Seattle to St. Paul/Minneapolis Trip

In contrast to what most people have told me, the ride from Seattle to St. Paul-Minneapolis was the most uneventful and uninteresting one of all the ones I have taken thus far. This ride was supposed to be always full, and the scenery was supposed to be something out of a movie (in fact, it's one of the most popular routes). I could not disagree more. Except for the first few hours, out of Seattle, the entire trip provided nothing but plains, trees, and an occasional pond. The route from Kansas to Los Angeles was more interesting than this route (perhaps the beautiful scenery passed by as I slept at night).

After so much boredom and so many antisocial people in the coach compartment, I moved to the observation car in hope to find more gregarious people. I did not see people mingling, as I have seen in other rides. Instead, people just stayed in the groups in which they were traveling. Young and old read in the observation car as the trees zoomed by, families played card games, and young couples cuddled together. Yet, no one made an effort to talk to the person sitting on the next seat. This was no family of strangers; it was families of strangers.

Back in the coach car, a college student sat next to me. He wanted to travel by train so that he could relax, but the train proved nothing but a terrible inconvenience for him: he had a four hour delay, and was tired from the trip. I asked him how he liked the food, and he confessed it was terrible. “The chicken’s a little old.” (he is not talking about the food served by Amtrak. He is criticizing the food Amtrak picked up from a restaurant at one of the stops: dry and cold roasted chicken). At least five times, he also complained about the lack of Wi-Fi; I suppose the train is not what he expected.

The only breathtaking moment was the sunset, but that lasted for a few minutes.


Right outside Seattle.


Yes, I know this is beautiful. Now, stare at this for ten hours, and tell me how you feel :)


Sunset, which lasted for a few minutes.

Seattle

In Seattle, I stayed with some friends who attend the University of Washington, one of the most beautiful campuses I have been to. The fountains, architecture, and Mt. Rainer provide an unbelievable atmosphere and backdrop for the university, and the idyllic weather--considering it rains most of the year--just made my trip the perfect one.











And what is Seattle like? Eclectic, diverse, lively, and busy (at least the day I was there).




The famous Space Needle


Seattle's International Fountain




Chief Seattle and me




Once the tallest building west of the Mississippi


The first Starbucks in America. Seattle is home to the headquarters of the coffee giant


View of Seattle at night

The Cascades

The Portland-Seattle route featured a train I had not seen before--the Cascades. With the financial help of Oregon and Washington, Amtrak bought a few of these trains for the Northwestern route in 1998. The term "update" is somewhat of an understatement for the Cascades. The new cars feature leather seats, TV's, classy glass electric doors that separate cars, cleaner and nicer bathrooms, and a lounge/dining area that appears to be taken out of a city restaurant. Because of the dinning area, the Cascades stands somewhat as a hybrid of long-hauls--long distance trains, which have a dinning car-- and commuter trains--which do not have dinning facilities or lounges. Such commodities do make the ride more enjoyable, though I could not help but notice the distance among passengers. In the older Amtrak cars, passengers seem more apt to interact, and start a conversation. In these Cascades cars, passengers remain in their own world. As one passenger observed, "yeah! People are a little cold here. They don't really talk." Usually, people in the lounge car do not hesitate to strike up a conversation, join you at the table, and even share a couple of drinks. In The Cascades, however, people make use of the facilities, but they do not socialize. For example, in one of the couches in the lounge car, a woman read a book while the person sitting next to her listened to music, and at the bar, a guy sat next to an older man, both of whom had a drink, but neither of whom exchanged a single word. I'll leave for the blog the description of what occurred; I'll leave for my thesis the analysis of The Cascades. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the train.