Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Ferries

Our flight is at 4:30pm so I took the day off and Mom went in until 11:30 am. It has been raining here for the past few days. It has been damp and cool. At least last night we didn't have the AC on upstairs. The previous night we had the AC on and didn't notice that the thermostat was set at 75. When I got up I noticed that the heat was on in the bathroom. Power and light really love people like us and so does the oil co. The biggest shock of the day came when Mom called to tell me to get the paper and read the headlines.  Someone we knew had been charged with an embezzlement.

Our limo driver arrived at 1:00 PM as requested. Good thing that I called at 11:00 PM to confirm the booking. I had booked the limo via the internet a week earlier and even had confirmations. The limo company had no record of the reservation and we would have had to drive to the airport ourselves.

Greg had given us a free pass to the Presidents Club and that is the definite way to wait for a plane. Free drinks-coffee and soda and free snacks in a private area. They even had Tilamook Cheese. When it was time to go out to the gate at 3:45 we spotted some of the people we would have rubbed elbows with. Particularly a barefoot guy with a headband, wildly cut hair and chopsticks sticking out of his hair in about 4 places. Mom said that that was the guy that was going to be sitting on the aisle seat next to me in the middle.. as it turned out the plane was only half full and I got the aisle seat and the middle was free. Mom watched the Elena Brokovich movie $4.00 but she is worth it.

Flight was scheduled for departure at 4:15 PM and it went off like clockwork. Landing in LA was fine and on time and we supplemented our airline dinner with a burger at the Courtyard in El Segundo on Mariposa Dr.

Waking up was easy to do with the jet lag of east to west. For breakfast we wanted to go to the "Other Yolk" in El Segundo but we had forgotten where it was from the last time we were here in 1990. Then we had just wandered into it after driving around after church. We asked Marian at the front counter of the Courtyard if she knew where the "Other Yolk" was on the beach. She said that we probably meant the "Local Yolk" which was on Highland Ave. in Manhattan Beach. She even called the restaurant to confirm its location and get exact driving locations. She went the extra mile and didn't even suggest the Courtyard restaurant. Great person. After breakfast we went down to the beach at around 9:30 am and walked along the bike and foot pathway for a very short distance. It was a beautiful Friday morning, warm sunny and the surfers were out. We wonder if anybody works out here on the nice days when any surf is up.

After that we decided to drive out to the Getty Center just to find out where it is so we wouldn't get mixed up in the strange location at 12:30 when our reservations for parking were made. We arrived at the road at 11:00 am and as there was no place to turn around we drove on up to the cashier. The cashier just said it was better to be early than late and that in Lebanese - Buza- means ice cream. More about Lebanese tomorrow. We paid the $5.00 parking fee and drove into the garage. The parking garage is all underground and we were down on level 5. I believe the lowest level is 6. From the garage you take an elevator to the top and then take a tram up to the museum which is up on a hill and commands a 360 degree view of Santa Monica and down all the way to downtown. Up on top a chart showed that on a clear day you could see Santa Catalina Island but it wasn't that clear a day. At the beach the visibility was great. Here it was a little hazy.

This is a fantastic collection of buildings all made from glass and travertine marble which was shipped over from Italy in over 100 boats. The whole place is marble-the courtyard, the stairs, everywhere you would put your feet was marble. The cost of the complex before any artwork was 1.0 billion bucks. This is a class act. Outside of each building was an umbrella stand filled with umbrellas. If you wanted protection from whatever elements were around-rain or sun there they were for your use.

The most amazing thing is that the entrance to the museum is for free. If you arrive by bus or cab you get in for free. If you don't have reservations for the parking garage or like me come at an unappointed time, they can turn you away if the crowds inside already exceed a certain number. Luckily that didn't happen.

The art collection was primarily divided into two categories-antiquities and European art. I did not see any art by American artists. The antiquities section consisted primarily of sculpture going back to the Greeks and Romans and also a large collection of Greek and Etruscan pottery works-painted urns, jugs, storage vessels and dishes and jewelry. The pottery was to me the most impressive of the antiquities section and to some extent the entire museum. The antiquities collection is up here on the mountain until 2002 when they will be moved to the permanent site which is now under renovation. The original Getty art museum was also in Santa Monica but it was housed in a replica of a Roman Villa at Pompeii. This building is being repaired and then the antiquities will be permanently displayed there. We will go back to see that.

The European art is primarily from 1200 AD and up although there is a fine collection of illuminated books from an earlier period. There was a large collection of stained glass by Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein. The glass work was fantastic but they wouldn't allow any photographs of the glass work even without flash. The paintings could be photographed without flash. The downstairs portion of the buildings were either sculpture, jewelry pottery, glassware or furniture of a given European period. There was a large collection of French Rococo which included furniture, room designs and all the things that go with the style that Mom and I call "Early Tacky". Rococo has never been our favorite style. All the paintings were on the second floor of each building. There was so much that it overwhelmed you. There was a painting by Van Gogh "Irises" which was beautiful. A woman was holding up a small teddy bear next to the painting so that her husband or significant other could photograph teddy in an artistic setting. Cute no!!! The security didn't cotton to that too much. Security at the art museum was a little overbearing and in my estimation ignorant of what was around them. I asked a few questions and was always directed to the information desk out front. Unless I took a picture of what I was asking about and then carried it out to the inf. desk they wouldn't know what I was talking about out there.

One of the most interesting people we saw was a guy in big black buckle boots wearing black pants and a black fishnet material (2inch open squares out of rope) shirt. His long hair was braided and hung half way down his back and the braids included small red ribbons intertwined with the hair. I didn't know what the fashion statement was but Mom didn't want to ask..

After 6 hours on our feet and no lunch we decided that 5:00 PM was a good time to leave the museum. What took us 20 minutes to drive from the motel in the morning took us 1.5 hours at 5:00 PM on the freeway. For dinner we located a McCormick & Schmick where the halibut was excellent and the air-conditioner freezing. We ate at one of these restaurants in Portland last year and only found out it was a chain by finding one here El Segundo. Later we saw one in Seattle.

