Train Trip: Day Four

Like I mentioned in my last post (I think?), we slept through all of Nebraska and woke up in Iowa. We both woke up a lot during the night but still managed to sleep in til 8am. It's amazing how your body remembers how to do that after just a couple of mornings with no early bird kids waking you between 5 and 6!  

Iowa was not quite as flat as we expected, but still really flat compared to the Rockies we'd just gone through. We took very few pictures of the scenery.  

Another red barn! Matt was quick to capture it with his camera; I just hate that it's blocked by that tree. 

Remember how I said Matt kept pulling out cards with birthday surprises? This day I got a thirty minute foot massage! Now that's how I do a train trip. :) 

We pulled in to the station alongside the Chicago River an hour earlier than expected. We had to wait a few minutes before they had room for us to pull up.  

Ready to get off the train and explore Chicago!  

While in Chicago for a little over a day, we're staying at the Hyatt Regency. Just like in San Fran, we're on the 20th floor with a spectacular view! 

We changed clothes and headed out. Our first stop was Millenium Park to take obligatory pictures at the Bean.   This tourist attraction wasn't around when Matt lived here 18 years ago! 

We missed our lunch in the plane so good was next on the to-do list. Also, it was really cold so we wanted to be inside! We stopped at a Shake Shack and split a burger and fries. They were so yummy! I wouldn't mind having a Shake Shack close to home.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening walking Magnificent Mile. We have absolutely no extra room in our suitcase and duffel bag so I couldn't really do any shopping! Such a shame.  

For dinner we ended up at the sports bar in our hotel.  It was a win-win because Matt got to watch March Madness games and I got to get out of the cold and drink a delicious mango martini. 

Chicago deep dish pizza is on the agenda for day five. Let's hope it doesn't disappoint! 

Train Trip: Day Three

Day three was spent on the train again. We woke up in our tiny room after a night of so-so sleep to see the deserts of Utah.  I could watch the scenery while laying in bed! 

Here's a gas station in the middle of the desert. So weird. Nothing else was around it. But I guess if you were driving through you'd be excited to see this.  

We had our first breakfast on the train and it was good. Matt had what you see below and I just had pancakes. The coffee was not that great. We dined with a couple of modern day reformed hippies that do a lot of train traveling. She is a school nurse so they were on their way home after spending spring break in Napa Valley. We learned a lot from them - like that our next train trip should be Seattle to Los Angeles. We'll see! 

Oh, they also travel with a stack of two dollar bills for tips. Their stack was brand new and in sequential order. She said waiters always love to get them! She also carries silver dollars to give out. Maybe we'll do that next time. We've already learned our lesson to have smaller bills because we had to make change at one meal! 

For breakfast and lunch the tables in the dining car are topped with paper. I found this drawing as we were headed back to our room.  "Yeah! It's another great day on Amtrak!" 

Most of the day we rode alongside the Colorado River. It had me itching to go canoeing! The smudged window in the picture below is courtesy of the dining car.  

Our first stop of the day was right after breakfast in Grand Junction, CO.  Man, it was not a good stop! Normally I'd say I'm not opposed to legalizing marijuana, but when you're in a town where everyone on the street is smoking it, it really stinks!! Bluh. 

I bought a postcard with a picture of our train on it and quickly scribbled a message to the kids only to find that they didn't sell any stamps. Lame. 

Our main order of business after returning to the train was to take our first moving showers! We opted to use the bigger shower located in the downstairs section of our car. It has an almost normal sized shower stall and a small area right outside of it for dressing. In all honesty, it wasn't that bad! Actually, the water got really hot and had great pressure so it was pretty relaxing. Felt good to be clean again!  

These pictures were taken from our room window between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, CO.  

Check out that green water slide! 

We got out for a quick second in Glenwood Sorings to buy a stamp and finally mail our postcard. Look how bright the blue sky was behind Matt - and the mountains! 

We finally took the obligatory photos of us and the train. We may not look cute, but at least we were clean. :) 

I had to zoom in to get this picture. Can you imagine riding an amusement park ride on the edge of a big cliff/mountain?!  Heck no! 

I love this big red barn.  

