Day 1, continued

So, I wasn’t sure that today could get much more intersting. I woke up this morning and checked-out from the hotel. I had them store my luggage, and decided to head up to Pike Place Market. That place was really neat. It does, however, make me happy that we are big enough to have the strip district. There were tons of people having things shipped from there. I’ve seen people do it in the strip, too, but didn’t quite realize how lucky we are.

I picked up some hard cheese and bread for the train trip. The cheese will keep without refidgeration, so I can have it for breakfasts and the like. I also picked up some roasted peanuts and almonds. Yum.

After that bit of exploration, I found some lunch at a pub near there. Then I headed back to the hotel to get my bags. On the way from the hotel to the train station, I stopped at a Starbucks. Hey, I couldn’t resist! Hehe.

I got to the train station at about 3pm for a 4:45 train. I figured that was early enough. I went to the ticket counter to check if they had any upgrades available. That’s when they told me that the train never came into Seattle overnight–it went straight into Portland. See, the westbound train splits in Spokane. Half goes to Seattle, and half goes to Portland. The westbound was over six hours late when it got to Spokane, so they put all of the Seattle folks onto buses in Spokane, and the train went straight to Portland. This left us without a train in Seattle. Argh. So we were being bused to Spokane, where we would meet the train.

The buses finally arrived at around 4:45. On our way to the buses, they were handing out free subway boxed lunches and water. They also put extra water and lunches on the buses. When we were getting underway, our nice driver told us that we were only going to Pasco, and we’d meet the train there. That was a lot closer that Spokane, so we were all happy.

On the way, we stopped at a rest stop in the mountains. It was nice. We were there for about 30 minutes. When we got back on, the driver was trying to make the video thing work. Someone had asked to play a dvd. One thing that I definitely don’t understand is why people need manufactured entertainment when the best movie in the world is playing right outside the window. Seriously. I put on some ipod music (thank you Jenny 🙂 ) and watched the scenery.

Something important to understand at this point is that I never thought I’d be gettin so familiar with the floor of the train station at Pasco, a town I had never known until today. I’m writing this from my blackberry. On the floor. In Pasco. We were delivered on time (around 10pm). The train was supposed to be here at 11pm, running a little late. We arrived to an announcement stating that the train is estimated to arrive at 1:30am. Argh. The station here is pretty small. I have a little spot against a wall, with some floorspace for sitting. I might go outside for a bit, just to walk around for a little while.

I can’t wait to actually be on the train. More to come later….

Jonathan