We dropped of the car at Hertz and waited for the courtesy van at the airport to pick us up. It was a long but not without incident wait. The courtesy pickup area is also where cabs pick up passengers. It is not supposed to be for other pickup. Well wouldn't you know it, a big Mercedes with big shot plates pulls up next to the curb and the driver immediately gets connected with the world on his cell phone. Since it is the cab lane a cabby pulls up about 3 inches from the Mercedes bumper and sits on the horn. I mean sits on the horn. The driver of the Mercedes stick s his arm out the window and waves the cabby to go around. The cabby is not about to let go of his mark and there is another cab behind him blocking him from reversing even if he wanted to go around which he doesn't.. The Mercedes pulls forward about 8 feet and is now parked in the crosswalk. The cabby pulls forward about 8 feet and is three inches behind him again. The cops/security finally get involved and tell the Mercedes he has to get out. The cop is yelling at the driver as that is the only way that he can be heard over the horn of the cab. The cop finally tells the cabby to stop blowing the horn and after a few reminders to do so the horn stops. The cop then resumes his argument with the Mercedes driver who is reluctant to move. Finally he moves about 50-100 feet further down. I think the cabby won.

Finally the van showed up and took us on wild zigzag in and out of traffic ride back to the motel.

Today begins the trains part of the journey. Laying in bed and reluctant to get up at 6:00 am we are listening to a lawyer on the radio giving out legal advice on a talk show. Some woman calls up asking what her rights are regarding her share in the purchase of a home with another person now that they are breaking up two years after the purchase. However she prefaces the whole above statement with "I am a lesbian and blah, blah,blah. The lawyer immediately cuts in and says " Oh, you are Lebanese, I talk to a lot of Lebanese people. I wonder if among lesbians, ice cream means Buza.

We had to be in Union Station in Los Angeles at 8:30 am so the cab has been called for a 7:30 departure. The front desk person at the Courtyard says that most days it is a 45 minute drive to Union Station. The cabby shows up at 7:30 and Patel the driver must have thought we had reservations for yesterdays train and still had a chance of catching it. He pulls up in front of Union Station baggage check in exactly 15 minutes after departure from the Courtyard. Just like being on a ride in Disneyworld. $36.00 plus tip. Union Station in Los Angeles is an impressive old building in the Spanish style with a bell tower and clock with a red tile roof. Waiting room is large. For breakfast we chose a bagel, cream cheese and lox with coffee. The amount of lox on the bagel was astounding. Huge.

In the waiting area we talked to a man from Texas who is doing needlepoint. He says that he is doing 14 altar cloths for a Baptist church back in Texas. He and his wife and another couple are taking a 7 day round trip on the train-Houston to LA, LA to San Jose(Coast Starlight-our train), San Jose to Portland, Portland to Chicago (Empire Builder) and Chicago to Houston. 7 days $345.00 per person. I don't know how much of that includes sleepers if any, although at that price I doubt any. When we mentioned that we were getting off at Oakland to go to Alcatraz the next day another person waiting mentioned that her grandfather had been with the FBI and helped to capture Babyface Nelson. At the appointed time we are allowed to board the train on track 10 and we get assigned seats in the coach for the day trip to Oakland on the Coast Starlight. After a short wait in the station the announcement is made "All visitors to the train are asked to depart from the train as they are about to become passengers instead of visitors." Train leaves the station at 9:32 am 2 minutes behind schedule.

Make up of the train is a s follows-Engines, baggage car, three sleepers, parlor car, dining car, observation/snack bar car, 6 coach cars, another service car of some type and then a private car. You can tell that I am not an expert or train buff. We are sitting in the last coach car which makes for a very interesting walk to the snack bar, observation car and dining car. The parlor car ahead of the dining car is for first class passengers.

After a while I decided to go to the snack bar to get some water and snacks for the early part of the ride. The lady running the snack bar is a little surly because she has only been given $200 in change and by the time I got there everyone had given her $20.00's and she couldn't give change. I thought the customer was sometimes correct but in the long run she was OK. I charged my 11:25 purchase to a credit card. For $11.25 I got three bottles of water, two small bags of potato chips and two boxes of jelly bean candies. That held us till lunch. While waiting on line for the snack bar I learned that the food was good on the train and that you had to get into the dining car early to be assured that they don't run out of the best selections. We wandered or should I say bounced from side to side through the 6 coach cars at around 11:00 am to wait in the observation car which was right behind the diner. Lunch would be served starting at 11:30 on a first come first served basis. After the dining car filled up the dining room started to take names and calling the names as seats became available. We got into the dining car at 11:30 for what I call the first seating.

The menu selection was limited but first class and coach all had the same selection except that for the coach all was ALA-carte while first class all was included except alcoholic beverages. We selected a cold salad topped with a plentiful chunks of smoked/cooked salmon. Whoever said that the food was great was not kidding. It was delicious and I did not consider 7:50 for the salad to be overpriced for the train. We sat at the table with two women from Seattle who had been returning from a train trip to Texas. Mom and I both agreed that they were Lebanese but pleasant Lebanese, not the terrorist kind.

The route of the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles does not get to the coast until it passes Oxnard. Prior to Oxnard it passes through some rugged canyonland which according to the brochures as well as announcements on the train was used in the movies to make many old grade "B" westerns. It looked like that kind of land. From Oxnard to Pismo Beach, the train runs along the coast with beautiful views of the shoreline. Santa Barbara was particularly beautiful. Between Pt. Concepcion and Pt. Arguelo it was foggy. The train runs through the shoreline edge of Vandenberg AFB where the volunteer guides in the observation car describe the missile launching sites and other points of interest. We got a real good view of the long runway which is an alternate landing site for the shuttle. After Pismo Beach the train cuts inland to get up and under mountains (lots of tunnels). Between San Louis Obispo and San Jose the train passes through the Salinas valley which is known as the "Salad Bowl to the World". Rich farmland growing many things which other than for the cabbages we couldn't recognize from the train. Mom did pick out broccoli but since it is not my favorite I couldn't identify it.

