Monday 2nd June - cont'd

After we'd eaten we logged onto the wi-fi, checked our emails and sent a picture of Anne outside LA station to Ian & Sheila. Managed to Skype Tracey and have a brief chat. Difficult because we didn't want to annoy other passengers by talking too loud. Lounge got very busy and then we found that our train was delayed.  Eventually we were told the train would be arriving in 14 mins and we could walk to the platform. We took the walk rather than the electric buggy and sat on the platform. The train came in before too long and this time we knew exactly what to do, stowing the larger suitcase on the ground floor luggage rack. Our room was a slightly different layout as it is the end room. The shower/toilet is central rather than in a corner and we don't have the full length mirror. We were able to get ourselves sorted fairly quickly. We left about an hour late.

We were going to go to the observation car but found that right next to our car is the Parlour Car. This has armchairs at one end, inward facing settees in the centre and tables at the other end, next to a small cafe bar. The Parlour Car serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, but with a more restricted menu. Also the Parlour Car is for Sleeper passengers only and doesn't get too busy.

The main entertainment is Dominic who runs it. Most people in the sleepers are with Day Tripper Tours and many of them are great fun.

As we started off we managed to get connected to wi-fi which is only in the Parlour Car. We managed to Skype Ian & Sheila but it was only brief as we didn't like to talk in the Parlour Car but that's the only place where the wi-fi reaches. In fact once we'd left LA suburbs the wi-fi dropped out and never came back on again.

We started off going through suburbs - Burbank, etc. Then we moved out into the crop growing areas. We went up through Van Nuys, San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, before reaching the coast which we followed for the next 100 miles.

We went through Santa Barbara, we saw the Ellwood Oil Field and left the coast at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The beaches and sea look gorgeous but it was noticeable that the few people in the sea were wearing wet suits and locals told us that the sea is very cold.

We had lunch in the Parlour Car - an enormous ‘Greek' salad with loads of fresh fruit on it. During the afternoon we passed through areas where loads of salad, etc was being grown. People from southern California were quite astounded to see all the irrigation taking place as they are in a long drought and in many places are grubbing up trees and are prohibited from planting new crops.

We had a stop at San Louis Obispo and then shortly after that went through the famous Horseshoe Bend where everybody rushed to take photos.

We sat for the afternoon admiring the scenery and chatting. Very difficult to take photos from the moving train. Lots of blurry shots. In mid afternoon they held a wine tasting for everybody in the sleeper cars. Basically this consisted of everybody drinking wine as fast as Dominic could serve it. This made a change for the 'Golden Girls' (four American Ladies of a certain age) who seemed to have been downing vodka for the rest of the day. We left them to it and made some room for others to sit down.

Went to the dining car for dinner. The dining car here is much less well organised than on the Southwest Chief. We had to keep asking for cutlery and for glasses for our beer. It all seemed a bit chaotic and disorganised. We both had catfish which was nice. As we were ready to leave we noticed that the group of 4 behind us were Brits - they were from Somerset. It turned out they were part of a large group on a Great Railway Journeys tour. We hadn't seen them before because they're in coach seating and not allowed into the Parlour Car. Presumably they're in coach seating because they were leaving the train sometime during the night. Worth noting that they were not terribly happy with the accommodation.

Came back to Parlour Car and sat chatting and watching the scenery until about 8.30pm. Slightly more difficult to make up our room but did so and went to bed. Did Sunday's crossword which we'd downloaded. During the day we'd had several stops to let other trains pass etc. By the time we went to bed we were at least 90mins behind schedule. This was worrying because it meant it would be late evening by the time we got to Seattle. There was also continued confusion over whether or not the train would be terminating at Eugene with a bus connection for us to Portland, then train again on to Seattle.

We also discovered that on the ground floor of the Parlour Car there was a small cinema, seating 18 people. It was showing Gravity.

Tuesday 3rd June

Not a good night's sleep. We can't seem to stop the airflow into the bedroom which is quite noisy and cool. Also, probably because we are directly over the wheels, the ride is quite bumpy and several things rattle in the room.

By the time we woke up we were in Oregon and much to our surprise we were back on schedule - not quite sure how this happened unless there's a lot of slack built into the timetable. Les got some coffee and we set about our now well-practised routine of showering etc. Anne even managed to wash and dry her hair before breakfast. Les was able get off briefly at Klamath Falls while Anne dried her hair.

