amtrakwolverine
Engineer
This is going by memory so there will be stuff that was left out so fill in the blanks.
Friday.
Woke up around 7am and went down for breakfast. I had the morning scramble which was good. I went back to the room after breakfast and waited till it was time to meet the group downstairs in the lobby. We ran into penny who was heading out to a trip to whole foods(she made it no wrong turns this time). Downstairs we met eric,Jim,bill and a few others. We then walked to the Pinoneer square station and took the bus on rails to the westlake station so those who need to put money on there orca cards could do so. We waited a few minutes for everyone to meet us there and were joined by bettie and others. We then took the light rail to othello station. After that we took a trolly bus to 5th and jackson and heres were it gets crazy. The bus arrived and it said smile in the window. We got on the bus and the driver was a hoot.He bypassed all stops for us and told corny jokes the whole way and he called it the smiley bus. It´s great when a driver takes pride in there job. He did not do this just for our group. He does this all the time according to one of our members. We then rode the sounder transit commutrter rail to Tacoma dome and back. While in Tacoma we rode a short trip to theater district and back then rode the return sounder back to Seattle. When it came time for dinner at 7:30PM we were 45 minutes early so we waited around outside listing to eirc tell the secretes of the show indentrsy. We went in at 7:30Pm and were put at 2 seperate tabels
since some custermers were taking there time leaving. I had The large bowl of clam chowder and the 4 piece of mac and jacks fish N chips which were good.After dinner we waited for alan and others to finish so we could leave to togethering but there were taking to long so anotheny said lets so and we took light rail back to hotels.
Saturday.
Got up at 6Am got dressed and made our way to the train station to begain boarding the cascades train as a group. We were joined by cascadia who could only attend the saturday activitys. The Group got a set of seats together sincewe were doing a group boarding. We departed on time some of us in coach some in buisness. we were on time untill we got to the portland BNSF swing bridge.A bardge was going under the bridge so we couldn´t cross untill the bridge was closed then we had to wait for the portland section of the empire builder to cross first then we had to follow it for a while then we had a bridge that the signals did not want to trip so we had to wait for the bridge personal to walk the bridge to make sure everything was Ok. We were about 40 minutes late getting into portland. The schedule was somewhat shot so we decided to take a hour for lunch then cut back on some of the activitys to get back on time. We had lunch in a food court in a mall. I had a turkey breast footlong from subway with swiss cheese and lettuce.After we were done me penny and dick decided to get some icecream from a ben and jerrys. I had a hot fudge sunday which came in a plastic bowl and and was huge.After our lunch and snack we made our way to the light rail platform and did a short turn on portland street car and a couple others. We also did a run on the portland sky tram which used by the OHSU collage to shave a hour of the driving time from the winding roads.We then took the street car to the blue line and did half of the route on it then took the green line to the Portland station. I decided to Upgrade my coach ticket to buisness class since 90% of the gathering memembers were going business going back. the ticket agent honered the old price so I only had to pay $16 for the upgrade and got a $3 off coupon for the cafe car. I got a cup of clam chowdah and a cheese pizza and a diet pepsi. We were only 5 minutes late getting back Into seattle.We said goodby to cascadia and I ended up Walking back to the hotel beating dick alan and penny back.
Sunday.
Woke up around 7:35AM and went down for breakfast. I again had the morning scramble. After i had finished and was making my way to the elelvator I saw alan and his mom going to breakfest We didn´t say anything as we passed. Went back down around 9AM to meet what was left of the group to do a light rail run to the airport and back. Once at the airport we were greated by patrick and alice. We Then took the light rail back to chinatown internation district and had took a ferry ride.
We had lunch before boarding the ferry in the ferry terminal. I again had a subway footlong. After our lunch we boarded the ferry and did a round trip across pudget sound. While on the ferry Alan asked if anyone would be interested in another group lunch. Those who were going to still be in town agreed. patrick and alice backed out. After we got off the ferry it was decided to go to elliets on pier 56 for the group dinner. after the ferry ride we did a turn on the South lake union trolly(S.L.U.T). Then we took the mono rail to the space needle. it was here that alice and patrick left us while those of us that wanted to went up to the top of the space needle. It was not crowded so there were not very long lines. After the space needle vist i got a Shirt and a hat from the gift shop. We met at the base at 4;30PM and took the mono rail back to downtown settle.We were running late so it was suggested we all take cabs to dinner or we would be 15 minutes late. At the dinner I had the cod and chips and a bowl of clam chowder and a root beer. After dinner Dick and a few others took a cab back to the hotel and I walked back to the hotel with dick beating me there this time.
