Where WhimSea Takes Us

March 2020 Seattle Trip!

For years the boy had talked about wanting to take a train trip that included sleeping on the train. In January of this year, we decided that Spring Break 2020 would be a great time to embark on a journey that focused on the train ride, with a little sightseeing thrown in for good measure. We scheduled the trip in January, little did we know what was coming our way. COVID 19.

We planned for a car to pick us up and bring us to the train station for our Thursday night departure from St. Paul. We would travel to Seattle in our sleeper car, spend a couple of nights seeing the sights and return via the Empire Builder. The goal in packing was to reduce the bags we had with us in the room and check a bag for clothes transfer in Seattle. We wanted it to be as stress free as possible, so having transportation both to and from the station in St. Paul was part of the plan.

We dropped the Bug off at his doggie daycare on Thursday, knowing that he would both miss us and have the time of his life with daily walks and exercise planned. Thursday evening found us all watching the clock and waiting for the time the car would arrive. Of course, dinner would be in the interim, so delivery was chosen. We had dinner and watched a movie. All of us watching the clock for the time the car would arrive.

Eventually the time came, and we sprang into action. I love that the hubby is a planner. He had our bags staged in the truck waiting for the driver to arrive. This made things super easy as we only had to transfer the bags from one car to the next. Of course, things never go as planned. Earlier in the day the internet decided it was time to reboot and reconfigure the whole system, so none of the Alexa’s were set up to respond to any commands to turn off lights, so we had to improvise. As usual, the hubby stepped up to the occasion. We were all packed up and ready to roll to St. Paul.

Given that it was a Thursday evening, during Spring Break, traffic was pretty light, and we made it to the rail station without issue. We found the staging area for the light rail and proceeded to wait. To keep the boy occupied, the hubs and the boy decided to do some exploring of the old railway building. That’s when we discovered…. we needed to the check our bag three flights down! And off on a run they went, bag in tow to the baggage check in area. They returned in time to hear the gate attendees call for boarders of the sleeper cars and we all checked in. The train was, of course, a little late arriving at the station. But we eventually boarded and got settled.

The boy was so ecstatic. The rooms aren’t what one would call roomy, but they are sufficient. He was so excited at having his own bunk bed to sleep in, windows to look out…. It was hard to imagine getting him to bed for the evening. The car attendant came by and made sure we had everything we needed (beds were set up and ready for sleeping when we arrived), we asked for ice and prepared a martini in anticipation of too much excitement to sleep for a little bit.

The boy eventually settled down in his bunk and fell asleep, Troy and I not far behind him. It is hard to get used to sleeping on a moving car. We stayed awake and enjoyed our martinis while the train worked its way through the Minneapolis area as well as the Northern suburbs. It was wild seeing my bus stop from the train windows as we headed out on our adventure.

Eventually we all headed to sleep for the night, after setting an alarm for breakfast in the morning. Schedules become important on a train as it runs through the country and the various time zones, knowing when food is available becomes crucial when you have a growing 9-year-old. The next morning found us in North Dakota with an overcast sky and our first breakfast aboard. This coincided with our first big stop of the train. The boy would find himself rapt by the passing landscape through the rest of the trip. We talked of how train tracks often went along the backyards of people’s houses, making it so we were not always seeing the best of the towns.

Breakfast was had. The boy was doing well (so far) with the motion of the train. We returned to our quarters to watch the world go by. Montana was amazing. Crossing into the state was rather breathtaking. The sandstone cliffs were amazing as they seemed to appear out of nowhere with their colorful layers. I gave the boy the handheld camera and he became our photographer for the rest of the trip. It was interesting to watch it from his perspective.

Troy had music playing as we watched the country fly by us. I found myself moving my hand in conjunction to the music. Much in the way my dad used to move his hand up and down to keep time while we were dancing during some cousin’s wedding or another. It brought tears to my eyes thinking of my dad and that he is no longer with us. Those dances that we did, at every cousin’s wedding or event eventually ended when Dad and I had our final dance at my wedding. Simpler times. I think Dad would have loved the idea of our trip. But I digress.

Montana – I understand why it is called Big Sky Country. I was struck by the expansiveness of Montana. Everything looked so wide open. At least until the snow squalls hit and visibility was reduced. While it was still interesting country, I couldn’t help but think… didn’t we leave winter behind?

We enjoyed the rest of the day, watching the country fly by us. Making the occasional stop at some small town or another. We enjoyed the service that Amtrak provided us. Friday evening and we all hit the sack. Tired from a day of watching the world travel by us and meeting new people at each mealtime. We all hit the sack for a good night’s sleep. It was a long day and the night before was short.

Friday, March 13th and Troy and I awoke with to a huge jerk and crash! What was happening? Why isn’t the train moving! We saw no one walking about, though we could smell an acid like smoke in our cabin. We could see a roadway that was crossing the railroad tracks. It was clearly obstructed by the train as we could see cars drive up and turn around when they realized the train was definitely not moving. But we didn’t know what was going on. Then, the fans stopped. Air circulation was clearly off. This is not good! But as we couldn’t find anyone to ask, we finally just gave up and went back to sleep.

We found out the next morning that the train hit a tree that was across the tracks. They had to call for a replacement engine and replaced it in the night. This would make us three hours late arriving in Seattle. This would end up being a good thing since we couldn’t get into the hotel room right away and wondered how we would spend that time. We were also quite glad that we didn’t pre-book the airplane ride we planned to take that day since we would not have made it on time. Seattle was very windy on arrival, making me believe it would have been cancelled regardless.