The people on the train were interesting to say the least. One of the strangest characters was a guy supposedly from Texas who is drilling for oil and also managing a couple of mines who claims to ride the Coast Starlight once a week. I never did get a straight answer to that one. This fellow was one of the most self centered people Mom and I have ever run into. Everything that he said was about himself and how well he was doing. He was telling his story to the young and easy to look at Sherri with the red hair (I told mom I didn't notice). He was trying to impress her about his social concern for the environment in his drilling operations. Actually he was trying to get into her drawers as he kept asking "are you sure you are married" and stating "its such a shame you are aren't single" Sherri said he was sweet and later promised to get him in touch with her younger sister. He was love struck. He had been married but up until he made his big strike had worked too many hours and had his marriage dissolve. He now wanted to go to the South Sea islands where he could meet a woman that would take him for what he was and not for his money. Sherri was also working on her second husband and had her son with her. Another real interesting person was a big black woman traveling with her daughter. She professed to be an activist by employment and worked in Southern California to protect the neighborhoods and localities from pollution from the big oil business. The oil baron from Texas was also trying to impress her with her with his concern for the environment and said it was a shame that more oil drilling was not allowed in the Santa Barbara channel.

The activist said that if someone were to try that she would get her 6' 1' 300 LB body in their face and shut them down. She told the oil baron that no matter what he did he would lose against her. He was no match for the activist. She said that she respected the Oil baron for his record but that for every good guy there were at least 10 bad guys so you had to be careful with everybody. Eventually the oil baron gave up and resumed his attempt at conquering Mt. Sherri after she came back from the dinning car. We also met a nice couple from Tacoma who were doing the train thing for the first time and back at our coach seats we had a couple from Baltimore who were on their way (does anybody know the way to) San Jose for a week long model train convention. At around 3:30 PM there was an announcement that reservations for dinner would start to be taken at 4:00 PM back at the passengers seats. We bounced back to our seats and waited for the visit of the reservation guy. He showed up at our seat at around 6:15 after they had started to serve dinner at 5:30. He said that it would be very doubtful if we would get in before Oakland but that they would try. Ten minutes before we pulled into the Oakland station they made the announcement for anybody who hasn't been called to come to the dining car for dinner. That left us out and hungry but still we enjoyed the ride. They just could have handled the reservations a little better and given us a chance to get something from the snack bar from Dottie who now seemed to be in better spirits.

We alit in Oakland at 9:10 PM- around 40 minutes late. We saw the dining room steward on the tracks while waiting for our luggage and explained our disappointment that the dinner reservation announcement had not been factual regarding the timing and availability of the dining car for dinner. He said that Amtrak has a satisfaction guaranteed policy and we should call Amtrak with our concerns. They would make it right. After collecting our baggage we spotted a cab and asked to be taken to the Jack London Inn. He pointed out that it was straight down the road and could be walked in two blocks. It was dark and we couldn't see if there was a fence in the way or not-so we walked back to the terminal, took an elevator up and crossed the tracks on a pedestrian walk and then down an elevator to the street on the other side of the station. Then down the road two blocks with our baggage. The next day we found out there was no fence and we could have just gone straight from the parking lot to the hotel without all the ups, downs and over.

After checking in at the motel we went to Jack London Square for dinner at a Mexican restaurant-El Torrito-acceptable meal.

Someone tried to get into our room at 11:30 PM by trying the lock. I yelled and they left.

We awoke at 7:30 am and were planning to take the 10:50 am ferry to San Francisco.

At 8:00 am the maid tried to get into the room for cleaning. She excused herself when she found the room occupied. She tried again at 8:30. I have never been to a motel where they try to clean that early. The maids must be German. The AC did not work in the room and it was stuffy through the night. We took the 9:15 ferry since we were up and it was a good decision. Coffee and bagels ion the ferry but no lox. The ferry ride over was enjoyable and saved us a long walk to the BART as well as connections in SF in trying to get to the Wharf. The ferry stops at Alameda, the Ferry building on the Embarcadero at the foot of Market Street, and at Pier 41. The Alcatraz ferry also leaves from pier 41. We had a couple of hours to kill before the other ferry so we picked up the Alcatraz tickets and went to walk around Pier 39 with all the shops and jugglers. I was standing with my hands in my pockets when the juggler asked for applause and he commented that I couldn't applaud like that. The crowd got a laugh when I said I was having too much fun in there to stop and applaud.

When you get to Alcatraz you get off the boat and listen to a ranger talk about the history of the Rock. Originally it was a fort built to protect the gold shipments out of San Francisco after the Gold rush. During the civil war it was abandoned as a fortification because of the experience at Ft. Sumter (indefensible against modern artillery) and used as a detention center to house southern sympathizers. It later became a military prison and did not become a federal penitentiary until the 1930's. Outside of the reception area is a small museum and also a book store. Outside of the bookstore was an author who had lived several years on the Rock as the daughter of the assistant warden. She has written a book about her experiences/recollections and also a book on the Bird Man of Alcatraz.

Mom bought both books and had her sign them. She stated that the bird man-Robert Stroud was not a nice person and one should not think of the sympathetic light that he was cast by Burt Lancaster in the movie. I remember from our Alaska trip that Stroud had committed ghastly murders in Juneau. The author explained that Alaska was a federal territory and still had the death penalty. Stroud copped a plea to manslaughter and was sentenced to Leavenworth, Kansas. It was here that he educated himself and kept the birds. He never had birds in Alcatraz. In Leavenworth he killed a guard in front of 1100 inmates in the mess hall and was then transferred to Alcatraz to be kept in the isolation block of Alcatraz.

The cell block area of the prison is up a steep hill which is equal to a 13 story building.

