Advertisement
Published: December 16th 2014
Edit Blog Post
With a 10 hour stop-over here in Sacromento we checked in our carry on luggage and took a walk downtown. What a surprise it was to learn this is the home of the polar express train! Tickets sell out months in advance. They go on sale in September and sell out in 15 minutes. So no ride on the polar express for us but it was still it lovely to see such xmas spirit happening in town. We watched the Macy's Xmas theatre light show in the street centre - really feels like xmas here - very different from home in Australia.
The train left Sacromento at midnight By which time we were a bit over sitting in the lounge. The Coast Starlight left on time at 12.15am. We got into our sleeper , grabbed a hot coffee and settled in for the night. In the morning we woke up to snow falling in Oregon. We had breakfast in the dining car while the train made a stop at Klamath Falls. The train went past Crater Lake which was formed in the crater of an extinct volcano. Only a few hundred residents live here and the area is known for
its winter recreation including an annual dog sled race. We passed through Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Scott and Diamond Lake.
Once again this has been a fabulous day of never ending spectacular scenery. Feeling so lucky that we have this opportunity to be able to travel this country in our own free style fashion. Spent the morning sitting in the parlour car meeting some great folk - several of whom were from down under! There was an elderly man who joined us - he was a former engineer on the railroad and he gave a running commentary of every inch of the journey!!
We passed through 22 tunnels along this trip as we climbed into the spectacular scenery of the Cascades.
Lunch was in the parlour car as we passed through Eugene which is the second largest city in Oregon. The Nike Corporation was also born here. The grass is very green around here and littered with sheep - similar to the Invercargill area in NZ.
We passed through waterfalls in Oregon City and paper mills that are evidence of the States lumber industry.
For 120 miles we followed the Willamette Valley which is home to
70% of Oregons population along with farms, wineries, timber and natural resources.
We pulled into Portland station just on dark..the city looked lovely - Portland is known "as the city of roses" and is known for its parks, gardens, breweries and Jazz festivals. The city is considered as one of the most Eco-friendly "green" cities in the world thanks to strong land-use planning and investment in both bicycle infrastructure and public transport.
Enjoyed a lovely hot dinner in the parlour car just before our train arrived at King Street Station Seattle. We arrived around 8.30pm and got a cab ($13) to our B&B accommodation in Capitol Hill.
The past few days have been so relaxing and enjoyable. Amtrak is certainly an ideal way to see the countryside and it is so very affordable - I'm sure we will be doing more of this.
We have stayed here in this boutique b&b on our last visit to Seattle and we would never stay any place else - such a homely place and the innkeeper Linda and her helper Ben are just the nicest people ever.
Now for a great nights sleep before heading out in the
morning to pick up our hire car and explore this gorgeous city.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.307s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 12; qc: 73; dbt: 0.1645s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb