We are home!

We are home from an absolutely awesome vacation. Now I have the task of trying to blog it all to you. It would have been easier, I suppose, to blog along they way, but there really wasn't time. We were so busy. I also chose to stay away from the Internet. I didn't even check email. I didn't want to risk getting sidetracked from vacation on things I could not do anything about anyway. So here goes.

We began our day on August 23rd with Breakfast at Perkins in Lansdowne with Dad and Dinana, our ride to the train station. We arrived at 30th Street Station about 10:30 a.m. for our 12:35 train to Washington DC. (Yes, we were way early, I know.)

I went to the QuickTrak machine to print our tickets and was greeted with a message "See Attendant". Hmmm that did not sound like a great way to start the trip. Usually, you simply enter your confirmation number and the tickets print out. You don't have to wait in line to "See Attendant". The line was short and the attendant was very friendly. I explained what happened and he said "Well, then, let's see why" with a smile. Well it turns out I had to show them my AAA card as I had requested and been charged the AAA discount, 10%. I've used the discount for all my train travels but never had to show the card before. I guess for such a large invoice they wanted to make sure they were not giving away something I was not entitled to.

Seeing the attendant, however, had a benefit. Since we were travelling 'first class' (sleeping car passengers are first class on Amtrak) we were entitled to wait in the Acela Lounge. Now we knew we were entitled to this at Union Station in Washington and Chicago but had not been told we could do this in Philadelphia. We were escorted by a Redcap to an elevator (which was probably an original) to the second floor of the station which I never knew existed. Here we were treated to comfy leather seats, complimentary coffee, soft drinks and water. So we spent the rest of the wait in style! When the train was ready to board we were escorted by another redcap in the same elevator directly to the boarding platform. I felt underdressed for all this special treatment.

The ride to Washington was uneventful. I took a nap on the way. We were late leaving Philadelphia because they decided to switch from electric to diesel engines. This was something they normall do in Washington but decided to do in Philadlephia the announcement said. They didn't tell us why. We arrived at Washington's Union Station at 3:20. We found the Amtrak Lounge and were told to keep our luggage with us and proceed right to the boarding door as boarding would begin at 3:30.