They do provide a tram pulled by a tractor which leaves 20 minutes to the hour. We got on the tram and rode up to the cell block. At the cell block we picked up our audio tapes and took the self guided tour of the cell block. What an interesting site. The center walkway in the cell block was called Broadway, walkway to the right or north side of the block was called Michigan Avenue. The one on the left of sunny side of the cell block was called Park Avenue. The area under the clock at the end of Broadway which was also the entrance way into the dining room was known as Times Square. The audio tape was interesting in that it had a description of the prison cellblock with all the points of interest as related by former guards and a few of the former inmates. The tapes were augmented by sounds of the place as they must have been in the good old days. The dining hall was interesting in that the ceiling had canisters which used to house tear gas. These were never activated because the wardens knew that if they ever were, the guards in the dining room would be dead. The cells were spooky and small. If you stood up in the middle and spread your arms you would be close to touching the walls on each side. They explained the attempted break out in 1946 in which the escapees and two guards were killed.

The audio tape also talked about Stroud. This description was that he was a psychopathic genius. He spent 17 years at Alcatraz, the last 6 in the prison hospital where he never relented from his nasty characteristics.

On the ferry back we talked to an English family who were enjoying their trip to the Western US. We hadn't eaten lunch and both had rumblies in our tumblies as it was after 4:00 PM. We went into Tarantino's on the Wharf for a lunch. The place was busy and understaffed. Our waiter was an older gentleman who was scurrying around from table to table. When I asked him about something on the menu and specials he dropped a card describing the specials and ran off. This is the first time that I have had a waiter run off. He came back and apologized for his rush and saved his tip by giving us a complimentary slice of cheesecake. Dinner was Dungeness crab cakes and they were just fair to poor when compared to Maryland Blue claw crab cakes. I must comment that on this entire trip we have never seen as many tattooed women as out here in the west. A woman in the restaurant had an Ariel in the middle of her back from the Little Mermaid. It was considerable in size. This was only one of many we saw. The barbed wire around the arms and neck, Japanese letters in the middle of the spine. Tattoo coast is more like it.

After dinner we were bushed and had an hour before our ferry back to Oakland. We sat outside the pier and people watched:

Here are some descriptions of some of the characters working the streets for money:

Mom saw a guy with a sign-I won't lie to you its for beer.

Three guys with knee high lace-up boots with metal piercings and spiked hair of various colors in behind a sign that read "Photos with Freaks-$2-$5.

The Platinum Men-three guys dressed in aluminum painted clothes, gloves socks, shoes and all the skin covered with metallic makeup. For money you could take their picture. They were cleaning up with the cash.

Someone in the crowd said there was a bronze lady dressed as the statue of liberty but we didn't spot her.

One of the saddest things we saw was a little black kid in behind a set of bongo drums banging away. After about 15 minutes of playing a big guy would come over to the kid and empty the can of money into a knapsack. After a while he would come back take the money again and then replace the first kid with a new kid. The kids never looked older than ten years old. I saw this act repeated three times in the hour we had to wait for the ferry. The bongo drums and the color of the can never changed but the kid playing did. I feel this was a exploitation job. We also saw a little kid walking and carrying a lawn chair with something folded in the chair. He was walking with an older woman and wanted to set up close to us. I don't know what his act was going to be but the woman said it wasn't a good spot. He couldn't have been older than 10 years old. I guess this is the new slavery for which we will also be blamed.

We arrived back in Oakland and went back to check out of the hotel at 7:30. Normal check out is 11:oo am but we had to have a place to leave our bags so we had kept the room. When I checked out I told the guy at the desk that the air conditioning did not work in the room the previous night and he did not charge for the extra day or the late check out.

The train station in Oakland is called the C. L. Dellums station and has a bronze statue of the man out front. C. L Dellums was the man that organized the Sleeping Car Porters- first union to be organized by an African American. He was fired by the Pullman Co. in 1927 for his union organization activities. He had a distinguished record in the Bay area.

The train was due into the station at 8:30 PM but just like the night before pulled in at 9:15. Our car attendant sent us up to the parlor car for snacks as he had to clean our compartment. We had some soft drinks-mom had a wine-according to the bar lady the house brand was better than the name brand so she went with the house. We had some chicken wings and played a game of scrabble-mom won. By 2 points-205 to 203.

There was a long delay in getting out of Oakland. They messed around for about 1 hours trying to hook a private car on to the train without success. At about 12:30 am we decided to call it a day and head back to our sleeper compartment. It was tight. Mom had the lower and I had the upper. Mom had a window to look out if she wanted, I had the ceiling.

We woke up at 5:15 am as the train was pulling into Redding, Ca. At that point it was about 2.5 hours behind schedule. The train had lost more time during the night at a maintenance stop to repair an air-conditioning unit on the train. Sleeping on the train is an experience. The top bunk has a safety belt to keep you from rolling out of the bunk as it is narrower than a single bed. Also the jostling of the train might cause you to fall out. We did sleep though. There are shower compartments on the lower level of the sleeper car but we just washed up and used extra deodorant. I made a mental note that I had only 365 days left at work. At 6:30 am we went to the dining car for a great breakfast. Mom had a an omelet and I had eggs with spicy Mexican sausage-good.

We shared a table with a pleasant couple from California who said that "now that the family had grown up" were each now remarried. I don't know what one has to do with the other and we didn't ask. We then went to the parlor car and sat in the comfortable soft chairs to work up an appetite for lunch. We had a nice discussion with a couple from Houston who were taking the train for the first time but go to Seattle at least once a year and are on a first name basis with the desk clerk at the Hampton Inn at the Seattle airport.