Checking into the hotel, it was clearly not busy. We got a free upgrade to a city view room on the 22nd floor which was pretty amazing. We had booked a suite so there was a separate sleeping and living area which was also awesome and made for plenty of play space for the boy and a desk for Troy to set up (and a wet bar!) My boys were happy, I was happy.

We unloaded our bags and went to the bar for a late lunch of smoked salmon with goat cheese and capers on naan bread followed by tacos. We also took a little bit of a walk around the area and were able to visit the Gold Rush National Park Museum. We looked around a little and picked up a booklet for Dylan to complete so he could earn his junior ranger badge for that park. We figured we could do it in the morning and return on Sunday. We were all pretty beat and given the delay hadn’t been fed lunch on the train, so I think there was a little hangriness going on too. The time changes were also doing a bit of a number on us. Showers, some play time, downloading of photos and finally bed followed.

Sunday dawned bright and beautiful. Since we had picked up the Junior Ranger booklet from the Gold Rush Museum, we figured we could have our continental breakfast and the boys could work on that while I took a look at what we could do with the day. We knew we wanted to go back to the Museum and get the boy his badge, we also had been considering things like Underground Seattle, the Lock Tour and the Duck Boats. Of course, the boy had seen the Great Wheel from our room and was begging us to go for a ride.

The boys dug into the Ranger book and I set to work on research. As luck would have it, many things were already closing including Seattle Underground and the Locks Tours. We deemed it a bit cool for the Duck Boats and decided we would head to the Museum and wander over to Miners Landing and the Great Wheel, planning to check out the shops there, especially the Pirates Plunder and find somewhere for lunch. The previous day, Troy had placed a Target order for pick up so we could have an easier time with luggage for the trip back, so we knew we also had a Target run to do that day. A busy day ahead planned.

We headed to the Museum and the boy completed his booklet, took his pledge and got his Junior Ranger Badge. He was pretty proud to have another badge. After ward we wandered over to Miners Landing, taking our time walking and getting some good photos of the unique architecture of the area. The boy, of course, was very excited about the idea of taking his first Ferris wheel ride. We wandered through the shops, stopping along the way to keep a keepsake or two, with Dylan’s proudest item being a pocketknife with his name on it. It was nearly his birthday after all. We all boarded the Great Wheel, with the boy in charge of the camera and off it went. I am, of course, very afraid of heights, but the boy absolutely loved it. I have to admit that it provided some pretty awesome views of the city including a nice view of the Space Needle (which was also closed). After the ride, we made our way to the Crab Pot for a late lunch. Earlier in the day, I had told the boy about it and he was pretty excited by the idea. If you have never been, I absolutely recommend visiting. They provide each person their own mallet (bonus according to the boy) and a bib and dump your food out on the table for you to eat. We had a variety of shellfish including shrimp, muscles and clams as well as three variety of crab, red potatoes and corn on the cob. It was absolutely delicious! And such a feast. I have never seen the boy eat with such joy before. Being able to hammer open his own food definitely had something to do with it. He ate everything! I think they only thing he didn’t eat much of was the red potatoes, but honestly that is no surprise to me since he is such an adventurous eater.

From there we Uber’d to Target to pick up our order and back to the hotel. We did some unwinding and Dylan unpacked his new toy and started on the process of packing up. We had picked up a large, hard sided suitcase to make it easier to check things and protect the computer we found we really didn’t use in the train. It would be a lot easier to move our bags around in the cabin for the trip back.

We had a nice meal of fish and fruit for dinner (can’t believe anyone was hungry) before heading up to the room for an early night. The time zone changes were affecting us, for sure.

The next morning we planned to go out for breakfast instead of hitting up the continental provided by the hotel as Troy and I wanted to indulge in a mimosa, but were greeted by the announcement that the restaurant was now closed for indoor eating. Looking further, the Great Wheel was now closed as was most of the city. Good thing we were planning to head home. Given that the boys school had closed, we considered staying longer, but with the entire city shutting down, it really didn’t make sense.

We checked our bag at the rail station and made sure the train was on time. We had planned to check out bags and find somewhere for lunch, but at $10 per carry on bag (for a few hours’ time), we quickly changed our plans. The boys ran out to find somewhere for sandwiches and I was on bag guarding duty. The boys found a local market that did excellent sandwiches and brought them back the station. Sandwiches, drinks and a few cribbage games later and we were ready for the announcement that the train was ready to head out.

Only it wasn’t.

They announced a delay instead. Worse, a delay with no idea of timing on how long the delay would be. That means we would be trapped in the station waiting for word on when we could board. Would it arrive before the dinner hour? Should we risk it and send someone to find sandwiches? How long would the delay be? (we had a car ready for the return in St Paul, would we make it?)

Luckily, it was only about forty minutes late.

We eventually boarded and got very lucky in that the entire lower half of our train car was empty save for one couple that apparently boarded the wrong car. Luckily, they would be departing part way through the return trip. Our car attendant, Tashi, was so nice and took such good care of us. He offered to let us use any of the other rooms for sitting or playing cards if we wanted.

The return trip was quite beautiful and fairly uneventful. There were no snowstorms to mar the view or the photos we could take. We met some very lovely people at each meal. And Troy got an opportunity to talk with Tashi more about his history and his family. Tashi even sent us some vintage Amtrak posters after we returned home and shared with Troy his history growing up in a Buddhist monastery. Probably the best gift of all was that he shared a set of Buddhist Prayer Flags with Troy. I am amazed by the generosity of people and humbled to know Tashi. A truly awesome person.

We returned home without issue, the car waiting for our return to St. Paul. It is a new world we live in now with everyone under the Stay at Home Order. We wondered if it were wise to head to Seattle at the beginning of this, but I am very glad we did. The people we met along the way were amazing.

Would I recommend this trip to others? Absolutely.