Anyway, after a smoke stop at Wenatchee, we continued on, still making good time, until the downhill run from Stevens Pass. We hit a lot of extensive trackwork, and we went several miles at 5-10 mph until we cleared it. One of the card sharks, in between bitching about poor service, was listening to his scanner and giving updates about track orders and such. The closer we got to Seattle, the more those guys bitched about the service. In one way they had a point. My experience with the dining car/lounge was pretty poor too. And the first, second, or even third time they popped off, it was funny. But by about the 98,654th time, it was old, very old. And then they started bitching about how late the train was. No sympathy there. They could have gotten on a bus in Spokane, same as I. And I had even less sympathy for them when one of them jokingly, asked Leonard if they could make a special stop for them in Monroe, a good-sized town about 20 miles east of Everett. Leonard actually laughed with them about that. These guys were booked to Seattle! They could have saved themselves considerable time by getting off at Everett. Just wanted to *****, I guess. For the one and only time on our journey west, we had to stop and wait for a freight ahead of us for about 15 minutes between Everett and Edmonds, setting up more howl from the card sharks. "We won't be there til midnight at this rate!" "We should jump out and swim, we'll get there faster!" (we were stopped right along Puget Sound at this point) and on and on......Oh well, enough of them. I'm beginning to sound just like them!!!! :lol:
We made it into Seattle at 3:30 PM, 5 hrs and 5 minutes late, having actually made up a few minutes from Spokane despite slow orders and waiting for freights. I walked to my hotel, then went down to the waterfront for dinner. Thus endeth Tuesday.
Wednesday I did the Victoria Clipper to the San Juan Islands and also did a whale watching tour. I saw whales, too, something I'd never seen before in real life without standing in front of a mirror. :lol: On the way back, the boat trip was just like Amtrak: 15 minutes into the return trip, we had to turn around, and go back to Seattle another way because there was bad weather on the route we would have taken. And we ended up 45 minutes late back to Seattle. Just like Amtrak: delays due to bad weather! :lol:
Thursday I did more touristy things: Bill Spiedel's Underground Tour, the monorail to the Space Needle and back (managed to do some trainfanning from the top of the Space Needle :lol: ), down to Pike Place Market to watch the flying fish demonstration, and down to the waterfront to eat. On the way back to my motel, it just so happened that I was walking by the pier where the Harbor Tours begin, and the last one for the day was about to begin. So at the last second I bought a ticket. This one is a cruise from the waterfront through the Ballard Locks into Lake Union, 2 1/2 hours. These are always fun, and I got to do more trainfanning (who cares about boats, canal locks, and other water-related activities)? :lol: There is a drawbridge, which the EB, Cascades, and BNSF freight trains use, that passes over the entrance to the locks. As we were in the locks, waiting for the water to rise up to the level of the lake, a BNSF train passed over the bridge. It would have been cool if we'd been a few minutes later, to actually videotape the train passing overhead as our boat cruised beneath, but it was neat anyway. And that ended Thursday.
Yesterday (Friday) I made my way back home. I walked down to King St. Station to take the Coast Starlight to Portland. Our conductor as he took my tickets commented, when he saw my Portland-Spokane ticket and knew I'd be bustituted from Portland, said I could have taken the train from Seattle, but if I have a choice, I don't like to take the same way back and forth. I like the trip from Seattle to Portland, anyway, and the Columbia Gorge is nice whether by train or bus.
Our train was full, at least the coaches (there were four coaches, plus the diner, SSL, PPC, three sleepers, transdorm,baggage, and three engines). We had assigned seating, and I got lucky enough to get a window seat. Seated next to me was a young Oriental lady. We didn't exchange any words between us the entire time (she got off at Portland too). I'm not sure how much command she had of the English language. We left (early, by my watch) amidst sun, clouds, and, in one place, a torrential downpour. At one point, we were put into the hole for a northbound Cascades) and, before we could resume, lost power. Just as the conductor came on the PA system to explain what was going on, power was restored, and we were on our way, about 25 minutes behind.
