Go by train!

I'm moving in to writing about the cruise now, but first I wanted to cover our ground transportation. We took Amtrak from Portland to Seattle, and then back. We used taxis between the train and the ship.

Both trips went a little differently, with different good and bad parts. On the way up there was a power line down on the tracks, and that delayed us for an hour. That was nerve-wracking, because we did not know it would be an hour. We had allowed extra time, but not knowing how much we needed was scary. Once we got into Seattle, there was also a taxi shortage, so it just kept getting scarier. Several of the people in the line were also going to the ship, so we were all working on being in the same boat.

From that point on, it went really well. Our taxi driver was great. He was telling us about Kenya and fun to talk to. There was construction and detours, but it didn't stump him too much. He actually wanted to turn off the meter so he didn't overcharge us, but it was really not necessary. Soon we were at the port. Now, I do not recommend arriving that close to departure normally, but on the plus side, everyone else had already gone through, and we had no line. Sometimes things work out.

On the way back it was the reverse. We had allowed extra time, which we totally did not need, and we wanted so much to avoid spending those extra hours at the train station. We asked if there was something earlier, and we were able to switch to one leaving in fifteen minutes. That was cutting it close, but the ticket agent was great and she got us on.

Besides the speed and luck, there were two amazing things about this. One is that these tickets were cheaper, so even though there was a change fee, I got a small refund. Also, this particular train was the Coast Starlight, and we had a park ranger on it, so you could have your National Park passports stamped and ask questions. Okay, we did not take advantage of either of those things, but it's still cool.

There are two other things I will say about taking the train. One is that the price is very comparable to the bus, and yet it is considerably nice. When I was in college I took Greyhound a lot, and it was fine, but the last time I was on it was awful. It was overbooked, and they let people stand, because people would get off at the next stop, but then more people would get on anyway, and there were broken seats, and it smelled worse, and gave you a worse view of humanity.

The other thing is that the scenery is so beautiful. I don't have great pictures because we were moving, and some of it you would see from the freeway if you were in a car or bus, but not all of it. It was a gorgeous day with the sun sparkling on the water, and it just really runs along a scenic route. I guess that only matters if you like trees and mountains and rivers and sounds and stuff.

The non-train thing that was interesting was that there was the Cinco de Mayo run blocking our way to the Portland station on departure, and I think it was the Color Run blocking streets in Seattle on the return trip. There's just always something going on for runners, isn't there? When do they train?

Oh, one more thing about the train. It is amazing how close the Tacoma station is to the Chihuly Glass Museum. I think we may have to take advantage of that sometime.