We were so full from our pancake breakfast that we missed our included lunch in the dining car. Luckily there is a lounge car where you can buy snack items and we were able to get individual pizzas.  

Our next stop was in Winter Park, CO and it was much cooler with all the snow on the ground. Matt stayed on the train while I got off to take pictures. 

Our train, the California Zephyr, in all the snow.  

Colorado had some beautiful scenery!! These pictures aren't as crisp because it was snowing as we went through.  

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the trip so far. How stinking cute is that bright yellow house? Just sitting out in the snow all by itself.  I want it to come live in my backyard.  

Lots of snow coming down in this pic but if you look closely you can see the river at the bottom of those mountains.  

As a happy surprise, we made it to Denver super early and had a full hour for our stop.  We jumped at the opportunity to get off the train and have dinner on stable ground! 

Didn't really think through the fact that it was snowing and freezing! 

Behind Matt is a bit of a homeless rally. Lots of signs saying "F*** the Police!" and "Houselessness is everyone's right!"  

We saw our first store where you could buy marijuana. Again with the bad smell in the streets.  

We did not want to miss our train so we ate a quick dinner at BD's Monogolian Barbecue. It was good - much better than what we would've had on the train (not that the train food is awful, but you know). So we missed two of our three included meals this day.  

As soon as the sun sets you can't see anything outside the train windows at all. We played cards to kill time before going to bed. I out the beat down on Matt. :) 

We called it a night around 10:00 Mountain Time. While we slept, we rode through the state of Nebraska. I don't have a single picture to show for it! We woke up this morning in Iowa and will get off the train soon in Illinois. More on that later! 

Train Trip: Day Two

Thursday morning we got up, showered and dressed, and said goodbye to this room: 

And hello to this one: 

We went from this big, luxurious bathroom (only halfway pictured): 

To this tiny vanity, where we could sit on the couch to brush our teeth:

I had to stand out in the hallway to take the picture below because I couldn't get back far enough! 

With all of our luggage packed in, opening the door to the toilet/shower combo is a bit of a challenge. The shower is almost right over the toilet. There is actually a sign that says it might be easier to shower while sitting down. I guess that's good for multi-taskers. Thankfully there are bigger showers right downstairs that I think we will use! 

There are two main sleeper cars on our train, and we're on the second level of one of them. We are near the front of the train and just two away from the dining car. The lounge car and coach seats are on the opposite end of the train so we have very little traffic outside our room. It's actually very quiet and peaceful in our room!  Here is Matt standing in the hallway outside our door. Each room has a sliding door with window and a curtain that can be pulled closed. 

This is the hallway through the middle of the other half of our car. Tiny "roomettes" are on each side.  

Each car is labeled so you know what you're entering in to! 

It's a little shaky crossing between cars. The picture below is of me standing between two different are - that bright light in the middle is the ground/track underneath!  

Here is a picture of the dining car. The middle section behind those brown half walls is the wait staff's area, and then there are more booths in the other side.  

Here is the viewing lounge car. We didn't get a chance to sit in it yesterday because it was full! It's pretty noisy in there.  

So yesterday we boarded the train right outside of San Fransisco in Emeryville. We traveled through California - Sacramento and Lake Tahoe being the biggest towns - then on to Nevada where we stopped in Reno. After Reno was Winnemucca and then the last town before we turned out our lights for the night was Elko. We hit Salt Lake City, Utah around 3am. I definitely woke up when the train stopped but I couldn't pull myself awake enough to take a picture!  

Here are some pictures from the day.  

Here comes our new Home Sweet Home! 

I kept laughing because I could see myself in the mirror sitting next to Matt, so I decided to take a picture of us "sitting together." 

The landscape as we left the San Fran area.  

Sacramento station! 

Then we finally started getting to some good scenery! 

Reno was nicer than I expected.  

Can you believe this rock wall up the outside of this building?! It goes all the way to the roof. Not sure I could do that.  

Nice view from the street.  

That's me in the L of Believe! :) 

After dinner we came back to our beds being turned down. The couch in our room turns into a full (ish) sized bed and a twin bed folds down from the top. It was really hard to get a picture of! 

