# Empire Builder, August-September 2008, Part 2



## Ispolkom (Oct 15, 2008)

*In part 1, I described our trip from St. Paul to Portland. In this part we take the Cascades from Portland to Seattle, then the Empire Builder to West Glacier*

We arrived in Portland on Sunday morning, August 24, and spent three days sight-seeing. Naturally, we used public transportation, including the Trimet light rail, the street car, and the aerial tram. Before we knew it, it was time for our next rail leg, the

Cascade to Seattle.

I really like Portland Union Station. It’s not enormous, like Chicago or Washington Union Station, but it’s still a real train station, with almost all of the station space still used for rail operations. If it ever suffered “modernization” like Seattle’s King Street Station, it has been nicely restored. There’s a Metropolitan Lounge for sleeper passengers, and a fine waiting room for the rest of us. We got to the station early, and tried to get our tickets. I never get my tickets printed until the day of travel, just in case something comes up. We tried to us Quik-Trak kiosk for the first time. I guess there’s on at the St. Paul station, but it seems strange to use it if the clerk is standing there doing nothing. My ticket printed out just fine, but my wife’s AGR Reward ticket flummuxed the machine. A human clerk eventually straightened things out and we were able to check our bags to Seattle.

We were last in Portland 14 years ago, arriving there on a Talgo when they were first trying them out. I was impressed by the train then, and am still. Seating in coach is 2 and 2, with comfortable leatherette seats and a earphone jack to allow you to watch the movie they show, if you like that sort of stuff. I preferred looking out the window and listening to my MP3 player. The train was pretty quiet, quiet enough that I didn’t need to use noise-canceling headphones. A nice feature was the announcements displayed on the monitors telling passengers what station was next and what river we were passing over.

We visited the bistro car, which gave us a chance to try Chuljin’s favorite hummus kit. We liked it, though there didn’t seem enough chips for the amount of hummus given.

The most interesting scenery on this leg was the last run into Seattle. First we passed various docked ships, including the battleship-gray MV Cape Victory, a navy roll-on/roll-off ship. Then there is the huge the Boeing plant and Seattle’s two enormous stadiums. Our train was a few minutes late into King Street Station.

King Street Station is far less satisfying a station than Portland Union Station. Seattle is slowly reversing the modernization that installed drop ceilings removed marble from pillars in the waiting room (how could this have seemed a good idea?), but much work needs to be done (cleaning decades of cigarette smoke from the original ceiling, for example).

Our two days in Seattle went by quickly, but we were still able to enjoy many forms of public transportation in our sight-seeing, including electric trolleybuses, the Seattle Streetcar (it’s not called the South Lake Union Trolley, we were assured), and the Elliot Bay Water Taxi. Both Portland and Seattle have free transit in their downtown areas, which certainly was convenient.

Waiting at King Street Station for our train we talked to several Texans, an older couple who had just returned from an Alaskan cruise, and a younger man who was a big railfan. I asked which railroad built the other station across the tracks, and learned that it was the Union Pacific. I then learned much more about the station than I really cared to learn, but you take the good with the bad.

For the trip from Seattle to West Glacier we had booked a roomette on the east-bound Empire Builder. We couldn’t check our luggage, as West Glacier doesn’t allow that, but there was lots of space on the luggage shelves in our sleeper car. Our sleeping car attendant on this leg was Jeff, who said that he had been an SLA for 30 years. He was outstanding, always ready when we needed someone, but not intrusive. We headed north along Puget Sound under lowering clouds, then inland. I again had the steak and baked potato for dinner. After dinner we read and watch scenary until it got dark, but were asleep by 10:00 p.m. I was surprised that I slept through Spokane, considering how knocked about I felt in the westbound Portland sleeper.

Jeff really made our day by starting the coffee pot early. We enjoyed cups of coffee and read the local newspaper (always a treat) before marching off to the first seating of breakfast. We wanted to be early as we were getting off the train in West Glacier, and the train appeared to be, if anything, ahead of schedule. Not to worry, as we had plenty of time to pack up our carry-on, and Jeff wouldn’t allow us to touch our luggage when we left the train.

We stayed at the Lake MacDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park. They sent a van to pick us up, and we were able to use free shuttle buses that ran along the Going to the Sun Road to access hiking paths. We certainly didn’t see the whole park (who could in three days), but we did see and hike a lot without having to rent a car. An additional plus for this flatlander was not having to drive the vertiginous, guardrail-less Going to the Sun Road.

We stayed in a cabin at Lake MacDonald Lodge, which was large and quite comfortable, but seemed to come without maid service. Repeated calls to the front desk failed to solve this problem. One plus for me was that many the service people were youngsters from the former Soviet Union. I was happy to practice my rusty Russian, and was amused by their shocked looks when they realized that this middle-aged American understood what they were saying to each other.


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## hello (Oct 15, 2008)

Enjoy reading your reports -- thank you!


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## Cascadia (Oct 16, 2008)

My sisters and I stayed at Lake McDonald lodge with our grandparents in 1972, we took the train there and on to Seattle. Sounds like you had a fantastic time at Glacier! I haven't been there since 1992 but I live a lot closer to it now, being out here on the coast of Washington, than I did when I was still in Minnesota.

