Photos here.
Empire Builder, SEA-MSP
On Thursday afternoon, 6/20, I boarded the eastbound Empire Builder (EB EB?) for the first leg of a long-anticipated (and well-deserved, if I may say so) vacation. Boarded roomette 11 of sleeper Kentucky, the first Superliner II I've seen on the EB in quite a while. It had had basic renovations done, including wood paneling, new compartment curtains, and such, but still had the old-style bathrooms.
Left Seattle on time. Lost some time in several places along the way, but got to MSP about 1:35 late. By recent EB standards, not too bad, and gave me enough time to have a leisurely breakfast.
Had my first encounter with the new dining car menu, and was mostly favorably impressed. A couple of the entrees, like the turkey shank, looked rather similar to some items that I've had on the PPC in recent months. The mahi-mahi was quite nice. The rice was a bit bland to my taste, and the salads and veggies are unchanged, alas. The gemelli pasta was well-prepared, but not really to my taste. It was evident that we had a chef who knew what they were doing -- the french toast was as good as I've ever had it on Amtrak. Yes, the food is generally the same, but good preparation makes a big difference.
But the desserts are disappointing. Everything is served in plastic cups. And while the ones I had tasted pretty good, the cheesecake and some of the other desserts are very much a step down.
As always, had good conversations with my meal companions. I had a nice breakfast with the Trails and Rails folks, who were interesting to talk to. Their presentations were read directly from a script, which was sort of disappointing.
The dining car personnel were very good; unfortunately, I didn't catch their names, although I recognized them. SCA Thuy ("Twee") was reasonably good and friendly, although she had an unfortunate tendency to make announcements telling everyone how busy she was.
MSP
In eastern ND, we could look ahead from the train and see a bunch of large and impressive thunderheads. As it turns out, they caused large storms that caused major power outages in much of Minnesota. The friends in St. Paul (well, technically Lauderdale) that I was staying with did not lose power, but a lot of other people did, and there were huge trees down in just about every block. Their cable and internet was down for almost 48 hours, and just recently came back on. Luckily, my mobile hotspot was still working.
We had some good food, and had a nice party where I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a long while. We also spent an hour or so walking around the newly-restored St. Paul Union Depot, which will definitely be a nice place to catch a train once Amtrak moves in. We also checked out the light rail and commuter rail trains, although we didn't have time to ride them. MSP has changed a lot since I lived here in the late 1970s, but many of the old landmarks have been preserved well.
Tomorrow: on to Chicago.
Empire Builder, SEA-MSP
On Thursday afternoon, 6/20, I boarded the eastbound Empire Builder (EB EB?) for the first leg of a long-anticipated (and well-deserved, if I may say so) vacation. Boarded roomette 11 of sleeper Kentucky, the first Superliner II I've seen on the EB in quite a while. It had had basic renovations done, including wood paneling, new compartment curtains, and such, but still had the old-style bathrooms.
Left Seattle on time. Lost some time in several places along the way, but got to MSP about 1:35 late. By recent EB standards, not too bad, and gave me enough time to have a leisurely breakfast.
Had my first encounter with the new dining car menu, and was mostly favorably impressed. A couple of the entrees, like the turkey shank, looked rather similar to some items that I've had on the PPC in recent months. The mahi-mahi was quite nice. The rice was a bit bland to my taste, and the salads and veggies are unchanged, alas. The gemelli pasta was well-prepared, but not really to my taste. It was evident that we had a chef who knew what they were doing -- the french toast was as good as I've ever had it on Amtrak. Yes, the food is generally the same, but good preparation makes a big difference.
But the desserts are disappointing. Everything is served in plastic cups. And while the ones I had tasted pretty good, the cheesecake and some of the other desserts are very much a step down.
As always, had good conversations with my meal companions. I had a nice breakfast with the Trails and Rails folks, who were interesting to talk to. Their presentations were read directly from a script, which was sort of disappointing.
The dining car personnel were very good; unfortunately, I didn't catch their names, although I recognized them. SCA Thuy ("Twee") was reasonably good and friendly, although she had an unfortunate tendency to make announcements telling everyone how busy she was.
MSP
In eastern ND, we could look ahead from the train and see a bunch of large and impressive thunderheads. As it turns out, they caused large storms that caused major power outages in much of Minnesota. The friends in St. Paul (well, technically Lauderdale) that I was staying with did not lose power, but a lot of other people did, and there were huge trees down in just about every block. Their cable and internet was down for almost 48 hours, and just recently came back on. Luckily, my mobile hotspot was still working.
We had some good food, and had a nice party where I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a long while. We also spent an hour or so walking around the newly-restored St. Paul Union Depot, which will definitely be a nice place to catch a train once Amtrak moves in. We also checked out the light rail and commuter rail trains, although we didn't have time to ride them. MSP has changed a lot since I lived here in the late 1970s, but many of the old landmarks have been preserved well.
Tomorrow: on to Chicago.
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