We pulled our door shut for the evening but at some point it opened back up (we hadn't locked it) so it was weird this morning to realize our door had been open all night.  

Interesting tidbit of the day: Since we have a sleeping car, we get three meals a day! Breakfast and lunch are first come, first served and dinner is by reservation. Because of limited tables, it's communal seating. We had lunch with two girls in dental school in Ohio. They were on their return trip home so they were able to tell us a lot about the train since they'd just made the trip a few days earlier. For dinner we dined with a father and son duo. The son is in his residency for medical school and the dad is an engineering professor at Iowa State. They were pretty smart guys. The food is pretty good, definitely better than airplane food. We both had burgers for lunch and for dinner, I had lasagna and Matt had chicken. Dessert is always included! The chocolate torte has been fantastic and pairs nicely with the Haagen Dazs ice cream. :) 

Train Trip: Day One

I asked Matt what I should call this series of posts since technically Day One doesn't even involve a train, and his suggestion was "You're Doing What?"  That's pretty much the response we got from anyone who hear us talking about this trip! 

Day one started bright and early at Memphis International Airport and ended in San Fransisco by way of Minneapolis.  

This was a trip we somewhat brainstormed together (read: I sent Matt a link to a blog post of someone who had done something similar and then he planned it.) but once we got it officially on the calendar, it became my birthday trip. I'm totally ok with that because Matt keeps pulling out birthday cards that have surprises in them!  My first card treated me to a manicure during our layover in Minneapolis. Super exciting since I was bummed I hadn't had time to get one before we left. And Xpress Spa did better than I Xpected them to. 

Ready to board flight #2 for the day! Also, pretty sleepy.  

Our first view of San Fransisco, made possible by our window mate taking a bathroom break.  

Our taxi driver from the airport to the hotel loved his car horn. And did not love the car in front of him. Ever. At our hotel they upgraded us to a swanky room on the 20th floor (did they not know we were using points??) and we dropped our bags and headed out to make the best of our time. But not before taking a selfie on our massive balcony.  

Laura, the hotel concierge, was amazing and pretty much mapped out our whole afternoon for us. We basically did a four mile loop from the Embarcadero area to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square.  The first attraction was the Ferry Building that has a really cool food market inside of it. 

Lots of selfies on this trip since we're by ourselfies.  

They had a big flipping sign for all the ferry departures. This picture taken specially for my Dad and his southern pronunciation of Vallejo.  

We didn't want to be rude and not buy anything so we shared an organic swirl ice cream cone. It was quite tasty.  

From there, we walked and walked and walked. The breeze coming off the water was very cool, but the sun was beating down on us and we both worked up a sweat. We could see the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill but opted to skip it. (That's the Transamerica Building on the right.)

Our next stop was at Pier 39 where we could look out over the water and see Alcatrez. I had really wanted to tour it but our flight didn't get in in time for us to catch the last ferry over. We'll have to come back! 

Alcatrez behind us on the far right! 

Pier 39 was also where we were first able to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Thank goodness it wasn't too foggy!

We kept walking until we made it to the Boudin Bakery on Jefferson Street, another recommendation of Laura the concierge. It was really fun to get to watch them make the sourdough bread!  

There are speakers that allow them to hear what you say so don't get caught talking bad about the baker! 

They also had some pretty impressive bread animals - teddy bears, crabs, and an enormous alligator.  

Maybe it baked too long? Baby alligator on top! 

Following the map Laura drew out for us, our next stop was the beach at San Fransisco Bay. Totally counts as the Pacific Ocean, right? Same water?

My feet were dying to get some fresh air from the wool socks and boots I was walking around in, so I was more than happy to kick off my shoes to dip my toes in the water.  

Way out there in the water we could see the Golden Gate Bridge again.  

My feet were good and sandy so it was a good thing there was a lush green park for me to walk through to let the grass clean em up.  

I was super bummed to learn that the Ghiradelli Factory doesn't actually make chocolate anymore. They still sell it but we didn't see anything different from what we can buy in the check-out line at Michaels, so we left empty handed.  