At lunch we sat at a table with a media specialist (euphemism for "school librarian"). We ordered the same salmon salad as two days earlier. The media specialist was on a rail pass and was taking an extended trip of about three weeks. She had taken the Empire Builder to Portland, the Coast Starlight to San Diego and was now working her way back home to Minnesota. She had had an exiting trip on the way down to San Diego. South of Portland the train had struck a car going around the gates and there had been a fatality. On the same train some woman had gotten drunk and boisterous. Some guys had been smoking pot and disregarding the announcements that this was a non-smoking train. All of the above crew had been taken off the train at San Louis Obispo where the train was met by the police. Another passenger whose medication had run out was later trying to leave the train while in motion and had to be restrained by the attendants. It sounds far fetched but it is true. The same story was related to us over the speaker system by the train announcer on the leg between LA and Oakland. She did have an interesting ride. I am glad that nothing of this nature happened during our stay on the train.

Although we had left the scenic coast, we were now up into the Cascades and got some fantastic views of snow capped Mt. Shasta and also the deep cuts of the Sacramento River. Close to Shasta you could see molten volcanic rock sticking out of the hillside from years age. In Oregon the scenery around the Crater Lake area looked very familiar as we were there last year. Above Klamath Falls the train ran alongside Klamath lake for about 18 miles. Although this was a non-smoking train, the train would pause at some stations for a longer time and make announcements that it was a smoking break but that the passengers should not wander away from the train side. I took these as opportunities to look for postcards of the train inside the terminal (the train didn't carry any postcards-they claimed they were out.) Since our train was now 3 hours late, the people on board with connections to the Empire Builder to Chicago were in danger of missing the connection.

Before we reached Klamath Falls an announcement was made that people with this connection would be taken off at Klamath Falls and bussed to Portland for the trip east.

You have to get used to the fact that this isn't the airlines. The next train in most cases isn't an hour but 24 hours later and Amtrak does what it has to do to make sure that the people aren't inconvenienced too much. They took drinks and would be supplied with box lunches on the bus. We lost more time in this unloading process.

It really annoyed me that there were no cards available in the station-even Portland which is a big terminal. I mentioned this to the sleeping car attendant and he made me a gift of a Coast Starlight Key ring. He got a bigger tip for that later.

There are movies on board the train for the sleeping car passengers. They were showing Stuart Little for the kids during the day and Holding Up for Adults later. During the day there was also a magician for the kids in the observation car for the coach passengers and in the bottom of the parlor car for the sleepers. At 3:00 PM there was a wine and cheese party for first class. We skipped the wine but did bring some cheese back to the roomette later. After dinner (you are guaranteed a seating from the sleepers) we just watched the world go by and in Kelso, Washington spotted the horrible restaurant we ate at last year when we were at St. Helens. We got a small view of the alpenglow on Mt. Rainier as we neared Seattle. The train arrived in Seattle at 10:45 PM approximately 2.5 hours late. At one point they had been over three hours late but with built in slop they were able to overcome some but not most of the loss. The crew did not like being late as they were the ones that had to be back there early for the return trip to San Diego.

We took a cab to the Days Inn at Towne Center-about 4 blocks from the space needle.

Our cabby whom I nicknamed Bakhti did not speak much English at all. He understood Days Inn but was on the cell phone is a strange African language-probably asking for directions.

Great day on the train. If you don't have a set schedule this is the way to travel. Relax-talk to folks, read a book. The days on the train flew by.

First thing I did today was to call Hertz to find out where their car pick-up was. On the net it was listed as at the train station but I wanted a specific address to guide the cabby in case I got Bakhti again. The guy said Olive St. and when I said I was at the Days Inn he said it was only 4 blocks away and a short walk. Good to call ahead. We had a Toyota Camry for a rental. It turned out to be a very comfortable car. We left Seattle at around 9:30 am and decided to have breakfast someplace along the road. Auburn, Washington looked promising but we had a heck of a time locating anything other than a Burger King or MCD's. We finally sound a place called the Starting Gate and were sorry very soon that we didn't go to the Burger King. First-the coffee cup that was brought out to me had large lipstick marks on it. When I mentioned that the waitress said it wasn't her shade. I have to say she did have a good sense of humor. The coffee had absolutely no flavor other than hot dark water. Breakfast was passable. I ordered pancakes and the syrup was brought in a plastic glass. The explanation was that the syrup pitchers were busy. If you ordered sausage with the pancakes which I did- patties were .35c extra. Clientele was also interesting. One guy was chain smoking, eating eggs and instead of the bad coffee was drinking beer. He knew something we didn't but I don't drink beer anymore. Used to be the time when I did for breakfast. The guy in the next booth was a pleasure to look at-lip piercing with a ring.

I had left my map of Washington at home so I tried to get one in a local gas station. It took 5 stops to find one. At the first two-the guys in the store hardly spoke English-A Japanese and an Indian. We drove through the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe reservation.

There was the requisite bingo hall. On our way to Emenclaw (Indian word for "many fireworks stands along the way") we spotted the fireworks stands which up until July 4 had most likely been very busy since there were so many of them. The names of some were interesting. We started out with "Flaming Arrow Fireworks" but the ones that took the prize were "Kenny's Kaboom Box" and "Safe but Insane" fireworks.

We arrived at Paradise Inn in Mt. Rainier National Park at around 3:00pm. The inn is at around 5400 feet above sea level and Mt. Rainier towers over it. Mt. Rainier is in excess of 14000 feet. We were told that if we get a look at Rainier in its glory to take pictures of it as it is in the clouds most of the time. It was clear when we arrived and clouded over for about 15 minutes and then it was clear for the rest of our two day stay at Rainier. I guess we were lucky.

It was a short walk to the visitors center along a flower filled bank. We saw a film on Mt. Rainier and looked at the exhibits in the center. After the center we had dinner at the lodge, relaxed and waited for the ranger presentation at 9:00 PM. The ranger divided the audience into three groups and we played a Jeopardy type game regarding safety in the park. Rainier is a hikers and climbers paradise and there are many incidents where experienced hikers or climbers can get into trouble. In 1999 there were 4 fatalities involving people getting lost during a white-out on the sides of Rainier and two of those haven't been found yet. They were on their way to Camp Muir at 10000 feet-in the snow zone and had probably become disoriented and either went into the glacier crevasse field on one side or over the cliff on the other. I decided that I would not climb above the snow line now or ever because of two reasons. One-no need to get lost, two-they expect you to carry out any human waste you might leave in a blue bag (which they will provide). Sort of like the plastic glove that is used to pick up after dogs. I now know why I never had a dog.

