We decided to visit Mom in Seattle for Thanksgiving but a big debate ensued on how to get there … Joel won’t fly (2 hours each way), I didn’t want to drive (13 hours each way) after multiple trips by car up to the PNW over the last year, so we thought the train (44 hours each way) might be fun/interesting. Yes, with delays, stops, transfers and a less than direct route to Seattle with a train change in Sacramento, it took us almost 2 days to get there.

Before we left I told my friends and family, in hopes of justifying the length of the trip, that a long distance train ride would be something we had never done. Well, apparently I lied! Grandpa Muecke was a train engineer.

As I was pulling together information for the blog I started looking for photos of Grandpa Muecke and lo and behold in 1968, me, Mom and Ross took the train out to visit relatives in North Dakota. HMMM don’t remember that at all but the photos do not lie! I am 6 in these photos and Ross is 3.

For our trip to Seattle I booked a private room on the Amtrak sleeper car. There was a small bathroom, a chair and table, and a couch. At night one bed dropped down from the ceiling and the couch converted into another bed. Unfortunately, due to the holiday, on one of the legs we ended up in a roomette – basically only as wide as the two seats and no private bathroom. Our train left Salt Lake City at midnight so we basically fell asleep soon after we boarded – well, at least tried to sleep! We really didn’t see much of Nevada although we were awake as we went up over Donner Pass and saw quite a bit of snow in the Sierras.

As we paid $$$ for the private room, the meals were included and they varied depending on what time we were on the train – on some of the legs we didn’t get breakfast and the others we didn’t get dinner. But the meals that we had were quite good. The dining was pretty well orchestrated and most of the meals were timed on a reservation system. The only “downside” was that, because the train was so full, we had to sit with another couple for all the lunches and dinners. As an introvert, forced socialization is not my favorite and small talk is a waste of time. With that said, I think most people were sort of shocked to have to sit with strangers, too and we did end up with a few decent conversations.

As it looks like in 1968 Dad, didn’t accompany us, I am sure Mom was a bit frazzled by dinner time!

Once we made it to Sacramento, we ended up with a 9 hour layover and I had researched ahead of time things to do. I was hoping for a sports event – Sacramento Kings? or a movie but nothing worked with our timing. What I did find was a “Dine and Paint” event. We arrived early had had a great meal. Then the instructor introduced her 12 budding artists to acrylic painting. Joel was a great sport – he was afraid that he was going to be the only guy but eventually two more showed up.

We were back on the train to Seattle and awoke the next morning to an amazing sunrise on Mt. Shasta.

Most of the rest of the trip up to Seattle was uneventful. There were a couple of scheduled “fresh air” stops where we could get out and stretch our legs for a few minutes. What we discovered was that the passenger trains are basically low priority and end up having to sit at sidings sporadically while freight and fuel trains pass by. My cousin Janet had told me that anywhere form 1 – 6 hours delay was typical. The Amtrak trains we were on were 1 – 2 hours late, each segment. But, since we weren’t on a strict timeline, it was certainly worth not having to deal with the stress of driving in inclement weather or dealing with the airport chaos! Yes, it was a very relaxing way to travel!