The idea for this trip started as an inkling just one day before taking it. I was doing some railfanning on a sunny but chilly Sunday afternoon at the Salem Amtrak Station when I decided that it had been far too long since my last train trip. As I sat on a bench outside the station, I decided that I would take just a short day trip to Seattle, since it allowed me to be back in time for my full day of classes at the college on Tuesday. Between going to school, volunteering two days a week at the high school and working at my job, I have been needing a break from the everyday challenges of life. What better way to do this than to plan a day escape to the Emerald City?
For this trip, I was able to do something that was quite unconventional: I convinced my mother and one of my sisters to come along as well. Getting my sister to come along was no big feat; if you’ve read my previous travelogues from earlier Amtrak trips I’ve taken, you already know of my sister’s love for Seattle. Getting my mom to go, however, was a whole different story.
When it comes to some things, my mom tends to be somewhat of a worrier -- always full of questions and scenarios of what could happen at any given moment. I answered her questions, listened to her voiced concerns and met them with as much knowledge about Amtrak as I could. She wondered how much time we would spend on the train. She wondered what to do if she were to park her car at the station all day (The Station provides both short and long term parking). She wondered what kind of activities I had in mind for Seattle (No plan whatsoever!) After a few hours of explanation and letting her sift through the idea of train travel, she decided to go.
Since there are only a few trains between Salem and Seattle each day, the best idea is to catch the earliest train into Seattle and the latest train back to Salem in order to optimize the amount of time you have in the city. If you’re staying for more than one day with no plans, this isn’t a problem. However, if you only have one day in Seattle, it is more of a necessity. With that being said, the plan is to catch the train #500 out of Salem at 6:42 AM, and come back from Seattle on the 5:30 PM train, Amtrak #509. In order to do this, we had to be up at about 4 AM in order to be prepared to be at the station by 6. Looks like it’s going to be an early evening for us!
Monday, 6:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time), 02/13/2012, Salem, Oregon
The day dawned pretty chilly and a bit rainy, typical of a February day here in the Willamette Valley. Of course, everything appears to be a little bleak when you have to be up at four in the morning. A quick call to the Amtrak hotline (1-800-USA RAIL) tells me that our train is currently on time and is en route to Albany, which is one stop before Salem. After preparing our carry-on baggage and grabbing a quick bite, we’re out the door and on our way to the station at about twenty minutes after five.
We arrived at the station at about five minutes to six. There were many passengers who were already there, as well as many cars parked in the parking lot from travellers who had left them there for the duration of their trip. I think this helped to alleviate some of my mom’s fears about leaving her car in an open parking lot, although I had assured her that it would be far from empty. After making sure we have everything, we venture through the wet and cold into the Salem Amtrak Station. Built in 1918, this station has one of the better-kept interiors of the stations I’ve been to and reminds one of the glory days of rail travel in this country. While my mom and sister tagged their luggage, I went to print our tickets from the Quik-Trak ticket machine provided in the small vestibule of the Salem station. That vestibule also includes a vending machine with snacks for hungry travellers. After printing our tickets, the only thing left to do is wait for the train.
Monday, 8:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time), 02/13/2012 – Union Station, Portland, OR
Train 500 left Salem at 6:45, about three minutes later than the scheduled departure time. Between Salem and Portland there is only one station, which is in Oregon City. Between Oregon City and the Portland station, there is quite a bit of slack time built into the schedule to allow for freight trains, city traffic, etc. When the trains are running close to on time and everything aligns just right, you can actually be late coming from Eugene, Albany or Salem and make it into Portland earlier than the scheduled arrival. This happened to our train this morning, and we glided to a stop at Portland’s Union Station at 7:50 AM, a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
After taking a short fresh air break, we are back on the train. It winds its way out of Portland, past the stock yards, and on its way to the Columbia crossing and the next station, Vancouver. Before we are able to cross the Columbia, however, the train slides to a stop. After waiting for a brief moment, the conductor comes on the intercom and explains the reason for the delay:
“In 1856, future President Abraham Lincoln represented a railroad company in a lawsuit against a company that controlled barge traffic on the Mississippi River to find out which held precedence. The barge company won that lawsuit, and the ruling was stated that river traffic took precedence over rail traffic. With that being the case, we’ll be on our way just as soon as these Columbia barges clear the bridge and the tracks are realigned.”
