Goodbye Chicago - we love you! See you again another day! ???

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Weather here today -2 degrees Celsius with heavy fog and light snow.

This morning we had breakfast and then headed to the train to get to Millennium Park. Our CTA cards have certainly taking a bashing over the past few days - public transport is certainly the way to get around. We never have to wait more than a few minutes for a train. "The Loop" trains travel around above ground in the city centre stopping at crossroads - brilliant! The Loop trains have heating lights that you stand under while waiting for the trains - much needed today!

It was freezing cold at Millenium Park but the upside is it was quiet so great for photography of the much loved "cloud gate" aka "the bean". The ice rink was deserted but I'm sure it gets super busy on the weekends and holidays.

Had a stop at the cultural centre - lovely and warm inside there -

Drawn by its beauty and the fabulous free public events, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Chicago Cultural Center every year, making it one of the most visited attractions in Chicago. The stunning landmark building is home to two magnificent stained-glass domes, as well as free music, dance and theater events, films, lectures, art exhibitions and family events.

Completed in 1897 as Chicago’s first central public library, the building was designed to impress and to prove that Chicago had grown into a sophisticated metropolis. The country’s top architects and craftsmen used the most sumptuous materials, such as rare imported marbles, polished brass, fine hardwoods, and mosaics of Favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and colored stone, to create an architectural showplace. Located on the south side of the building, the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome ― 38 feet in diameter with some 30,000 pieces of glass ― was restored to its original splendor in 2008. On the north side of the building is a 40-foot-diameter dome with some 50,000 pieces of glass in an intricate Renaissance pattern, designed by Healy & Millet.

Checked out of our hotel at 1pm and took,a taxi to union station - $7.85...where in Australia can you catch a taxi for that type of money??? We are travelling in a sleeper on the California Zephyr - total cost for the Journey $1128 for the two of us which includes all our meals onboard for our three day journey.

Our train left on time - which only happens on rare occasions we hear. Scenery during the first day of our trip was miles and miles of flat lands for as far as the eye could see - mostly corn fields.
We are staying in a "roomette" onboard the superliner "California Zephyr". It's a tight fit but still it gives us a private room to sit in that then converts into bunk beds for a sound nights sleep. Overnight we passed through Illinois and into Iowa.



We enjoyed our dinner in the dining room and food was good (reviews don't reflect that but we were more than happy).The sun set just after 4pm so we decided to have an early night. Headed downstairs for a shower only to discover there was no hot water! Forget that idea, the attendant didn't seem to care when we mentioned it to him - maybe it's a regular occurrence. By this time the train was rocking back and forth quite a lot so I experienced motion sickness and spent several hours in the restroom.



From that Point on I decided I would take my motion sickness tablets every 4 hours or so - as I really don't want to experience that feeling again during this adventure. We were up early for breakfast at 6am only to discover that we had passed through another time zone - we were now in "mountain time" so we needed to turn our clocks back one hour..bummer!



Plan was to get breakfast first up and then position ourselves in the observation car ready for a day of stunning scenery. Research had told us that the observation car fills up quickly. Anyway we had another rest for an hour and then hit the dining room for an alacarte Breakfast. Once again the food didn't disappoint.



We were now in Colorado. Denver has more federal workers than any other area apart from DC. The city has 8 professional sports teams and Coor's Field which is home to the Colorado Rockies baseball team. The train refuels and has a service stop here which gave us time to have a look into the station area. We then secured good seats in the observation car and we certainly weren't disappointed with the views we saw.



The train weaves its way through the Rocky Mountains with scenery to die for. We passed through Moffat Tunnel on our climb up the front range of the Rockies. We then passed through a total of 31 tunnels on our journey to Winter Park. Ski resorts are located throughout this part of Colorado. The photos really don't do it much justice. It's something you need to experience for yourself. Mountains on one side and the colarado river on the other - we travelled 235 miles parallel to this amazing river. Many call the trip along the river the most scenic stretch of track in America that can be seen from a scheduled passenger train. People come from all over the world to kayak this class 5 river.



We passed through Gore Canyon on the upper Colorado River - it is only accessible by rail or kayak. The walls of the canyon ascend 1,000 feet on each side of the river and the class 5 whitewater is the wildest commercial rafting in the state - some say in the entire country. Glenwood Canyon has spectacular high cliffs surrounding the 12.5 mile gorge and the banks are dotted with aspen and evergreen trees. We passed through Ruby Canyon where we got our final glimpse of the Colorado River.



Night 2 on the train and we have warm water - not hot but still it was warm and wet! Dinner, shower and then into bed 7.30pm. The train is a great way to catch up on sleep as once it's dark there's nothing to see or do - no TV or Internet. During the night we passed through Salt Lake City the world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, founded in 1847 by a group of Mormon pioneers. The valley in which the city is lies is considered to be one of the safest and most natural settings in North America.



Woke up on day 3 on the train and we had changed to pacific time - back 1 hour. Enjoyed french toast and coffee in the dining room while watching the sunrise. We travelled through Reno which is known as the "biggest little city in the world". Reno used to be known as a mining settlement until the early 1900's and in 1931 Nevada legalised casino gambling and passed liberal divorce laws which were boons for Reno.



We thought yesterday's journey was amazing but today we were in for a super treat. After leaving Reno the train passed through several ascending plateaus climbing over Donner Pass to the peak of the Sierra's...absolutely stunning panoramic 360 degrees views! Travelling through a winter wonderland all morning was a great way to finish this leg of our journey. Sitting in the observation car the snow was glistening in the sunshine - such a pretty sight.



Crossing into California the train passed through the American River Canyon of which the river is 1,500 to 2,000 feet below track level. Lunch in the dining car as we passed through Cape Horn and Colfax - gold rush country. Just a few more stops and we arrived in Sacramento where we have an 10 hour stop over while we wait for the Coastal Starlight train to arrive. We will then continue on our journey to our final stop of King Street Seattle.

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