If you wanted to give a quick rundown of what you did in three days in Portland, I'd appreciate it, I spent 4 hours there last spring on a layover between the Empire Builder and the Cascades and I did walk around downtown, but if I took a longer trip, I'd love to hear more of the things to see and do from someone who was there recently.


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## Ispolkom (Oct 18, 2008)

Cascadia said:


> My sisters and I stayed at Lake McDonald lodge with our grandparents in 1972, we took the train there and on to Seattle. Sounds like you had a fantastic time at Glacier! I haven't been there since 1992 but I live a lot closer to it now, being out here on the coast of Washington, than I did when I was still in Minnesota.
> If you wanted to give a quick rundown of what you did in three days in Portland, I'd appreciate it, I spent 4 hours there last spring on a layover between the Empire Builder and the Cascades and I did walk around downtown, but if I took a longer trip, I'd love to hear more of the things to see and do from someone who was there recently.


Glacier National Park is absolutely gorgeous. While we spent three days there on this trip, really 30 years wouldn't be enough to enjoy everything. And with the way the glaciers cut through the mountains, you can really see the rock strata. I'm not usually good at visualizing geology, and am very happy when even I can get it. Sadly we weren't fortunate enough to see much wildlife. A few mountain goats, no bears. We did see a lot of hikers who seemed badly unprepared for late-August weather in the mountains.

If I may be forgiven a non-train posting, in Portland the things we enjoyed the most were:

1) Washington Park, which is a huge wild park right in the city. The light rail station that serves it is deep underground, and has a core sample on display from the surface to the station level. I thought that was neat, but I like geology more than most people. Anyway, the park has miles (40?) of uncrowded paths, and an absolutely breath-taking rose garden. There's also a Japanese garden that J. Random Stranger (Portland has many citizens who want to give you directions and are very proud of their town) recommended to us. Alas it was closed on the Monday morning we were at the park.

2) Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It had a traveling exhibit of Chinese dinosaurs, as well as a U.S. sub (the U.S.S. Blueback) you can tour. My wife is such a good sport: she voluntarily went to a museum that had both dinosaurs and a submarine, and claimed to have enjoyed both exhibits. At least I was confirmed in my longstanding claim that the 2 most important tools on any Navy ship are the coffee pot and the soft-serve ice cream machine.

3) Beer. Somewhere on the Web I found a nice map drawn by the Portland State University geography department, showing good places to drink beer in relation to the streetcar line. And there are a lot of them in Portland.

4) The Portland Beavers. This AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres plays in a neat old stadium downtown, with a manual scoreboard, and good views of the light rail trains going by (There: train content. I feel much better now.) Portland doesn't seem interested in baseball, as we walked up a few minutes before the game and got great seats behind home plate for $14 each. We saw really good baseball for a lot less than the Mariners charge. I don't see why it's not more popular.

5) We stayed at the Kennedy School. This is a Mcmenamin's property, a hotel converted from a 1915 elementary school with lots of odd murals and other art. The bedrooms are converted school rooms, complete with the original slate blackboards, the girl's room is the brewery, and there are five or six bars, including the Detention Bar, where cigars are allowed, and the Honors Bar, where no smoking is allowed and opera is on the music system. Highly recommended, though a bit pricey, and it's on a bus line that goes straight to Portland Union Station. If your funds are more limited, we also spent 2 nights at the Thrift Lodge on W. Burnside (who knew Travel Lodge had a minor league?) for about $60 a night. It was just fine, but it's kind of strange to be told by a derelict on the street that the motel around the corner is much better and cheaper. Hey, it makes a good story!

6) The Portland public transit system. People in Portland seem to complain either that the system short-changes the poor, or that it's overrun with "those darn wild kids and their skateboards." I loved it, especially that you can get an all-day pass for just a few dollars.

I was impressed by the large proportion of tattooed and pierced people we encountered (I myself don't do anything they ask about when you give blood), and rather disappointed by the quality of the oysters we got. Of course, the tail end of summer isn't the best time to be eating oysters.

Sorry that I went on so long, but I really am fond of Portland.


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## Cascadia (Oct 24, 2008)

Sorry I didn't come back sooner to thank you for posting your Portland experiences. I appreciate the rundown of activities you enjoyed there.

When I was there it was early March, and I did think the city would be prettier and more interesting in the summer and that the public gardens are probably a good reason to visit, all by themselves. I would love to see the rose gardens.

That school that's been made over into a hotel, funny you should mention that, a friend of mine was just there last month and told me about it. Sounds pretty cool!

I will remember your post if I find myself headed down that way again, and use it as a resource.

Thanks!


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## MrFSS (Oct 24, 2008)

Cascadia said:


> When I was there it was early March, and I did think the city would be prettier and more interesting in the summer and that the public gardens are probably a good reason to visit, all by themselves. I would love to see the rose gardens.


The rose gardens are very nice there. We only had a few hours and it rained the entire time, but I was able to get a few pictures which you can look at *HERE*.


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## Cascadia (Oct 24, 2008)

Hey Mr. FSS, thanks for posting the link to your rose garden pictures, I checked them out, I am going to have to make a special trip down there sometime just to visit that park. I heard it was nice but your pictures show how great it really is.


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