Return from Seattle: Amtrak

My "vacation" wasn't actually over when I left Seattle, as I had opted to return to Davis by train. The train left Seattle at 9:45am and the journey took just over 21 hours, passing through some spectacular scenery along the way. In the interests of a comfortable night's sleep I had reserved a "roomette" — a compartment with two seats which formed a single bed and an overhead bunk for a second bed. That entitled me to free meals and also to the use of the "parlour car" — a renovated carriage with bar, lounge area, eating area, "theatre" (a huge flat screen TV) and massive picture windows.

From Seattle the train headed past the Museum of Flight on its way to Tacoma and then along the Puget Sound (past the famous Tacoma Narrows, scene of the bridge disaster that we watched over and over again in Physics as an illustration of the power of resonance!). The scenery along here was beautiful.

We crossed into Oregon and arrived at Portland just after lunch time — a very pretty town where the train stopped for a shot while (much to the relief of the smokers on board who were able to get off and puff away!).

Later in the afternoon (after 5:00pm) we started to climb up through the Cascade Mountains, which provided more spectacular scenery. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera to the dining car — the setting sun as we travelled through the snowy, forested top of the mountain range was awesome!

After a remarkably good night's sleep (I found that I woke up when the train stopped — fortunately, there were only two scheduled stops through the night), I woke up as we were approaching Sacramento. As the train was a little behind schedule there was time to enjoy the (free!) breakfast before the last leg of the journey to Davis, arriving at 7:30am, a little after the scheduled 6:50 arrival time.

All in all, a very fun way to end a great week away!