Seattle Vacation: Westward Ho! (Part 1)

Part 1: Cleveland to Chicago

Having traveled all over the world for work and seen at least snatches of 25 different countries (some more than others) I decided it was time to see a bit of this country. I’ve always wanted to take Amtrak to Seattle and this seemed like the year to do it. I looked at prices online (Amtrak has a very user friendly website) and coach seemed very affordable. I booked my trip on the website: Cleveland to Chicago, layover for a few hours, then Chicago to Seattle on Amtrak’s famous Empire Builder. I booked a hotel in Seattle for two nights (three days) and then I planned to take Amtrak’s Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles, layover again for a short time and then take the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago, then back to Cleveland.

I have to tell you, I haven’t had a real, traveling vacation for a long time. I was so excited about this trip that I could barely hold my water most days.

There was basically only one hitch: Amtrak has two westward trains leaving Cleveland daily: the Lakeshore Limited at 3:20 AM or the Capitol Limited, departing at 4:00 AM. I decided on the earlier train. With an hour’s drive from Akron to downtown Cleveland, that would mean leaving home around 2:00 in the morning. Ugh.

So, I dropped Jake at the kennel Saturday (7/23/05) packed and cleaned the house (I hate coming home to a dirty house) and generally puttered around. Sunday I managed to nap a bit and left home a little early (around 1:30) to give myself some “got lost” time. As it turns out, there was some sort of carnival downtown near the Amtrak station which closed the exit Yahoo Maps had given me. After driving around a bit, I figured out an alternate route and got to the station around 2:30.

The Cleveland Amtrak station is a fairly small affair and looks like it hasn’t radically changed since the 70’s. There were a handful of people there, some waiting for westbound trains, some for eastbound. After collecting my ticket and sitting for a while, listening to some young guy talk about how religion saved his life, it was announced that my train would be delayed at least an hour. It ended up being more like an hour and a half. Or, to think of it the way I did as I sat there, bleary-eyed and uncomfortable, 90 minutes that I could have spent in bed. But I’m not bitter. There was a certain “matter-of-fact-ness” about the train being late that kind of annoyed me. To the people who worked at the Cleveland station, it seemed pretty routine for the train to be late. Ah well, as long as I made it to Chicago in time to have brunch with my friends Doug and Larry, I wasn’t too bothered.

Now, if I allowed my impression of Amtrak to be formed solely on the crew of the Lakeshore Limited, I probably wouldn’t take trains ever again. To say they were surly would be an understatement. After waiting for hours and finally getting to the train, the steward (conductor?) made me get on the train last because I was traveling alone. Families take priority, I was told. If you asked the crew a simple question, they acted like you just asked for the donation of a major limb. “What time will be arriving in Chicago?” I asked one steward. It seemed like an innocent, straight-forward question. “The train’s running late!” the steward barked, without breaking stride or looking back at me. A little later, I asked a different employee the same question. “It’s two hours after we leave XXXX,” he replied. “And when will we leave XXXX?” I asked. He gave me that “why am I talking to this puddle of piss” look and snarled, “We’re running behind schedule.” Very helpful. I called Doug with my best guesstimate, telling him I should arrive around 10:30 Chicago time. The Empire Builder left at 2:30 PM, giving us plenty of time to have brunch and visit.

I have to mention one more incident on this train that absolutely appalled me. Around 7:30 Central Time, (6:30 to my body) while many passengers were still sleeping, the same “barking” steward came through our coach, collecting the pillows loaned to passengers. He had no problem waking sleeping passengers in order to take their pillows. When one young girl didn’t wake up immediately, he literally ripped the pillow out from under her head. That was their idea of customer service.

I skipped breakfast on the train since I knew brunch awaited me in Chicago. We arrived at Union Station around 10:15 (meaning I knew the train’s schedule better than the employees) leaving me time to find a washroom and explore the station before Doug and Larry showed up. Union Station is amazing! The statuary, the sense of history, the scale are all incredibly impressive. Doug and Larry found me without any problem and we jaunted off into the city. The restaurant Doug picked for brunch was close to the station, Wishbone on Washington. The placed was packed that particular Sunday morning with a line running out the front door. I managed to pick the hottest day of the year to be in Chicago with a high of 102 degrees (F) expected. Fortunately, we got seated pretty quickly – even before we could order mimosas from the bar.

Wishbone specializes in Southern cooking, but not typical sausages-and-grits Southern cooking. This is Southern cooking with a gourmet touch. I had the N.C. Crab Cakes, described thus on the menu: “Spicy blue claw crab patties in the Outer Banks style served with lemon butter sauce, two eggs, home fries or grits and choice of corn muffin, biscuit or toast.” I had my eggs over medium, home fries and a really delicious corn muffin. Throw in a mimosa (champagne and fresh squeezed orange juice) and you have a fantastic meal. I forget what Doug and Lar had, but their meals looked really good, too.

Just a quick word about my friends Doug and Larry: they are two of the warmest, most sincere people I have had the pleasure to know. I consider them two of my closest friends. Any opportunity to spend time with them is not to be missed.

After breakfast I still had several hours to kill, so the guys dropped me off at the Bijou theater for some recreation. But that’s another story…

Next: Empire Builder to Seattle