We made up time, only to lose it at extended stops at East Olympia and Kelso, for whatever reasons. I didn't know whether to have lunch in the diner or just buy something in the lounge, but the dining car steward made my mind up for me. His idea of getting lunch reservations for us in the Great Unwashed of the coach section was to practically sprint down the aisle, muttering under his breath about lunch reservations. Really made me feel wanted.
I was glad I bought stuff in the lounge, anyway. Amongst other things, I had a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich. Best food I've ever had in the lounge. We were about 45 minutes late into Vancouver, but thanks to padding, we ended up about 25 minutes late into Portland. Where I began my last leg, the dreaded bustitution...........
(to be continued)
We made it into Seattle at 3:30 PM, 5 hrs and 5 minutes late, having actually made up a few minutes from Spokane despite slow orders and waiting for freights. I walked to my hotel, then went down to the waterfront for dinner. Thus endeth Tuesday.
Wednesday I did the Victoria Clipper to the San Juan Islands and also did a whale watching tour. I saw whales, too, something I'd never seen before in real life without standing in front of a mirror. :lol: On the way back, the boat trip was just like Amtrak: 15 minutes into the return trip, we had to turn around, and go back to Seattle another way because there was bad weather on the route we would have taken. And we ended up 45 minutes late back to Seattle. Just like Amtrak: delays due to bad weather! :lol:
Thursday I did more touristy things: Bill Spiedel's Underground Tour, the monorail to the Space Needle and back (managed to do some trainfanning from the top of the Space Needle :lol: ), down to Pike Place Market to watch the flying fish demonstration, and down to the waterfront to eat. On the way back to my motel, it just so happened that I was walking by the pier where the Harbor Tours begin, and the last one for the day was about to begin. So at the last second I bought a ticket. This one is a cruise from the waterfront through the Ballard Locks into Lake Union, 2 1/2 hours. These are always fun, and I got to do more trainfanning (who cares about boats, canal locks, and other water-related activities)? :lol: There is a drawbridge, which the EB, Cascades, and BNSF freight trains use, that passes over the entrance to the locks. As we were in the locks, waiting for the water to rise up to the level of the lake, a BNSF train passed over the bridge. It would have been cool if we'd been a few minutes later, to actually videotape the train passing overhead as our boat cruised beneath, but it was neat anyway. And that ended Thursday.
Yesterday (Friday) I made my way back home. I walked down to King St. Station to take the Coast Starlight to Portland. Our conductor as he took my tickets commented, when he saw my Portland-Spokane ticket and knew I'd be bustituted from Portland, said I could have taken the train from Seattle, but if I have a choice, I don't like to take the same way back and forth. I like the trip from Seattle to Portland, anyway, and the Columbia Gorge is nice whether by train or bus.
Our train was full, at least the coaches (there were four coaches, plus the diner, SSL, PPC, three sleepers, transdorm,baggage, and three engines). We had assigned seating, and I got lucky enough to get a window seat. Seated next to me was a young Oriental lady. We didn't exchange any words between us the entire time (she got off at Portland too). I'm not sure how much command she had of the English language. We left (early, by my watch) amidst sun, clouds, and, in one place, a torrential downpour. At one point, we were put into the hole for a northbound Cascades) and, before we could resume, lost power. Just as the conductor came on the PA system to explain what was going on, power was restored, and we were on our way, about 25 minutes behind.
We made up time, only to lose it at extended stops at East Olympia and Kelso, for whatever reasons. I didn't know whether to have lunch in the diner or just buy something in the lounge, but the dining car steward made my mind up for me. His idea of getting lunch reservations for us in the Great Unwashed of the coach section was to practically sprint down the aisle, muttering under his breath about lunch reservations. Really made me feel wanted.
I was glad I bought stuff in the lounge, anyway. Amongst other things, I had a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich. Best food I've ever had in the lounge. We were about 45 minutes late into Vancouver, but thanks to padding, we ended up about 25 minutes late into Portland. Where I began my last leg, the dreaded bustitution...........(to be continued)
