Coldfusion

Here's a man fishing from the beach in front of my hotel room. The fisherman have sometimes elaborate carts for carrying tackle, coolers, and bait--one I saw had a battery-operated air pump for a live well. Also, note the Great Blue Heron: there is almost always at least one near the fishermen, looking for handouts.

Coldfusion

Here's a White Pelican we saw on a nature cruise:

heartcore

I am enjoying sharing this journey with you! Thank you so much!

I am super-proud of you for both acknowledging the opportunities & availabilities to drink, & each time choosing not to because your sobriety is actually enhancing your journey!

One of my favorite threads right now. Please keep it coming!

heven

I enjoy travelling by train.

HelenofTroy

Coldfusion what a great trip! I'm late to the party here, I only found this thread yesterday (I thought I posted here yesterday but it must have been eaten by the internet monsters). I was going to suggest a good book and a camera to pass the time soberly on the train but it looks like you are way ahead of me. Those image stabilizing lenses are fabulous! I have two of them; a walkabout one and a big 200ml f2 one for wildlife or sports.

Now I want to take a big train trip

Coldfusion

Well, I am on the final portion of my trip. The trains do not connect well with the ferries or flights to my home island, so I pretty much have to spend one more night on the road. I am now on board a train from Portland, Oregon, to Bellingham, Washington. Tomorrow, I will back-track from Bellingham to Mount Vernon--this stretch of track goes right along the ocean, and I want to see it in the daylight.

My sister stood me up on our get-together in Portland. She has as many mental health issues as I, so I can't blame her for isolating. I had the option of meeting a SR member for a cup of coffee in New York City, and chickened out. But I did meet up with a member of a railroad forum for dinner in the dining car on one of the trains. For the most part, however, I sat alone in my room looking out the window or sat alone in the observation car for special scenery.

Here's a picture of my roomette on the train from Washington to Chicago. It's impossible to get a good picture that shows the whole thing. The roomettes on the eastern (single level) trains have an upper row of windows and a toilet and sink crammed into the room. The trains out west are double-decker, so the rooms actually have a lower ceiling and the upper berth is quite cramped with no windows. There is no toilet or sink in the room, but washrooms and a shower are located nearby--therefore, the lower berth is a little bigger than on the eastern trains.

It was not easy bringing my own pillow along, but I slept better because of it.

heartcore

You made it safe & sound! What a great adventure!

I'm sorry that your sister didn't meet you, but you were there, and tried, and that probably matters a lot to her deep down...

Coldfusion

So I have made it home. My wife met me at the train station, and we did a shopping run before going out to lunch before catching the ferry back to Orcas. We used to drink A LOT at that particular restaurant, so I am not surprised my wife was thinking about how we used to drink, but the following question she posed surprised me: "Didn't you have at least ONE glass of wine on the train?" Believe me, it was tempting especially since there were so many drinking my particular brand right around me. (It was by no means a fine wine, but it was the cheapest Pinot Grigio we could find that produced no headaches the next day...)

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the final leg of my trip. This is a random shot of Montana:

Coldfusion

Here's the Chinese Garden in Portland, decorated for New Year celebrations. The rocks and buildings for this garden were shipped from a sister city in China in 1999:

Okay--I'm having some trouble here. I got a message saying the file size was too large, so I tried cropping the photo and it came out as an even larger file size. This is a tiny version:

Coldfusion

And here's a view of my home, the San Juan Islands, from the Amtrak Cascades train I rode on for half an hour from Bellingham to Mount Vernon. I wanted to see the view from this stretch of track in the daylight, since I have traveled almost all our nation's rail system and I believed that this stretch was possibly the most beautiful coastal section. Despite, my bias, I think the stretch of coastal running on the Coast Starlight (Los Angeles to Seattle) in Southern California is more scenic--it is longer, and always traversed in daylight.

Coldfusion

One overwhelming impression I got from my trip is that people are addicted to their cell phones.

I brought a smart phone with me on this trip, but have otherwise never had a cell phone. (The area where my house is has no service.) There was ONE phone call I wanted to make that I needed a portable phone for--and that was calling the rental car company from the train so they would pick me up at the station. Well, I couldn't get the thing to work and ended up taking a cab. The only number I successfully called is my home phone, but that was good since the hotel in Florida where I stayed had no land lines in the rooms and it was nice to be able to talk to my wife.

I watched TV on vacation too, and do not normally at home. I saw a news item about improving relationships within families by having one "device-free dinner" per week. And they interviewed kids, who related how amazing it was to reconnect with their families.

In the "Sightseer Lounge Car" on the trains, many people would be on their phones and not looking out the windows.

My perspective on this is not only from not being continuously connected to a device, but also from having dealt with addiction. I saw withdrawal symptoms when the trains would traverse remote areas without service. But more than that, I saw people who needed their devices to function. Sounds like addiction to me!

lillyknitting

You say how much you adore the train, well in my mind I cannot envisage anything worse than getting out of my head and rendering myself unable to enjoy such a wonderous treat. Imagine then waking up the next day with all the resulting horrors: blackout, hangover from hell plus back on the merry-go-round once again. Have a truly wonderful & memorable trip x