Jan 5. Day 13. Empire Builder – Seattle to Chicago. 3 Days.
Today is the start of the journey back home, via the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago on the Northwestern route, followed by the Shoreline Limited from Chicago to New York 2 days after.
It’s cloudy, wet, with drizzle in the downtown Seattle area. Had my morning coffee in my room, prepared the bags for today’s trip, showered, and went for a walk and brunch – noodles at the nearby mall food court. Late lunch would be at the same place – again, noodles. The hot noodles make up for the gloomy weather outside. The sky cleared up a little in the afternoon, before checking out of the hotel.
I left the hotel around 3:30PM (with 4PM late check-out), and headed to the Amtrak station at King’s St. Didn’t wait that long at the station when the boarding announcement was made.
The train departed on time. Like with the other trains, I have a sleeper accomodation for this trip. It was almost dark and there was nothing to see outside, so I just started writing notes here and there to complete the entries on this blog.
Dinner reservation was at 6PM. I was seated with 3 solo passengers, Shenmay, Peggie, and Dorothy. This was a very lively interaction at the dinner table. The dining attendant, Mary, was also very engaging and lively. Finished the dessert on the table, and headed back to the cabin. There was no lounge car – the attendant said it would be connected to the train when we get to Spokane, WA, at the wee hours next morning.
Breakfast will be somewhere in Montana tomorrow, MST. I’d lose 1hr of sleep tonight, so it’s better to get to bed early. Ho-hummm, getting hungry already. Goodnight.
