Planning your trip; Part One.

So borrowed this book from the library, "All Aboard! The Complete North American Train Travel Guide" by Jim Loomis. It has a copywright of 1995 so some of the information may turn out to be outdated. I will deal with as it comes.

The reading is easy. Mr. Loomis is detailed enough to actually tell me something and hold my interest but not so detailed to be tedious. The first three chapters are about the history of passenger rail service in the United States. I know, that sounds about as interesting as reading that Bret Farve retired....again! Seriously, though it moved quickly and I learned a thing or two about the whole Amtrak development thing which I grew up hearing about but never really understood. I should have known it was all political! LOL

So Chapter 4 is "Planning your own trip". Ok, I've already done that but let's see how I did. The first piece of advice is to plan ahead. Well I'd say almost 7 months is a lot of ahead. Dorkiness to the rescue! He recommends at least 3 months maybe more for the summer months.

Next he tells me about the types of travel. Here's where I learn that sleeper class (we will be here for legs 2 and 3) is considered first class! Cool! I've only ever travelled first class once before in my life. It was in 1993 when we took the kids to Alaska. It's a long story that involves someone else's frequent flier miles but it was first class nonetheless. I think I've spoiled the kids for life as far as air travel goes. That was their first ever airplane ride. Emma as 3. You could have fit three of her in the big first class chairs! So back to trains; we are travelling first class. How cool is that! The price of our ticket includes our roomette, meals and use of the shower facilities. For a picture and a virtual tour of a roomette, click the link. More on the room etc later.

Now Mr. Loomis talks about planning a vacation around the rail travel. Stopping at various locations and visiting and then getting back on. We will not be doing that as the original purpose of this trip is to visit the west coast family. However, I can see myself doing some rail vacations in the future! He also mentions "All Aboard Amtrak" fares and a collaboration between United and Amtrak. I havent been able to find anything on the All Aboard fares that is any newere than 1996 and nothing onthe Amtrak website. That's ok,. I think it would have been something you'd have to work with before you booked anyway. I'm going to dig a little bit more on the United link though since we are going to fly home.

I leave you with a picture of Todd and the boys. Carmen took the pictures. Us moms often do that... LOL Left to right is Todd, Brendan (5), Dawson(7), and Cole(10). Ages are when we will see them in August.

Yes they really are Eagles fans even though they live closer to the Seattle Mariners. Todd has been an eagles fan since before Dave and I met. The Eagles gear is mostly imported from the East. :)