After breakfast we started the day of the walks. We first went on the trail to Myrtle Falls which is a 1 mile round trip walk. The falls were pretty and Rainier was in its glory in front of them. On the way back we spotted a deer buck with a nice rack but he wouldn't allow himself to be photographed. He ran behind some trees. We then drove to the Grove of Patriarchs to take the 1.2 mile ranger led walk through some old growth forest. The ranger was a young girl in her senior year at the University of New Hampshire. Her first name was Monica and you guessed it, she had a ring in the side of her nose. The talk was informative and the patriarchs were huge. Some were 8 feet in diameter. Hemlocks, Douglas firs, cedars. After the patriarchs we drove to Sunrise Ridge which is about 35 miles from the Grove of the Patriarchs which in itself is 23 miles from Paradise Inn. The distances are staggering. Sunrise is the highest elevation in the park you can get by vehicle-around 6000 feet. Sunrise is in our opinion the prettiest part of the park. You can get a real good view of some of the 26 glaciers on Mt. Rainier. The views of Rainier here were awesome and besides you could get a real good view of Mt. Adams in the distance. We had lunch at the snack bar looked through the visitors center, took a short walk to an observation platform and then headed for Longmire which is at the Eastern entrance to the park and hoping to make the 3:30 ranger led walk there. Not a chance. The distances was too great and we did get held up by some traffic. There really are no crowds at Rainier such as you see in Yosemite or Yellowstone. The parking lots are full at the visitors centers but most people are out on the trails. Rainier gets about 2.0 million visitors a year. When we got to Longmire we had missed the ranger walk by about 10 minutes. We didn't want to rush to catch up so we visited the nice small museum and then did a walk of our own. Our walk consisted of the ¾ mile loop called the Trail of the Shadows. It is an easy walk through some more old growth forest and in some ways just as impressive as the Patriarchs trail. At one spot there is a boardwalk and you can see a mineral spring bubbling carbon dioxide gas. Longmire was the first developed property within what later became Rainier NP. The Longmire family built a resort in this location to take advantage of the mineral springs. Mineral springs were popular in the late 19th century. Eventually this business was stopped when the park came into existence.. On the way back to Paradise we stopped at Christine Falls and Narada Falls. The path down to the Narada falls has a vertical drop of about 200 feet in a very short distance. The climb up was difficult but mom stayed up top.

After dinner we went to the ranger presentation. This time it was about endangered and species of concern within Rainier NP. The spotted owl was on the list. There are no large predators other than the mountain lion at Rainier. The ranger indicated that it would be a rarity to spot one. The brochures say that if you have an encounter with a Mountain lion you should make yourself look bigger than you are by standing up straight. Pick up children. However if attacked you should fight back aggressively. With no large predators there is a concern about the deer and elk population in Rainier. The elk like to wallow and in doing so they destroy many of the fragile alpine plants and flowers. They estimate the size of the elk herd at 400 and growing. They are studying the possibility of introducing wolves to Rainier but that is at least two year away if at all. No decision has been made yet.

The elk themselves are not natural to this area. They were brought in from the Rockies and with no enemies can flourish. Grizzlies hunt elk but these are in the Northern Cascades close to Canada. In addition, black bears are on the species of concern list. Species of concern are not endangered but are listed as possibilities of endangerment in Rainier.

In NJ the black bear is making a strong comeback and there is even talk of having a hunting season for the bruins.

Lights out a 11:15.-Tomorrow we will be moving up to Port Angeles to get ready to go to Victoria, BC on Friday.

Left Rainier at around 9:30 am and headed to Pt. Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula.

We would have stayed in Rainier another day but time did not permit. It would have been nice to take a longer hike by myself and mom would have liked to have sat at the lodge and take in the view and read a little. We drove out the east entrance at Longmire and headed towards Olympia/Tacoma. We stopped for a little while in Elbe, Washington.

Elbe was settled in the 19th century by 13 German families. The interesting part of the story is that they built a small Lutheran church which is 18' by 24'. It is tiny. The bell on the church comes from a train. The church is still used for services once a month and is the home church of the area Lutheran Bishop. For the services, by tradition, the Bishop arrives at the church on a bicycle. In front of the church there is the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. Doesn't look like too big an operation even though the diesel steam engine was

running. At Alder the River is dammed up to create Alder Lake. The dam was built to run one of the earliest hydra-electric plants in the northwest. The lake itself is a whitish color as the river that feeds it is filled with glacier run off.

At Tacoma we took the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The original bridge self destructed here because of design problems and high winds in the narrows. It was later re-designed and is no longer called the galloping gertie. We passed over the Hood Canal Bridge but did not see any nuclear subs passing by. In the papers I had read that the day before some protesters had chained themselves to the opening portion of the bridge to protest the entry of the USS Nuclear sub's passage to Seattle for the Seafair celebration. Many of the Pacific nuclear subs make this passage out to sea as the home base is nearby.

We stopped in Port Townsend just to look around. The lady in the Chamber of Commerce visitors center said that Port Townsend is one of two towns in the US with a high concentration of Victorian period homes. The other being-Cape May NJ. Funny-we were in Cape May about two weeks before vacation. We drove out to Pt. Worden State Park to get a look at the Pt. Worden lighthouse. Small but nice.

We arrived in Port Angeles at around 3:00 PM and registered into the Super 8. They had rooms for Thursday night but not Friday. The closeness of Olympic National Park and the popularity of Victoria, BC fill this town up for the weekends. I was able to find accommodations for the next night very easily. Since the entrance to Olympic National Park was only 1.5 miles from the motel we decided to take a ride up to Hurricane Ridge after making reservations for the 8:10 am ferry to Victoria. We didn't know what to expect as I hadn't done too much research into Olympic National Park.. Olympic NP is different from other NP's we have been to in that it is primarily a wilderness type of park.