Friday.
Woke up around 7am and went down for breakfast. I had the morning scramble which was good. I went back to the room after breakfast and waited till it was time to meet the group downstairs in the lobby. We ran into penny who was heading out to a trip to whole foods(she made it no wrong turns this time). Downstairs we met eric,Jim,bill and a few others. We then walked to the Pinoneer square station and took the bus on rails to the westlake station so those who need to put money on there orca cards could do so. We waited a few minutes for everyone to meet us there and were joined by bettie and others. We then took the light rail to othello station. After that we took a trolly bus to 5th and jackson and heres were it gets crazy. The bus arrived and it said smile in the window. We got on the bus and the driver was a hoot.He bypassed all stops for us and told corny jokes the whole way and he called it the smiley bus. It´s great when a driver takes pride in there job. He did not do this just for our group. He does this all the time according to one of our members. We then rode the sounder transit commutrter rail to Tacoma dome and back. While in Tacoma we rode a short trip to theater district and back then rode the return sounder back to Seattle. When it came time for dinner at 7:30PM we were 45 minutes early so we waited around outside listing to eirc tell the secretes of the show indentrsy. We went in at 7:30Pm and were put at 2 seperate tabels
since some custermers were taking there time leaving. I had The large bowl of clam chowder and the 4 piece of mac and jacks fish N chips which were good.After dinner we waited for alan and others to finish so we could leave to togethering but there were taking to long so anotheny said lets so and we took light rail back to hotels.
Saturday.
Got up at 6Am got dressed and made our way to the train station to begain boarding the cascades train as a group. We were joined by cascadia who could only attend the saturday activitys. The Group got a set of seats together sincewe were doing a group boarding. We departed on time some of us in coach some in buisness. we were on time untill we got to the portland BNSF swing bridge.A bardge was going under the bridge so we couldn´t cross untill the bridge was closed then we had to wait for the portland section of the empire builder to cross first then we had to follow it for a while then we had a bridge that the signals did not want to trip so we had to wait for the bridge personal to walk the bridge to make sure everything was Ok. We were about 40 minutes late getting into portland. The schedule was somewhat shot so we decided to take a hour for lunch then cut back on some of the activitys to get back on time. We had lunch in a food court in a mall. I had a turkey breast footlong from subway with swiss cheese and lettuce.After we were done me penny and dick decided to get some icecream from a ben and jerrys. I had a hot fudge sunday which came in a plastic bowl and and was huge.After our lunch and snack we made our way to the light rail platform and did a short turn on portland street car and a couple others. We also did a run on the portland sky tram which used by the OHSU collage to shave a hour of the driving time from the winding roads.We then took the street car to the blue line and did half of the route on it then took the green line to the Portland station. I decided to Upgrade my coach ticket to buisness class since 90% of the gathering memembers were going business going back. the ticket agent honered the old price so I only had to pay $16 for the upgrade and got a $3 off coupon for the cafe car. I got a cup of clam chowdah and a cheese pizza and a diet pepsi. We were only 5 minutes late getting back Into seattle.We said goodby to cascadia and I ended up Walking back to the hotel beating dick alan and penny back.
Sunday.
Woke up around 7:35AM and went down for breakfast. I again had the morning scramble. After i had finished and was making my way to the elelvator I saw alan and his mom going to breakfest We didn´t say anything as we passed. Went back down around 9AM to meet what was left of the group to do a light rail run to the airport and back. Once at the airport we were greated by patrick and alice. We Then took the light rail back to chinatown internation district and had took a ferry ride.
We had lunch before boarding the ferry in the ferry terminal. I again had a subway footlong. After our lunch we boarded the ferry and did a round trip across pudget sound. While on the ferry Alan asked if anyone would be interested in another group lunch. Those who were going to still be in town agreed. patrick and alice backed out. After we got off the ferry it was decided to go to elliets on pier 56 for the group dinner. after the ferry ride we did a turn on the South lake union trolly(S.L.U.T). Then we took the mono rail to the space needle. it was here that alice and patrick left us while those of us that wanted to went up to the top of the space needle. It was not crowded so there were not very long lines. After the space needle vist i got a Shirt and a hat from the gift shop. We met at the base at 4;30PM and took the mono rail back to downtown settle.We were running late so it was suggested we all take cabs to dinner or we would be 15 minutes late. At the dinner I had the cod and chips and a bowl of clam chowder and a root beer. After dinner Dick and a few others took a cab back to the hotel and I walked back to the hotel with dick beating me there this time.
