# Coast Starlight July 11 2009 Return Home



## sunchaser (Jul 17, 2009)

We spent nine days with several of hubby's cousins, including two visits to the 'Oyster House' in Olympia. Hubby did his best to eat as much seafood as he could, I was happy to smell the salt air.  I really wanted to get my feet wet, but was discouraged against doing so. We were next to the Puget Sound, and the water there was pretty dirty with gas from the boats. It would not have bothered me!  . Oh well, at least I could drink in the views. Hubby's cousin in law's brother had just passed away suddenly the week before, so he had just returned from his funeral.  Some cousins came down from Canada to see hubby, they seemed to all have great time. Fourth of July rolled around & we went to a little lake for fishing, sunning, & eating. (All got skunked fishing)  The following Monday, cousin in law got word that his dad was growing steadily more ill. He had been sick for a long time.  So he drove down to be with his mom & dad. Then his dad passed away.  So cousin needed to go too. :huh: She left Saturday, just before we left on the Starlight to go home. We took her out to the 'Oyster House' Fri night, bought T shirts & hats for all.  

After an enjoyable visit with several cousins over nine days, we prepared to return home. I had everything packed, but this time I used an extra backpack & denim bag I had brought as overnight bags. I had rearranged the big bags so that they all could be checked at SAC. I could not check them at Olympia, as they don't have the facilities for checked baggage.

After an interesting ride to the station courtesy of a friend of the cousin, (she got lost, even with the map I had) we arrived about 10:15 to wait for the 11:21 arrival of the Southbound Coast Starlight, #11. There was an announcement that it would be 10 minutes late, but it was only 5 minutes later that it showed up on time! Hubby was trying to get video of it arriving.

As it arrived, from the open sleeper vestibule window, the Conductor was calling out to us, " Mr & Mrs _______, come to this door please!!" :lol: We were boarded right away by Cruz, who was friendly & pleasant. He loaded the bags downstairs for us, and we headed upstairs. He headed to our room right away to let us know he had already reserved lunch for us at 12:00 in the diner. He then asked us if we would like some Champagne, we said yes. It was a nice thing to have just before lunch. I would not do that at home, but it was fun anyway. I told him his reputation had preceded him, he was slightly embarassed but you could tell he was pleased to be recognized that way. He told us with a grin that Chris had called him and warned him we were coming. You could tell he was teasing us back. As we headed to the diner, I noticed that the coffee station was well stocked, clean & complete with a couple of carnations. I could tell Cruz had been on the job for a long time, and enjoyed it too. 

We went to the diner and were seated with a couple that looked familiar-it was the couple with the golf clubs from ten days back! They were very nice, frequent train riders. I think they had been married 46 years. It was good to see many couples that had been married so long. You could tell they really love riding the trains & still enjoyed each other's company. That seemed to be the norm on the train too. We had the Pork Green Chile stuff, it was alright. After a nice lunch, we went back to our room, we watched the scenery for a while & then had some of the Hogue Pinot Grigio we had bought in Washington. We had consumed the other wine at cousin's house instead of on the train.

We had our first stop at Portland at 1:30, the usual smoke/fresh air stop. This time, we did make it into the station were hubby shot some video. Very nice station, lots of people waiting to board.

At around 3:30, we headed down to the Parlour Car for the wine tasting. While we were waiting, we heard an announcement overhead; it was Craig, our Parlour Car Attendant from two weeks earlier!  He was in the Lounge Car! I made a mental note to go see him after the tasting. A lady joined us at our table for the wine tasting. She was very friendly, quite happy to be there. Her hubby had decided to nap while she went to the tasting. Their children had paid for a trip on the Starlight as an a 40th Anniversary present!  She was a lot of fun, we had a good time together. They used glass wine glasses, just like last time, the wines were the same. The cheese was slightly different. Greg was our Parlour Car Attendant, alot of fun and very knowledgable too. I think the whole group was having so much fun, he forgot to ask trivia questions! I neglected to mention they use real coffee mugs with the Coast Starlight illustration on them. After the wine tasting, hubby wandered back to the room for a nap, I went in search of Souvenirs. Greg had a quite a selection, wine glasses, polo shirts, hats, mugs, pins, baby spoons, all with the Coast Starlight logo on them. I got 2 mugs, 2 pins, & a hat for hubby.  Greg carefully wrapped the mugs in bubble bags & placed them in a wine gift bag. Craig had wandered thru while the wine tasting was going on, we said hi & I asked him if he had any blankets. He had 2 left, I asked him to stash one for me. After the tasting & getting the mugs, I went down & bought the Amtrak Blanket. It's white with the Amtrak Logo on it. When I went back to the room hubby said I should have got the playing cards too. Oh well, we will get some next time!!