There are no roads that traverse the entire park. There are about 5 entrance points into the park and they just lead a distance into that particular area. Hurricane Ridge is seventeen miles from Port Angeles. After the entrance to the park you start climbing for the entire 17 mile way to the end of the road and the Visitors center on the ridge. The views are spectacular and overwhelming. What make it so is the sheer number of mountains in front behind and all around you. Mt. Olympus the highest peak is around 7400 feet and the visitors center is at 5200 feet. At Rainier there are a lot of other peaks but the sheer size of Mt. Rainier overpowers the rest and you tend to stay focused on the big one. Here your eyes are encouraged to explore 360 degrees. It was a great surprise. We saw what we thought were ptarmigans but according to the chart at the visitors center were blue grouse. After about an hour on the ridge on the way down we had a black tailed deer with the bambi twins walk calmly right in front of the car. No rush-they were on vacation too.

Dinner at the Bushwhacker restaurant, described in the brochures as a restaurant with water lapping at it sides. I asked the head waitress about this saying in the brochures and she said that it comes from the way that she pours water in the glasses. Halibut was good but according to mom not as good as the halibut at McCormick and Schmicks in El. Segundo.

After dinner we drove 25 miles one way to the Seven Cedars Indian Casino in Sequim, Wa.. We actually went there to atone for some of Custers Sins. I say some because we only left $20.00 there. All of the slot machines were of the video kind. None with real wheels. The action on the roulette wheels was pretty heavy. The electric sign on the roadway advertised that on August 4 and 5 appearing at the club would be Herman and the Hermits. I thought they had crawled into the cave a long time ago.

We had reservations on the 8:10 ferry so we were out of the room at 7:15. We chose Marty's for breakfast because it was close to the ferry. So did many other passengers and there were only two waitresses on duty for a counter and about 15 tables. We took the counter but still incurred slow service. Some of the customers really got surly with the waitresses. They couldn't understand that their late arrival had something to do with the problem. We ordered muffins and a roll with our coffee and got out in plenty of time.

We got on the boat and went up top to sit in the open air. Big mistake. While it was comfortable while the boat was at the dock, it got cold when the boat got out into the water. I had a light wind breaker with me but mom left her jacket in the car as they promised temperatures close to 80. . The boat was also rocking from side to side so mom didn't want to take the risk of falling while trying to go down the stairs. We did slide over to the other side of the bench which faced the sun and was better. Luckily a man sitting next to mom pulled an extra jacket from his knapsack and lent it to mom. He was an English poetry professor from California and his wife was also a teacher. He was a lifesaver. When we mentioned that we were coming back on the 2:00 PM ferry he said that they were also. Since we would primarily be going to the shops I said how much shopping could mom do. The professor said "Don't challenge her."

The crossing over took 1 hour. Victoria is a very pretty place to visit. It is the provincial capital for British Columbia. We went through immigration and customs and were soon on our way to the city center which is only 1 block away from the ferry landing. The BC parliament building looked impressive across the street from the Royal Wax Museum. As it was the Queen Mum's 100th birthday the Wax museum Marquee had lettering that read-

"Free cake at 12:00 noon". We had decided to take the 2:00 PM ferry back in order t be able to get to the Hoh Rain Forest in the late afternoon. Thus we did not go to the Bouchart Botanical Gardens as this would have been a full day trip on its own without seeing much of downtown or the shops. The gardens are supposed to be spectacular and we could see why as there were flowers all around the city. The flower baskets off the light poles were very pretty. We hit the shops and mom finally got into the mood to shop.

Maybe it was because it was the first opportunity I gave her this trip. We went into many shops and mom had her plastic out. Before lunch mom was advised in a store that inside one of the hotel lobby's up the street there was an office where you could get a refund for the GST tax on the spot. We wandered up the street and found the office after mom finished with the purchases. However there was a catch- total purchases had to be over $200 which was no problem. However we got caught by the next hook. Each invoice had to be over $50.00. Mom had 3 invoices but one of them was for $49.97. This eliminated this one and also brought the total just below $200.00. I asked the girl if I could give her the .03C but she only worked there. We lost about $10.00 US. for three Canadian cents.

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Café where the food was good after they brought it to the table but the service was slow. It was lunch hour. On the way back to the 2:00 PM ferry we walked through the Empress Hotel where they have high tea in the Crystal Tea room every day in the afternoon. The hotel is huge and very expensive. After getting home I looked it up on the net and found that the average room in high season(now) is going for $460-600 Canadian dollars per night. Even without the currency exchange that ain't cheap. We decided that we would like to come back to Victoria and spend a couple of days there as it is that nice. Some other trip. One day is not enough in Victoria.

We passed through US immigration and then got on the ferry again. I guess we didn't learn in the morning and went up top again. It was close to 80 and the trip was great for about half way across. Then it got windy and the boat started to send spray up to the upper deck. We lasted with this for a while until one cold blast drenched us. The floor was slippery and the only opportunity we had was to slide forward and sit right behind the captains cabin where we were protected from the spray. Twice stupid on the same day. Back in Port Angeles we passed through customs. The captain on the boat tells you that the correct thing to say to the inspector is "we bought some souvenirs".