It would be nice if more Amtrak employees could have fun like this. I think that providing information in a fun yet informative way would make their passengers more sympathetic to delays like this one. Eventually the barges did clear the river, and we were on our way again. Unfortunately, however, it was not without some delay as we rolled into Vancouver, WA at 9:06 AM, 21 minutes late. From here on out we continued to be late, and eventually arrived into Seattle at 12:40 PM, 40 minutes late. From here, we need to be back to Seattle’s King Street Station by about 4:45 in order to catch the last train back to Salem.
Monday, 4:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time), 02/13/2012 – King Street Station, Seattle, WA
The four hours we spent in Seattle went by rather quickly. We went from the train station over to the ferry terminal to have lunch. This is mainly because I knew where it was, knew what the food offerings were and it allowed us to grab something quickly so not to lose any more time in the city. The ferry terminal was quite empty, as empty as I’ve ever seen it; however, I attribute this to it being the middle of winter and also the middle of the day. The only time I’ve ever been on the ferry has been early morning, mid-afternoon on a weekend, and once late at night on the last ferry out, so seeing it this empty is somewhat of a surprise for me.
Upon finishing our lunch, we headed over to the world-famous Pike Place Market. I had been here once before already and I thought that since my mom and sister like things like window shopping that this would be the perfect place to spend the remainder of our time in Seattle. I gave my sister my camera because I had already been there and really didn’t feel like taking any pictures today. She took some pretty cool pictures of various signs around Seattle and around Pike Place, so I’ll post some of those pictures at the end of this travelogue. We stopped at various venders, including one who did some pretty impressive graphic art. There was a piece that he had done that I would really like to have had, but I couldn’t justify spending $80 on it. Luckily, the vendor was able to help me discard my sad mood when a man that looked EXACTLY like John F. Kennedy passed the booth and he popped off with “Hello Mr. President, have a great day!” Needless to say we laughed really hard, and the JFK look-alike got a chuckle out of it as well.
After spending about three and a half hours at Pike Place, we returned to King Street Station to catch our train home. One thing my sister and mom both decided is that transportation by taxi is definitely not something they enjoy. Since I have been in larger cities such as Seattle, taking a taxi is not as big a deal to me now as it used to be, but I definitely understand their point of view and I make sure to tip my taxi driver extra when he provides a safe, smooth and quick ride to the desired destination.
Monday, 5:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time), 02/13/2012 – King Street Station, Seattle, WA
Although our tickets this morning were in coach, we are returning to Salem in Business Class. For being mom’s first train ride, I wanted her to experience both classes offered on the Amtrak Cascades, which is the Amtrak Route we travelled on today. It also allows us priority boarding and a coupon for a free item from the Café Car. (For more of a description on business class and the services provided by the Café Car, read my travelogue from July 2011.) We departed Seattle on time and continued to run mostly on time all the way into Portland. There were two gentlemen in business-type attire who already smelled of alcohol by the time we were leaving Seattle and kept going to the Café Car to purchase more. During one of their forays, I asked the conductor if we could be moved to a different part of the car and because the train was fairly empty tonight, he complied.
Between Portland and Salem, my sister and I went to use our cards for the purchase in the Café Car. While there, we met a nice Café Car attendant named Isabella who was interested to know about how we liked train travel. I told her of my travels on Amtrak and that I planned a long-distance trip for this summer on Amtrak’s Empire Builder route, she became quite excited. Apparently, she is moving to this route in a few months and will be either a Lounge Car attendant or a Dining Car attendant. I forget which it was that she said she would be doing, but perhaps I will see her later this year on my Empire Builder trip.
We arrived on time into Salem at 10:17, and after grabbing a late dinner we arrived home at about 11:15 PM. This was a fairly uneventful trip as far as the train travel, but after putting more than 500 miles under our belts we were definitely ready to call it a day by the time we got home! Stay tuned for my next rail travel blog, which will most likely be coming to you from Amtrak’s Empire Builder route.
- The Musical Traveler -
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