20 September 2010

Trip Day 4 — On the Road

Posted by BaBa under: Travel .

We got up early to leave Seattle and were bound for the Amtrak station to catch the train. Aldridge (the hotel clerk) was unable to get us a cab, but did secure a towncar driver and convinced him to take us. We arrived just in time to get an early spot in line for our boarding cards. Once we had our cards, we were able to board. We were assigned to a four seat configuration with a table in between the facing seats. MaMa and I both said that we could get used to this type of travel. As a bonus, they played Shrek 3 as the movie and Magoo really enjoyed watching this for the second time.

MaMa and I enjoyed the scenery and the leisurely pace of this type of travel. It would be a stark contrast to the long drive from Portland to San Francisco.

We arrived on time in Portland and D was there to meet us. D is a fellow blogger who lives with his wife and twin Chinese daughters in Portland. We had begun following his blog because of the many things that we have in common. D travels a lot for business in the computer industry. He also is a photographer whose work I admire. We actually got to meet him for dinner one night almost three years ago when he was in our town for a conference. He is the blogger in the family and this is another thing that we share in common.

It was nice to walk off the train and see his smiling face waiting for us. His wife, K, also came to the train station. She was on a tight schedule, but made time to meet us. This was great. We only wish we had more time in Portland, but it was to be just a brief stopover.

We did have lunch with D at Wilfs restaurant in the station. The restaurant had been remodeled to look like a turn of the century stop when train travel was the method to get around the country. The food was delightful and so was the company. It was over way too short. We will have plan for a longer stay in Portland as it seems to be a nice city and of course we have friends there, which always makes for a great stopover.

We regretted that we could not get Sheridan a chance to play with H2 and K2 (his girls). D graciously drove us to the rental car pick-up spot. We had a wonderful lunch and hope that he can visit us soon or that our travels will bring us to portland for a longer stay than 2 short hours.

We got the car and began the long journey. I drove awhile and then MaMa took over. As the years have gone by, our driving roles have changed. I seem to tire of long drive much more sooner than MaMa does. In the past I almost always drove the majority of the time, but in the last couple of years, MaMa has become the long stretch go to driver. She has the ability to go and go and go. Sheridan said that if MaMa was now driving, we would NEVER stop until dinner. He was almost right.

The terrain was interesting as we went through the mountains and arrived on the other side. We were pushing ourselves as we had the car one day at a good rate, but

We drove most of the way into San Francisco. We stopped for dinner once we got outside of the Mt. Shasta lake and forest area. We were glad to stretch our legs and get a small bite to eat. I must say that we almost wore MaMa out with the drive. We finally found a very inexpensive motel to stay the night and resume our journey tomorrow. We wanted to get as close to San Francisco as possible to lessen the delyas of the morning traffic.

All we needed was 2 clean beds and quiet and safe place to sleep. This is what we got and we were glad for the chance to rest.

Here are a few photos for Seattle and Portland. The pictures are from the iPhone, but they show the ballpark in Seattle and the train station. Our Portland photos show the train station and Sheridan at the lunch. D also took out the camera phone to take a few photos of Sheridan at lunch — Enjoy the photos.

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