March 7, 2008
Bela and Socrates see us off.
We drove to Everett where we could park our car for free and hop a
southbound freight.
Everett's kind of mixed up. Southbound trains come out of the south...
... and head to the north. The track takes an ess curve kinda
like the Panama Canal, if you head west to east through it you
end up in the Pacific Ocean.
It turns out that Burlington Northern owns all the track around here,
though, so Amtrak has to wait it out for the freights that come through.
After they're gone...
Amtrak can sneak out onto the track.
Oh, look, we get a movie on the train.
Oh, wait, I think I've seen this one. Play it again, Sam.
Our first stop, Edmonds.
Awhile later we make it to the Seattle waterfront, ...
... go under the viaduct and pick up a full load of people at King
Street Station. It's a good thing we got on in Everett as all the
seats were sold out (oversold, actually) by the time they finished
loading all the people in Seattle.
Clickity-clack, clickity-clack, we head south.
Through the capital.
Hitting a few whistle-stops along the way.
And over the Columbia into Oregon.
March 8th, 2008
The next morning we wake up in our hotel room and take a look at the
view of the Willamette River. The crew from one of those Oregon schools
is doing maneuvers on the river.
We'll check out the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, OMSI, in the
afternoon.
First we'll take a walk down the river.
Looking back at the hotel (we're on floor 5 of 9).
I5 is pretty close, but there is no noticeable noise in the room -- a
worry I had. If you look real close, you can see the Cirque du Soleil
tents behind the freeway pillar.
A submarine adorns the museum across the river.
There are lots of bridges in Portland.
Ah, our destination. Voodoo Doughnut. We were told we had to check
it out. It seems to be in the seedier part of town.
Mmmmmm. Sugar.
On the way back we see a Willamette River tour boat head out with
a load of tourists.
At noon we passed under the bridge when it started beeping.
Maybe it's something they do every Saturday at noon, cuz there sure
weren't any boats around and I don't think they need to raise it for
that submarine.
A heron or something on the pilings.
This one looks like the dinghy from my yacht.
After dropping off the doughnuts we head across the bridge.
To visit the Museum.
Our Pacific Science Center membership cards got us admission. Inside
we find lots of old bones.
Big guys with dinky little heads.
And little guys with big heads.
The famed velocitraptor. The plaque there says they probably weren't
as vicious as the movie indicated.
Downtown from the museum side of the river.
Tomorrow we'll see the Cirque du Soleil show.
March 9th, 2008
The first part of the day will be spent relaxing, however.
March 10th, 2008
Back in the train station.
And we're on our way home.
North through Tacoma.
And back to Seattle and the familiar rain.