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I took the Empire Builder Amtrak line in and out of the gorge. It's a long haul ling, goes all the way to Chicago, so big delays were a strong possibility. I could handle a 12 or 20 hour delay coming back. One going out would be more of a problem, but I did plan as if it would be delayed. But, then it was delayed way more than I'd planned for.
The gorge from the train is stunning, but also the windows were too dirty to even try to get really solid shots. I went more for 'train aesthetic' shots. I will get one or two stunning shots of the gorge someday, but that day hasn't happened yet.
The the Coast Starlight is considered the gold standard of scenic Amtrak trips and people are like 'what? why?' when I say I prefer this line is something I will never understand.
The reason why the delay was a problem is that when I arrived I'd need to get across a bridge you cannot cross on foot. Not only is it illegal, but it's old, narrow, the platform is mostly metal grating and there is a curve meaning a truck at speed will not see a pedestrian ahead:
I needed to have a pre-scheduled cab ride to get across and even though I gave myself lots of wiggle room, I was sitting in the middle of nowhere through my whole appointment window. The cab company says on their website that you can't cancel or reschedule, but for things like this they do track delays and move things around if they can. Despite getting in very late, a little blue car pulled up for me as soon as I arrived. I was so relieved.
The first place I stayed was very mid-century. The directions to my room was 'take a left, then a right, go through the breezeway, when the floor splits go up, then down the hall, then up again....' There were a lot of architectural elements I've only seen in midcentury hotels.
I enjoyed the place a lot.
The gorge from the train is stunning, but also the windows were too dirty to even try to get really solid shots. I went more for 'train aesthetic' shots. I will get one or two stunning shots of the gorge someday, but that day hasn't happened yet.
The the Coast Starlight is considered the gold standard of scenic Amtrak trips and people are like 'what? why?' when I say I prefer this line is something I will never understand.
The reason why the delay was a problem is that when I arrived I'd need to get across a bridge you cannot cross on foot. Not only is it illegal, but it's old, narrow, the platform is mostly metal grating and there is a curve meaning a truck at speed will not see a pedestrian ahead:
I needed to have a pre-scheduled cab ride to get across and even though I gave myself lots of wiggle room, I was sitting in the middle of nowhere through my whole appointment window. The cab company says on their website that you can't cancel or reschedule, but for things like this they do track delays and move things around if they can. Despite getting in very late, a little blue car pulled up for me as soon as I arrived. I was so relieved.
The first place I stayed was very mid-century. The directions to my room was 'take a left, then a right, go through the breezeway, when the floor splits go up, then down the hall, then up again....' There were a lot of architectural elements I've only seen in midcentury hotels.
I enjoyed the place a lot.
