On the rails and away

Friday, and a different commute than usual for me today. M & I are on the Amtrak Cascade line from Edmonds down the coast to Portland. Station parking is significantly reduced, so my mom graciously offered to taxi us down for a 10:27 AM departure. The train was running about 45 minutes slow this morning, but once boarded, things were comfortable.

As we sat reading at the station, a WSDOT tweet popped up with an article link, talking about the growing ridership on the Cascade line and how the new ARRA funding was going to further expand the line to accommodate all the growing demand. Business Class wasn't full when we boarded at Edmonds, but was full as we pulled out of Seattle.

The Bistro car served up a perfectly acceptable turkey/havarti sandwich for lunch, which we ate at our seats as we watched the scenery roll by outside. After lunch I was plugged into a mix of Sigur Rós music while we read and watched, and dozed. If only the train's horn was in the same key as the music.

I think this was my first opportunity to use a train restroom since my last trip on the last 14-hour leg of the Tran Siberian railway. The Russian train's bathroom was about four times larger and featured a lovely view of the track speeding past underneath when you looked into the bowl of the toilet. This one, while smaller, did have a closed toilet bowl. It's always the small things, isn't it?

Really, a very comfortable way to get to Portland, though it takes a bit longer than driving. A very welcome 15 block walk from the station to our downtown hotel let us stretch tired-from-sitting muscles. Looking forward to this quiet get-away weekend!

I won't even try to list my playlist for today's commute, but it was all Sigur Rós and hours long.

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