Almost Border Crossing, Part 1: Bingen to Seattle

As people start wending their way to the Winter Olympics, I will think of them on their journeys.

I had a great adventure the other weekend. It started with an Amtrak train ride to Seattle, with one connection. Sounds easy enough. The train leaves Bingen Station a little after 8 am, with the connecting train coming through Portland after noon. Lloyd had a CPR class to go to early, so he would drop me off on his way. No sweat.

It would have been, if the Empire Builder hadn't been 3 plus hours late leaving Chicago. It isn't only O'Hare that has trouble with winter weather. Trains don't like big snowstorms either. Good thing I checked online. Now, if I was a seasoned train rider here, I'd have known to just drive the hour to Vancouver, where you can park for up to 3 days free, and meet the northbound Cascades there. But I'm not. And I didn't. Besides, I needed 4 days' parking. And I'll also clarify: it's Vancouver (NOT BC) Washington (NOT DC) near Portland, Oregon (NOT Maine).

My simple solution, put my LLBean backpack loaded with my weekend's worth of clothes on my back and hike 3.8 miles to the station. Heck, I had the time! So I got my exercise pre train ride, and was very pleased with the comfort of the backpack, which I had not yet used for its intended purpose. I got to the station and met Wilma, who'd been sitting there since the Senior Shuttle van dropped her off at 7:30 am. She was going to visit her daughter in Seattle. The train finally trudged in about 10:30 and dropped us off in Vancouver (WA) instead of Portland (OR) in plenty of time to catch the Amtrak Cascades to Seattle. If we'd gone to Portland, we'd have missed it.

The train ride was relaxing, but we were delayed along the way with track work and oncoming freight trains we had to wait for. They will be improving this corridor for high speed rail so delays will be the norm. Improvements are a good thing. And from the looks of the full cars, warranted. During this leisure travel time I learned that Wilma used to run a motel in Cascade Locks with her husband years ago. And that it was the very same motel that Lloyd lived in for 6 months back in 1976 when he worked for the Corps of Engineers on the second Bonneville Dam powerhouse. Small world.

We were an hour late getting to Seattle, but it wasn't a big deal for me. It was the end of the line, and I was hiking up to the Hilton from the train station, a mere mile. It was fun to be walking through downtown Seattle at rush hour, with darkness and a slight drizzle falling. Got my fix of city, and a really nice hotel night. My roommate from Yakima was in the resolutions committee meeting so I had the room, on the 25th floor and great view of downtown Seattle, all to myself for a bit, and took that nice hot shower I really needed after the hiking.

Friday nights at the Washington State Democrats Central Committee meetings are generally for networking. I met up with my friends from Skamania County, and we had a fantastic dinner a few blocks away at Wild Ginger. Fantastic meal, I'm already thinking about when I can get to Seattle again. We shared red curry squid, seafood Thai noodles with mussels, shrimp, squid and scallops, and Fragrant Duck with dumplings and plum sauce. We had a pot of jasmine tea with our meal, and the fragrance was amazing. We skipped the wine, thinking the hospitality suites would have offerings. Unfortunately, the only hospitality room was on the main floor of the hotel so it was hotel prices. We were one and done. It was noisy, and we decided to turn in early to be ready for the long day of meetings ahead.

Next up- Part 2: Seattle to Blaine