train trip

 
 
 

Here's some photos from my iphone before it decided it wasnt going to be a camera. Turns out I had moved some photos off it to make space and it doesnt like that. Theres a bug that stops it working. I couldnt even see these photos - i had to use Picasa to copy them off camera. Hoping new fix helps it from Apple. In trying to fix it I wiped out all my phone numbers again off the iphone as turns out the backup it makes isnt a real backup. I'm pretty calm about it now. I wasnt and was tearing my hair out but to be honest the trip was so great and relaxing it went a long way to ease the pain of my iPhone scrambling itself again...

In short Amtrak is the way to go with a kid, and even for us. I cant sing its praises highly enough. We picked up train in San Jose, it was 40 minutes late but checkin was a breeze, we checked in 2 bags and brought on two and a buggy. We had our own little bedette room - very comfy seats that faced each other and could turn into a bed. Above our heads was a bunk that pulled down and you could pull that down and still sit underneath - lots of head room. The steward welcomed us, showed us where to put our bags, brought us champagne and a staff person was around to take our lunch reservation time. We even ended up wine tasting on the train (the poor guy was obviously not a wine drinker or taster who led it but marks for effort and it wasnt bad - it was nice to have activites. The palor car was wonderful to go sit in with big swivel chairs and huge windows. The dining car was great for service and food. The steak I had for dinner was one of best I've eaten and took me by surprise (images here of a steak jumping out of a closet).

The best thing - well you know how you come home and you're wrecked because of the travel and feel like you need another holiday.. Well that wasnt the case here. We went and felt rested (while the sight of wildfire flames on hills while driving through gap to our dude ranch did have hearts racing) the travel on the train was wonderful. Same on way back. Above is photo of the scene outside and wee man taking a nap. He took 2 hour nap on way down and one and half hours on way back. He also loved looking out windown, climbing around on bed. He was highly entertained and so were we. 7 hours whizzed by and all we could think of was - wow wish this went to Florida and Ireland in superspeed...

I have to admit it - I'm a huge Amtrak fan. Maybe I need that rainmac and binoculars after all.