We stopped at a nice restaurant for drinks and appetizers but I have no pictures to prove it. I don't even know what it was called! It had a spectacular view of the bay though.  

We made an on the spot decision to skip Lombard street after eyeing the steep hill we'd have to climb up to get there. Maybe next time. 

The second half of our 4 mile loop took us through Little Italy where we stopped for wine (Bellini for me!), calamari, and really tasty tiramisu.  

By the time we made it to Chinatown, most shops had already closed for the evening. Not a huge loss since I don't really get the appeal of Chinatown. Maybe I need someone (Mom) to show me how to shop there.  

The last stop of the day was at CVS to get snacks for the train ride. With a bag full of crackers, granola bars, drinks, and candy, we called it a day on San Fran and went back to our room.  

Probably one of my favorites parts of the day was hanging out on our balcony when we got back. We were surrounded by office buildings and had so much fun being nosy and watching people still working in their offices. I was secretly hoping to catch a late night office romance, but the janitor emptying the trash and vacuuming was about as exciting as it got.  

The lights on the Bay Bridge looked great from our balcony!​

The picture below was actually taken the next morning when we got up since it was still dark outside.   Doesn't the sunrise look so pretty behind that building?!

I'm pretty dang proud of us for making it so late - midnight our time! - after getting up at 4am and being on the go all day long. I definitely feel like we got a lot out of our short time there, but I'm also pretty sure I need to go back to see and do everything we missed! 

Interesting tidbit of the day: Thanks to an abundance of herrings and a lack or white sharks and orcas, the San Fransisco bay has a ton of sea lions at Pier 39.  Boats used to park there but there were so many sea lions that they eventually moved the boat parking elsewhere and let the sea lions have the dock. The weight of the lounging sea lions eventually sank the original dock so they rebuilt smaller ones that rise and dip with the tide for the animals.  The sea lions are mostly males and some stay at the Pier year round. They were fun to see all piled up on the floats and to hear them barking, but they sure did smell! I'm sure not nearly as bad as they do in the summer when it's much hotter outside. 

One last note: My plan on this 7-day adventure was to blog each day about the day prior. The worst part of the train ride has been that I realized we don't have Wifi like I was expecting. So this post was typed with my thumbs on my phone. It takes a bit longer and isn't as easy to do so I can't promise I'll get one posted every day. Also, since I can't do links or anything like that on my phone I'll do a big wrap up post when we get back home that has all the details of the train and our route, etc. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments of these posts and I'll answer them in my final post about the trip!  

Labor Day Vacay

To get the month of September started off right, we went to the beach!  Just like we've done the last couple of times, we left late Thursday evening after dinner and baths and drove halfway.  This works out really well for us because the kids sleep and when we get to the hotel we just have to put them straight into bed.  The next morning, we fuel up on a continental breakfast, hit the road in our jammies, and make it to our beach house before lunch! 

Matt and Katie Wynn went to pick up lunch while Thomas and I hung out at the house.

After lunch we headed straight to the beach!  Both kids enjoyed it again this time, though Thomas was actually a little hesitant at first.  After a beach nap, though, he was ready to play in the sand!  

Napping boys...

We love to dig holes for the big waves to fill up.

One of my favorite things to do is sit on the shore and watch these little white shell-crabby-things wash up and then dig their way back into the sand.  I showed them to Katie Wynn on this trip and she had fun collecting some of them.

Matt caught us a crab!  

I am in love with these wispy curls.  Or was in love, I guess.  Thomas got his first trim during this trip.  It took me three days to complete it because I didn't want to cut too much.  So the wispy hair is still back there but it doesn't curl up quite as much now that it's shorter.

Guess who wasn't afraid to stand in the waves?  Who cares if there was tons of seaweed?

Jumping for joy for being on the beach!

Can you even handle this cute smile??

This was the first time we'd ever carried a tent down to the beach.  We took it all three days because I wanted to use it since I'd already purchased it, but we really didn't even need it.  Katie Wynn rarely sat still enough to be in it and Thomas napped in someone's lap under the umbrella each day.

Strollin' into the water like a boss.

Katie Wynn kept us all busy with "helping" her build sand castles.  