Before dinner, Cruz stopped by to give us the train run down & set up our reservation for dinner in the Parlour Car. He asked us if we were experienced train riders. I told him this was our third train ride in less than 2 weeks, he giggled and called us 'train virgins'....Cruz had just celebrated 25 years with Amtrak. I explained that his reputation had preceded him. I had read many trip reports by Steve Grande on trainweb.com mentioning what a great attendant Cruz was. This was before I found the Amtrak Unlimited forum. It was one of the main sources I had about the special things available on the Coast Starlight, & really increased the anticipation of our trip!! I asked him about if they usually offer Champagne upon boarding, yes but he said not late at night. That explains why Chris didn't offer it upon boarding the Northbound Coast Starlight. He said they had already had to remove from the train a couple of smokers & a guy in coach who had threatened to use the coach car as his bathroom! Yuck! :angry:

We went to dinner in the Parlour Car at 5:00. The lady that shared a table with us during the wine tasting was there with her husband. I sat with her & the hubbies sat together. The guys were talking, & it turns out he was a marine & so was Greg, our attendant (just like hubby). They all served around the same time! Her hubby missed going to Vietnam by a view months, but hubby is pretty sure he and Greg knew each other while there because they were in the same place, same time! What a small world! The guys seemed to have a great conversation together. We all had the Flat Iron Bordelaise, it was fork tender and had nice flavor, but hubby said it was like a piece of stew beef rather than steak. We both had the Pecan Tart, which was pretty good. We then headed back to our room to recover from dinner. Cruz dropped by to see if we wanted more Champagne, we declined the offer. Hubby was all stretched out on the sofa, snoozing. He also asked when we wanted the beds made up. He said he normally turned in around 10, but we were a bit behind on reaching Klamath Falls, so he was willing to wait for that stop to change the beds over. He also said he would wake us up about a 1/2 hour before we arrive in Sacramento in the morning so we could get ready to detrain. We arrived in Klamath Falls at 10:15 for smoke/fresh air/crew change stop, spent some time there, then got back on board to our bedroom. Just before we changed for bed, Greg announced the 'nighttime sweet' available in the Parlour Car-Ghirardelli Chocolates!!! I went down and got some for hubby. We turned in, hubby sleeping soundly. I woke up early (as usual). Cruz had the Coffee ready, so I went and got a cup, enjoyed that then got another for me & hubby & woke him up. We were already dressed, Cruz stopped by to wake us but had noticed we were already up. When we arrived in SAC, Cruz grabbed a RedCap for our stuff, we bid him goodbye & headed into the station to wait for the California Zephyr!

This trip on the Starlight was even better than the first one. There were many reasons, including knowing what to expect & also the staff combination and the other pax were a lot of fun too! We were much more relaxed the second time thru, I think that helped as well. Definitely a trip to do again if we can!!! If we do, look for us in the Parlour Car!!!! :lol:


----------



## JayPea (Jul 17, 2009)

Regarding the dirty water of Puget Sound, that's why the locals call it Pungent Sound. :lol: Great report again and glad your return trip went even better than the first one.


----------



## jackal (Jul 18, 2009)

Great report!!

Glad to see that my experience with Cruz wasn't isolated. He really is a great attendant!

If I'd have known you were going to be on his train, I'd have asked you to make sure he got my tip! (I don't remember if I've posted this here before, but when he was my attendant on my day trip from SIM to PRB, I was so excited to be there that I totally left without tipping! On my return south, I gave a $10 to another attendant who was apparently good friends with Cruz and he said he'd be sure to pass it on. 

I think Greg was our PPC attendant, too! Fun guy.

Look forward to your next trip and next report!


----------



## sunchaser (Jul 18, 2009)

I'm sorry I couldn't get the trip reports posted sooner-I didn't get on the computer much while we were visiting. If you gave the tip to Chris, he was the one who callled Cruz to verify that we would have him on the return trip. I would assume that whoever you gave the tip to would have forwarded it to Cruz. All of the attendants we had were good, and each of them excelled in service in their own way. Having said that, two stood out above the others in overall service.

We were not looking for extreme pampering, just basics. (Cleanliness, ice, coffee, etc.)


----------

