# From Australia - First AMTRAK experience



## Bobalski (Jan 21, 2011)

Hi guys,

Great community you have here and everybody has been so helpful to all my questions I needed answered in the question forum. Fortunately I didn't need to ask that many due to the 'search' function which helped me find answers to a multitude more.

In less than a fortnight (Feb 3rd) we leave our home in Sydney for Nth America.

This will be our 4th trip to your fine shores.

We have a day or two in LA waiting for the rest of the family to fly over from Australia. My wife Diane is an airline employee, so although we fly ridiculously cheap, we are still on standby so always leave a day or two before we need to be anywhere in case we cannot get on a flight. Touch wood, but we have managed to secure seats on all our flights over the years (and up the pointy end...lol).

As a group (12 of us) we fly to Kelowna via Calgary where we spend a night before heading up the mountain for 10 nights at Big White Ski Resort. I spent 10 nights in Big White in Feb 2008 with Diane, along with her sister and husband, Lorraine and Clive. Lorraine vowed to bring her grandchildren back to Big White once they could all ski. So here we are, 3 years later just 14 days from that dream coming to fruition.

After leaving Big White on the 16th, the group splits up. I travel back to LA with Diane where we put our daughter (18yo) on a plane back to Sydney. Lorraine is taking the grandkids (+ mums and dads) to Vegas and then Disneyland. The grandkids, along with their parents will be bundled onto a plane on the 28th Feb back to Australia, at which time Diane and I will join up with Lorraine and Clive for a weeks further R&R.

Which brings us to AMTRAK (you were wondering if I was going to even mention a train, weren't you?..lol).

What to do in the 12 days between waving goodbye to the daughter on the 16th and meeting back up with Lorraine and Clive?

We had a multitude of discussions. At one stage we contemplated flying to the UK, doing a roadtrip then flying back. Then we thought of a roadtrip out of LA. Then something else and so it went on. By chance I thought about train travel, so did a bit of googling, came across this forum and within a few days had purchased a USA Railpass and sleepers for the following trip:

LAX-Boston (Southwest Chief-Lake Shore Limited) 3 nights

Boston-New Orleans (Regional to NY-Crescent) 1 night

New Orleans-Chicago (CONO) 1 night

Chicago-Reno (California Zephyr) 2 nights

We spend 2 nights in Boston, 2 nights in New Orleans and a night in Chicago.

We arrive in Reno at 08:30 on the 1st March and after putting the family on the plane late the previous evening, Lorraine and Clive fly into Reno at 09:30 to meet us.

We then travel to South Lake Tahoe for a week at Harvey's Casino and another week on the slopes at Heavenly Ski Resort.

I think the main catalyst for selecting train travel was the fact that I have seen a fair bit of America, especially for somebody on my side of the world, but had I really? You don't see much from 30,000' and it's then I realised that although I've been to some major US cities, I really haven't 'seen' America. Hopefully the train journey will remedy that.

I will be keeping a blog of the whole trip which I have already started with detailed summary of the train legs. You can find it here Bobalski Blog 2011

I kept a blog of our 2008 trip which family and friends found fantastic. We travelled to New York, Niagara Falls, Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Big White, Vancouver, Whistler and finally LA before coming home. There are heaps of photos and some nice little videos taken thru the whole trip. No train stuff, however if you like reading travel blogs and especially if you are into snow sports, there is plenty of content to keep you interested. I am pretty proud of that blog. It was my first one and was very well received back home in Australia. If you are interested, you'll find it here Bobalski's Blog 2008. Feel free to leave a comment if you enjoy and ask as many questions as you like if you are contemplating doing any of the same things. I changed all the dates on the posts so it reads in chronological order, so start at the beginning. Depending on your settings, it may be several pages long, keep selecting 'older posts'. It finishes in LA with pictures from the Ice Hockey at the Staples Center. If you haven't got that far, you haven't finished...lol

I'll keep this thread updated as we move around the USA.

Cheers

Bob


----------



## Bob Dylan (Jan 22, 2011)

:hi: Nice trip, you Aussie folks sure know how to travel! ^_^ For sure youll see lots of the USA, wish I could afford to do the same in your country but alas as a poor, retired civil servant have to ride the trains in North America (VIA, Canadas version of Amtrak, is first rate, especially the Canadian and the Ocean! Done hesitate to ask questions/contribute to the forum, look forward to your blog/trip report for sure!  Bon voyage!


----------



## the_traveler (Jan 22, 2011)

Sounds like a great trip! And I agree, the US looks much different at 3'-15' than it does at 30,000'!






Maybe one of these days, I will take a train across the Big Pond! And maybe in Australia also!





Enjoy your trip!


----------



## Bobalski (Jan 28, 2011)

Thx Jim and the_T.

Jim, I can share your misery at not being able to afford a trip to Oz. In 2002 myself, wife and daughter did a 5 week trip including a Caribbean cruise and 2 weeks in Disneyworld, Orlando. I was getting US48c to 1 AU$. Almost sent us bankrupt. It is now nudging parity (99.7c as i type this right now). You should have come to Oz in 2002..lol

the_T, we'd love to have you over in Oz. Train travel is certainly not the great pastime in Aust as it is in the US, but I'm sure you'll find something suitable.

I just updated my blog (link at the bottom) with the last leg of our trip aboard the California Zephyr, all there to do now is pack and wait for next Thursday when it's wheels up and we are on our way over.

Cheers all.


----------



## Bobalski (Feb 4, 2011)

Arrived safe and sound in LA.

Head to Canada on Saturday for our first ski leg before the great AMTRAK adventure.


----------



## Bobalski (Feb 17, 2011)

Well the day has finally arrived, we leave our hotel in LAX in the next hour to head to Union Station and pick up our tickets for the next 12 days AMTRAK adventure.

I note that my trip report/blog has had quite a few visitors from the link below, I hope you enjoyed the adventures of our extended family over the past 2 weeks skiing in Canada. We have split from the group now (they are doing Vegas and Disneyland) and I placed my 18yo daughter on a plane back to Australia last night.

So for the next 2 weeks it's just my wife, myself and our roomette...lol

When I get a chance I'll put points of interest in this forum, but my blog below will be updated whenever I can get an internet connection.

Cheers.


----------