What that really meant was that she wanted us to build some so she could squash them all!

My little Godzilla at work destroying our sand town.

Our last day at the beach we finally had less seaweed, but in its place were flies.  LOTS of flies!  Biting flies!  They were worse than the mosquitoes we have here at home.  They made Katie Wynn cry a lot so we cut this trip short.  Next time we'll know to bring bug spray.

I can see one of those pesky flies on Thomas's foot in this picture!  I had to fan the kids the whole time we sat on the towel to try to keep the flies off.

Thomas fell asleep and KW was eating her snack so I was actually able to get a tiny sand castle built and take a picture before it was destroyed!

Thomas ate his first whole peach on this trip.  I had gotten the peach for myself but he stole it and pretty much ate it in one continuous bite.  I think he loved it!

And he got filthy while eating it and was made when it was gone!

Mom and I took the kids to Target with us while the guys golfed.  They rode in one of those enormous double seat carts that can be hard to steer.  Add that huge cart to the five noodles we purchased and I should probably write an apology note to the Target employees for all the merchandise we knocked off the shelves.  

Both kids slept really good at night, thanks to getting worn out in the sun each day!  I have significantly less sleeping pictures of Thomas than Katie Wynn because I am generally way too scared to do anything that might wake him up!  He passed out at the beach house though so I was able to get a picture of that booty in the air.  Katie Wynn fell asleep hugging the Nicholas Sparks book that she was "reading" before bed.

Poppy brought home donuts for breakfast!

Katie Wynn grew a goatee on our trip.  No, wait, maybe she just ate a chocolate covered donut...

Group selfie!  (Groupie?)

We decided to forgo the beach one day and opted for the community pool instead.  Thomas's favorite thing to do at any pool is step in, climb out, step in, climb out, over and over.

And sometimes cry if you won't hold him! :)

Katie Wynn is pretty independent in the water if she is wearing her puddle jumper.  Thank Heavens to whoever invented those - I can't wait for Thomas to fit in one next year!

Matt and my dad took the kids to a playground one afternoon.  This shot of Katie Wynn that he took is one of my favorites - something about it makes her look so grown to me!

I saved their firecracker shirts for Labor Day when we had plans to go hear live music and watch fireworks.  But then that night came and we realized we had the date wrong and the live music and fireworks had been the night before.  Bummer!  Katie Wynn wanted her new monkey to have it's picture taken with Thomas.  :)

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures from the trip!  It's currently the screensaver on my phone and it makes me smile every time I see it.  

But this one cracks me up too.  Don't they look like they're up to no good?  My caption on Instagram said, "Ok, I'm seriously not asking again - which one of you has on the stinky diaper?"

When there are no fireworks to watch, you just set 'em loose and let 'em run wild for a little while. :)

And then you fill them up with ice cream!

What little girl doesn't love a walk home hand-in-hand with grandparents?  

On our last afternoon, Matt and I took the kids to Seaside to walk around and window shop.  I took this picture of them but realize now that I should've zoomed out to see what kind of bodies their heads are one!

More running around.  We're big fans of getting rid of extra energy, ha!

My parents kept the kids that night so we could enjoy a dinner out.  While they were at home, Thomas got himself into a bit of a sticky situation.  He couldn't figure out how to get out from under the barstools and it made him MAD!

For the ride home, we wore our new Seaside puppy dog shirts!

I love that I can now tell her to put her arm around his shoulder and she'll do it without totally knocking him over. (Or strangling him.)

One of my faves!  That boy is just silly!

At Mom's recommendation, we stopped at Durbin Farms Market for lunch and it did not disappoint!  We couldn't leave without having some of their homemade peach ice cream.  Yum!

The trip was so fun and it was so good to get away for a few days.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it home Thomas had a fever that he kept for a solid three days.  I took him to the doctor and as soon as we made it home from there, I got knocked out by a full-blown stomach bug.  It was not exactly the warm welcome home we were hoping for!  

Now we've been home for a month and we don't have our next trip to the beach scheduled yet!  I hate that...I like knowing when we'll be back and having something to count down to!  Maybe we can go around Thanksgiving...