Coast to Coast

A few months ago Buddy and I were talking about travel bucket lists. He wants to go to Australia and to Scotland to see the castle that he has his Lordship with.....the ever loving train enthusiast also wanted to ride the train from Coast to Coast. Welp, Australia isn't allowing visitors, I wanted to take the entire family to Scotland and Shane can't easily summers off, so..... I figured Buddy is turning 18 soon and he keeps talking about joining the Coast Guard, so I better hurry up and play good momma and do a trip for the books! To say he was excited, was a huge understatement! This boy loves his trains, and frequently looks at Amtrak jobs just to keep his options open! Since so many people were wanting me to give a review of the trip, I figured I might as well blog about it, since I have a lot to say!!!! To start off, let me preface this by saying I am not a train person, never have been, never will be, but I am a 100% Buddy supporter. I gave Buddy my credit card information, and he took the planning from there. To start off with, we flew from Kona to San Fransisco the night before ( I DID NOT want to miss our train). Luckily, Buddy was super smart and even got our hotel to be across the tracks where we loaded up in Emeryville, CA. Buddy had purchased our Amtrak tickets online and thought he had purchased a room on the California Zephyr....but we got a roommette instead and the entire train was sold out, so no upgrading at the front desk. They were super helpful in telling us where to wait and where to go since I had no clue.

As soon as we started loading up, Buddy whipped out his phone, and pretty much filled his entire memory on his phone with videos from the ride! 

Seriously, he loves trains and it shows!

Like seriously, he loves his trains. The first leg of the trip we had a roomette, which are two benches that face each other that folds out into a bed and then a bunk that swing down from the top. On the Zephyr, the roomettes had a bathroom at each end of the train car that had a small side shower. The size is small, think airplane bathroom size, trying to take a shower while getting bounced around with a toilet right next to you....it was good times! Here are some things to know....I was lead to believe by my Buddy boy that toiletries for the shower would be provided. Towels are, shampoo, conditioner and soap are not (although in a pinch you can use the hand soap from the sink by the toilet since it's only 2 inches away). Also to know, bring small bills for tips. I DID NOT KNOW!!!! As soon as we started going, they started making multiple announcements about the Dining Car service an how tipping is not required but very wanted....oops, on my end, they got very good tips from me! Also, if you look at Amtrak's sales pitch about your sleeping car attendant they make you think someone will be there passing out drinks left and right taking care of your every need. In my head they would pass through the train car (one attendant per car) and hand out beverages like a Flight Attendant. Nope! There is a button you could use to call the attendant, but that just felt wrong and weird to bother her with something as silly as water-we just made sure to load up at our meals. It took us 2 days before we figured out that all this time we could have been getting our own cups of water from a spigot right beside the coffee machine in every sleeping car.

The scenery on the Zephyr was beyond gorgeous, I feel like Buddy and I watched out the window like a tv screen, it was amazing. That leg of the trip also had "walking stops" where you could get out and walk a little bit while people loaded and unloaded. I suggest doing this as often as it's offered, because they are few and far between, but the food that comes provided with your sleeping car arrangements is sooooo good, and fattening!!! Holy bananas, every lunch and dinner had a dessert offering too. It's really hard to turn down delicious cheesecake when in your head you technically already paid for it....so I didn't!!

Here is Buddy in his bunk for the first night, I switched with him the next night because he woke me up at 4 because he didn't have a window and wanted to see what was going on!

Here is some of that spectacular view, Buddy keeps going on and on about it....

After 3 days and 2 nights on the Zephyr, going from California to Chicago, we got off to switch trains to continue our journey. Buddy says he wants to do the whole trip again, but if he was really picking, he would just do the California to Denver section because it started to get in his words, " a little flat and boring".  I'm also going to mention for anyone wanting to do this, I had to research how much you are supposed to tip the attendant-suggestion is $10 a day, or more if you are having them bring you your meals to your room, which you can totally opt for. That being said, I felt moving more was better for me, did I mention the food....did anyone say cheesecake??? So good, the carrot cake comes in a close second though. Here are the down side of this leg of the journey....the toilets in our car (you know those shared tiny toilets/showers) stopped working by noon on the second day of a 3 day journey. Thankfully, we only had to go one car over to another shared sleeping car, turns out one of the coach cars bathrooms didn't work either, which made about 100 people share 4 bathrooms for what I can imagine was a very long and uncomfortable journey. Also of note, although our attendant was nice enough, no one really went out of their way to be welcoming. The wait staff was always very nice to us (remember, I forgot small bills for tipping), but said some really not nice things to other people requesting things while they were busy. It was also awkward, because if you didn't know what you were doing, how the heck would you know that the dining car etiquette expected on the Zephyr was to wait at the opening of the dining car until they called you forward to seat you. Seating in the dining car for breakfast and lunch was just during a certain time frame you could show up, but they would come around late afternoon and actually get times for your dinner reservation. You also get seated with others during meals, since there is limited seating, we actually really liked this part because Buddy and I actually got to talk to someone other than each other! 