The ride to the Hoh Rain Forest is about 85 miles from Port Angeles to the visitors center. The Hoh Rain Forest is a temperate rain forest in a section of Olympic NP and sits in a valley of the mountains which receives about 142 inches of rain per year. We drove along highway 101 and pretty soon were out in the middle of nowhere. We drove along the shore of Crescent Lake which is inside the park. This is another of those long narrow lakes. Probably formed by glaciers. Approximately 57 miles from Pt.Angeles is the town of Forks. Forks claims to be the lumber capital of the Northwest and also houses the Lumber Museum. Fifteen miles south of Forks is the entrance to the Hoh area and the visitors center is 18 miles up the road. As soon as you get to the visitors center you get to feel different than at Hurricane Ridge. Same park different area. You can feel the humidity in the air as you walk under the trees. We walked the Trail of the Mosses which is a 1.25 loop trail through old growth forest. Large parts of the trees are covered with moss and lichens. Kind of spooky compared to the old growth in Rainier where there were some mosses but not a preponderance as here in Hoh. One large Sitka spruce had fallen many years ago and the trail was next to it. The plaque read that it was now 190 feet long but that when alive it would have been approximately 220-230 feet long. Some go to 300 feet. Imagine a tree almost as long as a football field. There were many trees that looked like they were growing on stilts. The explanation for this was that a tree had fallen on its side and dead trees retain moisture. Some seed had fallen on the tree and then started to grow around the fallen tree by feeding on the moisture. After many years the fallen tree rots out and the stilt tree remains. They call the fallen tree a nurse log and we saw one specimen that had three large trees growing around its fallen trunk.

We arrived back in Port Angeles around 8:00pm and checked into the Portside Motel which was a chain motel in the west. The room was nice. The front clerk was a bit testy-perhaps he had breakfast at Marty's. He asked me for a picture ID along with my credit card. I was a little miffed but produced one anyhow. Who would charge a room on a stolen card. Your movements can and are tracked by usage. In a motel it is like saying-here I am-come and get me. It was moms choice for restaurants and she selected Bella Italia. It was hard to find because it was in a basement of a health food store with no visible signs. It was worth the hunt(2 times around the block). We each had a Chiopino seafood stew. We had this meal last year in Newport, Oregon. We have never seen it on a menu on the east coast. Delicious. The spices were superb.

We left Pt. Angeles at 9:00 AM in a foggy overcast to go to Seattle for the flight home the next morning. Road names spotted along the way-Kitchen Dick Road and Undie Road. We weren't done with the ferry portion of this trip yet. At Bremerton we took the 11:40 AM ferry to downtown Seattle. We had about a 30 minute wait and the ferry ride was about 40 minutes but I think we came out about even in the time it would have taken to go around Tacoma and then up to Seattle. It was a pleasant trip. We were talking to a mother and daughter who were going over to the Seattle waterfront for the day. They had moved to this area 40 some years ago from Minneapolis. The highlight of the ferry trip was that the Blue Angels were performing over the harbor as part of the Fleet Week celebrations. They were doing their close order drill flying and one of them buzzed the ferry which rattled all the windows. We parked the car in a garage as soon as we were reasonably close to the Pike Street Public Market and walked on up. This is a must see place if you come to Seattle. We had been there before but really enjoy walking through the market just to see the flowers. Big bunches can be bought for about $6.00 but there is no way we can get them home. You can't buy flowers that cheaply in the east anywhere. We bought a T-shirt at the fish market where the salespersons throw the seafood to the guy behind the counter to weigh and wrap it. We also consumed about two pounds of Bing and Rainier cherries. Yummy.

We then walked up the street towards the Westlake Center where you catch the monorail to the Space Needle. $5.00 round trip for two. One of the requirements of this trip was that we go to have lunch or dinner at the space needle with its revolving restaurant. On Saturday it was a brunch menu for 34.50 per. We didn't have much of a wait and were soon up in the restaurant at our table. While the menu said brunch, there were items on the menu which constituted a dinner. We had the Salmon. The restaurant revolved about two and a half times that we were there. I remember seeing Mt. Rainier twice during our sit down meal. The views of the harbor are spectacular. Seattle is a beautiful city. The space needle was built in 1962 for the Seattle worlds fair. Some of the other structures as well as the monorail are leftovers from the fair. There are amusement rides around the needle and it is a busy place. From the top we could see a fountain which had a programmed spray pattern which was crowded with kids getting wet in the warm sun. After the brunch we sat and people watched for a while and got to see some more piercing and tattoos. One guy had red magenta hair. One girl had a mixture of blue and green hair. One girl had a ring in the center of her nose. Mom spotted a Nordstroms Rack and went over to the store. She had to use the facilities and had to wait in line at the cashiers to get a token. As it turned out she didn't need a token but we are ready in case we have to go again. On the way back to the car at the Seattle Art Museum we spotted a part of the protesters that had been out at the Hood Canal Bridge. They were carrying signs protesting nuclear subs and some were even carrying signs protesting the World Trade Organization. I guess these were leftovers from the big riots they had there earlier in the year or late last year.

We then rode over to the Hiram Chittenden Locks to see the busiest locks in the US. They were busy with pleasure craft moving between Lake Union and Shishole Bay on Puget Sound. Part of the exhibit here is the fish ladder which was full of Chinook salmon and also Steelhead trout.

Arrived at the Days Inn and got rid of the car so we wouldn't have to deal with Hertz in the morning. Our flight is at 7:10 and we have to be up at 5:00.

All went like clockwork. We were at the airport at 5:45 AM and had a leisurely Starbucks Coffee. Mom did some last minute chopping of candy for the folks in the office and we were on the way to the gate. We already had assigned seats and they announced that the plane was going to be full. The departure time was scheduled for 7:10 and at 7:15 we taxied to the runway to wait for some final weather calculations. The captain said there was bad weather in the mid-west and that there was a good possibility that we would take a delay somewhere along the way. We were airborne by 7:30. At the gate they had been asking for three volunteers to take a later flight at 12:45PM in return for a three hundred dollar voucher. One woman came up and volunteered to switch if they would up the ante. The stewardess sent her back to the seat and eventually three did give up their flight for the money but not us. The captain made an announcement that the fires in Idaho and Montana were responsible for the deep blue haze that could be seen hanging in the mountain valleys. We couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very visible. The plane was due into Newark at 3:30 PM and it arrived on time. The weather was just the same as we had left for the Northwest. It was raining and we missed it all during our ten days away from home. Limo was there and after a long wait for the luggage we were on the last leg of the way home. Work on Monday.

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