Had breakfast in the Parlour Car. The light Continental breakfast was huge - bowl of fresh fruit, half a pink grapefruit, yoghurt, a croissant and a blueberry muffin/scone. Stayed in the Parlour Car, greatly entertained by the banter between Dominic and the ‘Golden Girls', who started on the vodkas straight after breakfast.

Scenery terrific going up through wooded mountains, passed Upper Klamath Lake. Unfortunately, although this is 40 miles long, the chances for photos were very limited as you're mostly looking through trees. We then started a stretch which has 22 tunnels.  Again there are lovely glimpses across valleys and down into river gorges but unless you actually have the camera in hand and ready it's almost impossible to photograph. We're typing this at our breakfast table in the Parlour Car where we're staying for lunch. Midway through the morning we suddenly discovered that the settings on Anne's camera had somehow changed, and she was only taking medium sized images, We reset it to large. The smaller ones are OK on screen, but may cause problems if we want to print them. The change happened a few weeks ago.

In the end we had lunch slightly earlier than planned so that we had finished by the time we got to Eugene. Lunch was fine - salmon bagel for Les and spinach & ricotta cannelloni for Anne. After lunch we moved to the settees where we watched the scenery and chatted.

At Eugene large numbers of people got out including the large party from DayTripper. After this the train seemed to be relatively empty. Anybody who did get on obviously went to the coach cars as they wouldn't need sleeping accommodation and so we never saw them.

After Eugene we stopped at Salem which we now know to be the state capitol of Oregon. Managed to grab a shot of the ‘golden axeman' on top of the Capitol building which is the first one we've seen which doesn't have a dome.

As we headed for Seattle we had a few unscheduled stops while freight trains came through. As we got to Portland there were more rivers and we seemed to have left the mountains. At Portland itself we had a delay whilst a tall ship came up river and the rail bridge was lifted. The fireboat greeted the ship with a jet of bright red water.

From Portland onwards we seemed to be either alongside or crossing rivers all the way. Unfortunately all the bridges are trusses so it was difficult to get photos. Eventually Les resorted to continuous shooting in the hope of getting one unobscured picture out of a burst of 6.

From Portland the train seemed even emptier. We'd booked dinner for 5.15pm but eventually Dominic shifted us back to 5.45. Anne had persuaded him to save her some of the cannelloni and Les had the ‘shortrib' - basically a large piece of braised beef. This meant that we could stay in the Parlour Car. Around dinner time we finally found someone else who'd had the same train detour as us. She was a woman travelling on her own to a high school reunion and she was equally annoyed as she'd missed some of the events. It now seems odd to us that we didn't find anyone else and we start to wonder what's going on, but I suppose we'll never know.

We had a short sit down after dinner and then went back and packed everything for the final time so that we could just pick up our bags and detrain at Seattle. When we got back to our bedroom Les went into the loo. While he was there Dominic came on the tannoy offering to put Les's camera on eBay! Anne returned to get it. The very last bit into Seattle up Puget Sound was very pleasant. One of the other travellers pointed out that the bridge we were approaching at Tacoma was the famous or infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge that fell to pieces in a high wind in the late 1950s. Les told the man that he'd been shown film of it as part of his degree course in the 60s. While we were talking Les returned to the subject of the camera being left behind. He turned to Anne and said “You won't let me forget this will you? You'll keep bringing it up. It will be just like your mother and the harpoon gun. I didn't know it was primed, and she wasn't hurt that badly.” Absolutely zero reaction from the Americans, but we'll try it again somewhere else.

The train put on some speed at the very end and we arrived in Seattle fractionally ahead of time. A very slight anti-climax as the train was virtually empty and we simply stepped off on our own. We should be used to it by now but the inside of King Street Station was amazing - all ornate white marble. We got a cab immediately and exactly as Dominic had said, the fare to the hotel was $6.50.

Hotel is fine. We're on the 12th floor and when we look out of the window there is the Space Needle a few blocks away. Having unpacked we walked across the road to the grocery store that we'd spotted. This turned out to be amazing. As well as normal groceries they have a high class deli with loads of ready-made salads etc - probably for local workers at lunch time. They also have a small cafe. We bought some milk and then stopped in the hotel bar for a beer on our way back. Not too expensive - $11 for two beers.

Managed to stay awake and do the crossword. Our latest night for weeks.