In Training

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It should have been self-evident that a two day train trip with a seventeen-month old held potential for trouble. First, he wasn't suitable for the dining car, but Amtrak serves sleeping car passengers in their compartments. The room was small, but certainly workable. Somehow the entry to the train felt a bit chaotic, but once we got started and caught our breath, we got to enjoy the scenery and begin exploring.

First we wandered back to the Pacific Parlour Car (Amtrak uses the English spelling). My understanding is that this is a service in flux. The car has swivel arm chairs, booths, and bar tables. There's a bar at one end of the car that supplies juice and a snack bar in the middle of the car that serves muffins. The car is panelled in wood and certainly is a contast to the hard-feeling commercial grade decor and furnishings that we've all come to know from pretty much any common carrier. Space is limited in the Parlour Car, and I didn't get the feeling that having a toddler bouncing around the car was the intent of the designers or of the clientele. Nobody said anything and Harry is cute and outgoing enough to elicit smiles from most people.

Next we went through the dining car to the sightseer lounge car. This is the car that coach passengers use regularly. It's the one with seats facing the large windows and a snack bar on the lower level. Harry got very excited about this particular car and was busily climbing all over the seats and bouncing off the walls during the bumpier moments. (For the record, climbing and bouncing is a pretty good characterization of what Harry did on the train, although he did get his "rail legs" under him by the end.) Of course, when Harry gets excited, he lets everyone know it, and he hasn't really mastered his indoor voice. This drew some disapproving glances, and we decided that the sightseer car was not the best place for Harry.

Back in our room, we played with his toys and eventually had lunch. Then it got a bit tricky. Harry needed a nap, and he didn't want to go down. We played his Caillou DVD on the lap top a few times. (We're buying at least one more Caillou DVD before we get back on the train.) Then we used itunes to play some classical music and after several hours he fell asleep on me (Andrew). He didn't sleep nearly long enough, but it got us through the evening. Bedtime was another struggle, mainly because we forgot the cardinal rule with children in an unfamiliar situation which is to make things as normal as possible. So we realized that the bedtime routine involved turning off the TV or stereo and reading a bedtime story. We unfolded the bed and put him down on between the wall and me. We turned down the lights and I began to recite his favorite bedtime story over and over until he went down for the night somewhere between Eugene and Chemult, OR.

I slept OK, but Alissa didn't fair so well, but she got enough rest to get though day two.

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