Okay, now for Chicago..... I could write a novel about what I think about Chicago! First of all, we switched trains in Union Station, which is gorgeous!

Since we haven't travelled on trains before, it was a bit overwhelming and Buddy was afraid to leave the terminal to go explore, just in case we didn't make it back in time. I had no idea how to figure out C track of 26 ( I guess I haven't watched Harry Potter enough), so we took advantage of the Metropolitan Lounge area that is included with the Sleeper Train ticket. The guy working the front desk was a godsend, and the last nice person that we met that worked for Amtrak from that point on. Anyway, at the Lounge area, you can check your bags in for free, and they have a whole lounge area to get snacks, drinks, use the restroom and take a shower (seriously, we should have taken them up on the offer). Back to the not nice people in Chicago, at some point they closed the upper lounge. Buddy and I were not aware of this, and there were no signs posted. We went upstairs, I sat down to read while Buddy took advantage of a very large bathroom to himself, when an Amtrak Police Woman comes out of the bathroom she had been in for at least 10 minutes and asks me what I think I'm doing there because the area is closed and I should know that. When I apologized and said I didn't know it was closed, she began telling me to gather my stuff (which I already was) and that I needed to leave immediately. I again apologized and started making my way to the stairs, but told her I had to wait for my minor child, since he would have no clue where I went and I had his phone so he couldn't contact me! Then she began asking me if I even had a first class ticket and was even allowed to be in the Lounge to begin with! Ugh!!!! All I have to say is, I'm glad I had already chatted up with the front desk guy so he had my back when this lady was harrassing me! Talk about power trip. Anyway, the bonus of the lounge, other than getting the bathroom, drinks and snacks, is that the guy walks everyone to their train to board so you don't get lost or confused! That is a super bonus for those of us that get lost in paper bags!

We had roomettes again, I did ask if there were any open rooms, since the last train we suffered through poopagedan and we just wanted our own private toilet and shower, but yet, once again, they were sold out! That's okay though, these roomettes were longer and included a special feature....

That's right, toilets beside your bed, because who doesn't want to know their travelling companion that intimately!!! Buddy and I ended up making a video that I thought was hilarious! Awkward, yet equally wonderful! Buddy wasn't as in awe of the view, until eastern Pennsylvania where the brick architecture was pretty extraordinary.

For some reasons the beds were way more comfy on our Lakeshore Express Train, so we slept, a lot! Buddy's Bunk was even in the upper half of the train car with his own window so he could watch the view to his heart's content. Here are some more things while I'm thinking about it.....bring fresh fruit if you are into that. We were only allowed to go into the train depot store in the entire travels where you could possibly even buy anything other that what they sell in the cafe. They do not sell fresh fruits! My body was missing fruit in the worst way, so when we were finally allowed at the one store (I think it was in Colorado on the Zephyr), I bought 3 apples and 2 bananas thinking it would last the trip...it lasted one day because I love my fruits. Also, there was only one outlet in both of our roomettes, thankfully Buddy had already done his research and brought a power bank-which was awesome. Also, don't forget some good playing games and books. Thankfully we had some because Nebraska and Iowa are serious snooze fests. My only other thing to add is that I'm not trying to bag on Amtrak, Buddy absolutely loved the entire trip, and I am not a train person, so we know I'm already biased against them. But the people working especially on the Lakeshore Express that were based out of New York, they were not welcoming or friendly at all. I know I've lived in Hawaii for so long that I have become emotionally soft so anyone with even a slightly raised voice at me will make me cry, but honestly, they acted like all the guests were huge inconveniences for their day. Buddy kept saying that if he worked there he would make people feel welcomed and excited, good on you Buddy! I get it, doing the same repetative thing over and over and people doing the same stupid stuff because they don't know any better, over and over again I'm sure is annoying, but I wasn't a fan of their constant over the intercom berating passengers for putting purses in other seats or moving around. I get it, it's frustrating, but could you at least pretend you're like a mom and say it nice the first time, then get progressively louder/more aggressive, not just start with the KAPOW!

Anyway, Buddy and I have landed safely in NYC and we are heading out to do some kayaking on the Hudson with an old friend of mine tomorrow and Buddy is sound asleep next to me. If you were to ask him about the train ride, it was 100% worth every penny and he would love to do it in reverse, and possibly every other passenger line offered by Amtrak. Good news for him, at the end of our stent here in NYC we are actually doing another ride (this time in business class) to DC. So all in all a super fantastic, I still need to burn off like 6000 more calories from all that cheesecake, day!