Trip Report: Februray 9 - 14, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
A Cultural Tour of the Pacifc Northwest
Wednesday, February 14, 2001.
Valentine's Day from Seattle to Klamath Falls
After three glorious days of sunshine in Seattle, we are scheduled to head for home. The fine restaurants of the big city have been excellent and expensive. Our stay at the Westin, with its trademark "Heavenly Beds" and enthusiastic concierges, who recommend restaurants, provide directions, and suggest interesting activities, has been delightful. The Seattle Symphony and their new Benaroya Hall are marvelous. And a chance to see a tuneful Broadway musical in the grand old movie palace of the Fifth Avenue Theater was the icing on the cake.
Travel Tip: If you're heading for British Columbia by train, you must stay overnight in Seattle to avoid an extremely tedious bus trip along the freeway to Vancouver, so consider two or even three overnights in the Emerald City. There are all kinds of interesting things to do here, and it's a shame to arrive after 9 PM and leave at 7:45AM after paying $125 or more for a hotel room on the way to Canada. The Mount Baker Train, using Talgo equipment, provides a scenic ride along Puget Sound; the bus is a "Are we there yet?" experience that we don't recommend to train riders.
We return our Budget Town Car and they generously drive us to the King Street Station where fading signs, which have been on the inside walls since 1997, promise an authentic restoration by 2007. A small transparent area in the false ceiling displays a shadowy view of the grand old original structure above it. Meanwhile, since last year, the old King Dome next to the station has been demolished and construction is proceeding apace on the new sports complex to replace it. Sports is where the money is, Amtrak passengers need to be patient. We check in at the conductor's kiosk and receive our boarding pass for Deluxe Bedroom D in the 1130 car.
Outside the station, we observed the Trailways bus that Amtrak uses to ferry passengers to and from Vancouver, BC. This is a newer bus than the one we took four years ago that broke down on the freeway at the halfway point, and appears to have comfortable seats with headrests as we peer into the windows. The door is closed, so we can't try the seats. It is possible to Amtrak all the way to Vancouver, but an overnight stay in spendy Seattle is mandatory due to the early morning departure of the Vancouver train.
Boarding for the Coast Starlight begins at 9:30 AM for the 9:45 AM departure, and our car attendant, Toni, helps us settle our bags into our room. I set up our portable office, as it is Wednesday, and there will be work to do. But first, since we had an early breakfast at the Westin, we enjoy a continental breakfast of fruit, pastries, and tea in the Pacific Parlour Car. We depart Seattle promptly and by the time we return to our room there is a Seattle Times on the sofa.
We always enjoy a trip on the Starlight, but today's sparkling clear weather makes it even more enjoyable than usual, giving us dramatic views of Mt. Rainer, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains across the sound, and Mt. St. Helens. Answering the last call for lunch at 1:15 PM, we finish up a tasty walnut and gorgonzola salad just as we are arriving into Portland, where we observe the unloading of freight from the late-arriving Empire Builder. I thought that the fork lifts should have taken a break during the transfer of passengers to and from the Coast Starlight, but I am not running Portland Station, so we watch as they play tag with mothers with baggage and children and little old ladies in wheelchairs. If OSHA were capable of being shocked by unsafe work practices, this would surely do it. We avoided the danger by walking up to the two Genesis locomotives side by side, which provided an excellent photo opportunity with the Union Station clock tower in the background.
No. 11 left Portland promptly at 2:30 PM. Since we had only four hours sleep last night, we took turns napping on the sofa while the other worked the phone and the laptop. We missed the wine and cheese party in the Pacific Parlour car, but after five days of high living, maybe this was a not a bad thing. Lionel Johnson is our train chief of on board services today, and he runs a particularly tight ship. He came to our room to introduce himself shortly after we left Seattle this morning and after lunch his dining car stewardess came around to offer dinner reservations. Toni, our car attendant who was formerly with the Sunset Limited, was always available if we needed anything in our room, such as bottled water, ice, and blankets. She even offered a Valentine's Day gift of Coast Starlight Chardonnay.
We wrapped up our workday at 6:30 PM and answered the call to the 7:15 PM dinner sitting where we enjoyed an excellent San Luis Obispo County Merlot with our excellently prepared New York steaks. The Merlot, by the way, goes very well with the Chocolate Decadence dessert as well. We had an interesting couple from Portland as dinner companions and so lingered in the dining car over dessert and coffee. What a fine way to wrap up a trip to the Pacific Northwest!
When we returned to our sleeper, it was 9 PM, and Toni, our car attendant told us we would be arriving into Klamath Falls at about 10:15. But looking out the window, I recognized that we were only about a half an hour out of town. To our relief we sped right by the passing siding two miles out from the station where we had been stalled for northbound freights on our last two Starlight trips, and rumbled into town at 9:35 PM as we were putting on our heavy winter jackets. But a surprise awaited -- we were still a quarter of mile from the station. Was this a fiendish trick by the Union Pacific dispatcher? We threw off our jackets and went back to our room to wait it out. Apparently a southbound freight was fouling the station track this time. But our wait was less than ten minutes and we still arrived slightly early at 9:45 PM, loaded up our rig, picked up our mail and, back home, were still were able to retire at a decent hour.
Travel Tip: This Coast Starlight trip did not include any overnight segments, but we did have a standard bedroom from Klamath Falls to Eugene, and a deluxe room for the twelve-hour trip from Seattle to Klamath Falls. Some clients ask us, "Why do we need a bedroom for a daylight trip, can't we just sit up in our coach seats?" This is true, of course, and we have done it more than once. Indeed, a seat on the Coast Starlight is very comfortable, with its quiet and smooth riding Superliner II coaches. Coach passengers have access to the lounge café car and the dining car, and your car attendant will gladly deliver a full course dinner to your coach seat if you are handicapped, or if there are no dinner reservations available due to a sold-out train.
But traveling by sleeper is a full first-class experience on a truly first-class train. Sleeping car passengers not only have a private compartment to work or nap in, they also have access to the Pacific Parlour car, magazines, games, complimentary soft drinks, continental breakfast, and wine and cheese tasting. If you are still bored, there is a big screen surround-sound movie theater downstairs. You have early boarding, a newspaper and bottled water in your room, and are given first choice on dinner reservations. You also have a highly-trained car attendant at your beck and call, who will respond to your call button. (Coach passengers also have car attendants, but with a much higher number of passengers to serve, are not able to give the same personalized service that first-class passengers receive.) If you have an engagement in your destination city, you even have the option of showering and dressing before disembarkation. If the rather hefty extra cost of the room still bothers you, remember that all dining car meals are included in the price of the room charge.
