Location, At
Home.
Great
Adventure Part 4.
We traveled
from Bellingham, WA, to Portland OR, by Amtrak Cascades. We were scheduled to
leave Bellingham at 8:45 AM but the train was delayed about 30 minutes due to a
medical emergency North of Bellingham. Apparently someone needed medical care
while enroute.
View of Mount Rainier from the train as we enter Seattle.
We arrived
in Portland at 3 PM and were met by our friends Thomas and Debbie. After a tour
of downtown Portland we drove to their house. We knew they had moved but did
not know they had bought a NEW house. It is a very nice house and the
workmanship is beautiful.
Portland Train Station.
Wednesday
was a day of catching up on each other’s lives. In the afternoon Debbie drove
me to see an old friend who lives nearby. We haven’t seen each other in several
years so we spent about 2 hours bringing each other up to date.
The chef in his new kitchen.
Thursday was
a day of sightseeing. We started with lunch with a view at Pittock mansion overlooking
downtown Portland. Thomas had fixed awesome sandwiches for lunch. There are
great views of downtown Portland and Mount Hood. Also, lots of flowers. The
veranda on the mansion was being restored.
View of Mount Hood from the Pittock Mansion.
After lunch
we toured the Lan Su gardens
in Chinatown which covers one city block in Portland. Amazing workmanship which
was done by craftsman imported to do the work. All stone cutting was done on
site. Beautiful workmanship.
Gate to China Town.
Workmanship on all the walkways.
We finished
up the day at the Jenkins estate where we toured the house which is now used
for conferences. We also toured the gardens. Another beautiful area on top of a
hill.
Dinner was
an antipasto plate Thomas had prepared. It was to die for.
Now that's a bottle of wine!
Friday was
Free Doughnut Day so we drove to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for our free doughnut.
Why not?
After the
doughnut splurge we drove stopped at an Asian market. This place had everything
you could imagine in the food line from fresh seafood to fresh meats and vegetables.
They also had all those items unique to Asian food.
We then
drove south to the town of Brooks to tour the Powerland Museums. First came
lunch with another of Thomas’s marvelous sandwiches after all we needed
sustenance to do all that walking.
Thomas making sandwiches. They were yummmy!
Powerland is
an 86 acre collection of old vehicles such as cars, trucks, and tractors most
of which run and are used annually for the big Steamup. We toured the old car
museum, a tractor museum, where I found a perfect Case SC tractor like the one
I learned to drive on the farm many years ago.
A lot of memories here.
We also
toured the Caterpillar museum and later the Truck museum. We barely hit the
highlights of this great collection of vehicles.
By then we
were pooped so drove back to Portland.
We lazed
around on Saturday morning and later Thomas and Debbie drove us to the Amtrak
station to catch the 2:25 PM Coast Daylight for home. This is a 27.5 hour
overnight trip.
Thomas and I waiting in the Portland Train Station.
We were an
hour late leaving Portland because three private cars were added to the back of
our train. It took that long to switch tracks, hookup the braking and
electricity and check it all out.
The three private cars attached to the train.
Thomas had
packed us sandwiches, cheese and crackers, and water for our trip which
provided most of our needs. Thank You Thomas.
Amtrak seats
are spacious and comfortable. At night there is a pullout section which gives
your legs support. Pillows are passed out before night fall. All to make you
more comfortable. There is Wi-Fi on the train but I couldn’t connect to it.
There are electrical outlets at every coach seat to charge those all important
phones and laptops.
We traveled
to Eugene, OR then southeast to Klamath Falls before heading southwest to
Dunsmuir, CA. We woke up north of Sacramento before sunrise. By 8:30 we were in
Oakland at Jack London Square.
The track
from Oakland south is not as smooth as the overnight portion; consequently, we
did not travel as fast as other parts of the trip. On very good track the train
is limited to 79 MPH.
We arrived
at our station right on time and Craig picked us up.
I asked
Clyda if she would do it again and she said “yes, but not right away”.
This truly
was a “Great Adventure” which we had talked about doing for some time.
High lights
of the trip for me was the Georgian Court Hotel in Vancouver, the float plane
ride, visiting family, Mark and Candi, their daughter Dawn and husband Matt,
and their son Michael and fiancé Lizzy. Michael is a recent graduate of
Washington State University and snagged a great job as a Civil Engineer.
Spending time with Thomas and Debbie and enjoying Thomas’s great cooking is
always a treat.
The trip
came out just as we planned it.
