEA/CHI #8 The Empire Builder Up early after a short night's sleep. We have an excellent breakfast (included in the room rate)in the airy breakfast area. After breakfast I take a short nap and then it's on to King Street Station for the Empire Builder east. We check our bags at the station and take a walk (a little over 2 miles) along the water front and up into the city. While not as hilly as San Francisco, a walk in Seattle can remind you how old you are. We stop a small restaurant (City Soup)for a light lunch. The bride has chicken vegetable soup that seems more like stew than soup. I ask (nod, nod, wink, wink) if they have any New England Clam Chowder. I'm told they have a "creamy" chowder, which I order. It's as good as many and better than some I've had in Boston. As we return to the station I realize, I don't have my cell phone. We call the hotel and ask them to check our room and call us back on the bride's cell phone. They never do. It's a TracFone with about $40 left on the account. No MAJOR loss, but an inconvenience. (As Paul Harvy would say, "stick around for the rest of the story") They're redoing King Street Station, not on the scale of NOL, and when it's done it should be very nice. Right now it looks like an urban renewal project. We have the agent reissue our ALB/BOS ticked while we're here. We have coach tickets and business class reservations. When she reissues the tickets we get a $40 refund...well that'll cover the phone). While we're waiting to board a couple approach us and ask if I still have my Video camera...they were aboard the CS when Debbie made her annoucement that I left "something" in the Diner. We all get a chuckle over it and compare notes on the CS trip. We board the Empire Builder and are shown to our room (E/0830) by our sleeping car attendant Eugene. We will find Eugene a very resourceful and quite involved with inner city youth in CHI. It is now Martini time; and while Eugene is helping our fellow passengers into their accomoadations I search for ice. The being none in the sleeping car I head towards the diner. When I ask if they have any I'm rudely told NO! Back in our room, Eugene sticks his head in the door and asks if we need anything. I tell him I will be eternally grateful if he could find some ice. Almost magically he does (there'll be a little extra in the envelope for him in CHI). -A little aside: we carry some stationary and envelopes with us. When we tip the sleeping car attendant we enclose a short note tell him/her what we enjoyed and in some cases what we felt were shortcomings. We feel it makes for a little more personal touch. Aside over. The scenery along the shores of Puget Sound is beautiful...and busy with ferry traffic. We ride along level to the sound almost like we're in a boat rather than a train. About 18:30 we begin to ride through the Cascades, they're almost as beautiful as the Grand Canyon. Like "The Canyon" you have to see them to realy experience them. All the words and photos don't do them justice. At dinner we're seated with two women, Denise and Vicky (they are not traveling together). Vicky isn't very talkative, but Denise makes up for it. Cynthis is our Dining Car steward. Her servers must be new, it took nearly 35 minutes to place our orders. As we leave the diner a couple of folks at different tables ask if I've remembered my video camera. I smile and say yes. (There must be a lot of folks who connect to the EB from the CS).Around Wenatchee WA we lock it up for the night. We're running about a half hour late so far. At breakfast the next morning we're passing through White Fish MT. Our table mates are a couple from NC, they're both retired math teachers. George is our server (nominally) it's Cynthia the steward who finally serves us. I've ordered the Continental breakfast, so there was no waiting on the cook. Cynthia has her work cut out for her. She needs an Alice Wong or two. We begin to traverse Glacier Nat'l Park. The scenery is fabulous! We're heading toward Browning Mt the headquarters of the Blackfeet Indian Reseration. After breakfast we transit Essex MT site of the Isaac Walton Inn. We had lunch with Jack and Connie from Wanatchee, WA. The're on their way to MI for a family reunion. During lunch we stopped at Havre, MT. We're very close to the Canadian boarder here. There were quite a number of border patrol folks milling about the staion. Just as we begin to leave the station, the train stops. There is an announcement over the PA requesting a conductor to car twelve; there is an unauthorized passenger on board. The train starts again. We never learn who the "unautherized" passenger is. As we travel east the mountains begin to recede behind us. We paralell US 2, a two lane road on which I would not like to break down. It seems the towns (mostly wide places in the road) are about 30 miles a apart AND there ain't many signs of life between them. We later talk with some folks who've ridden their bicycles across MT on US 4...I guess I'm just a city guy at heart. We have dinner with Tim and Chris from Minneapolis, their daughter is going to England for her sophomore year in college. We're at breakfast when we arrive at MSP. It's already in the high 80's and it's not 0900 yet. Looks to be a WARM day in the windy city. Leaving MSP we ride along the shores of the Mississippi. It's quite a different rive here than from STL down to NOL. Big crowd for lunch, we had to put our names on the list...guess Cynthia hasn't whipped her staff into shape yet. Finally about 1330 after transiting Wisconsin Dell we have lunch, with Ralph and Janet the same folks we shared breakfast with. (the cyclists). Ralph is retired from Ford and Janet is a substance abuse consultant. We arrive in MKE at 1525; we're within commuting distance of CHI. We arrive CHI at 1630, less than an hour behind shedule, us that's ON TIME. Oh, and it is VERY hot in CHI. Along the way, I made a trip into the last car on the train...the sleeper behind ours to look out the rear door. I find the sleeper has been refurbished. The rooms look great, especially the lavatory surfaces. Our room looks like "Hogan's Alley" compared to these. Nest leg: CHI/ALB/BOS #48/448, Lake Shore Limited.
Posts: 83 | From: MERRIMAC,MA | Registered: Feb 2005
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