Belated Vacation Recap: The train

So I can’t believe it was almost a month ago already that Becca and I headed out on the Empire Builder to go visit friends in Seattle.  I have been to Seattle several times before, in fact it has been a yearly tradition since some of my very dear friends from college decided to move out there in 2006 (thus making this my 4th Seattle trip if you do the math).  Anyways this time, given our more open schedule, Becca and I decided to take the train.  A very different concept than the 3 1/2 hour plane ride, this left Chicago on a Wednesday afternoon around 2pm and took until 10am on Friday to get us to Seattle.  But man, oh man was it worth it.  I will let my pictures do most of the talking here, but I will say 46 hours of TV on DVD watching, reading, SIMS playing, and just staring out the window can actually be pretty good.

We didn't have to wait until we got to Montana to see some gorgeous sceneary, even plan ole Wisconsin can look pretty spectacular.

The lounge car was one of the best parts of the train; seats that faced the window, curved windows above that went down almost to the floor and even occasionally park rangers to tell you all about a particular location.

These South Dakotan hills were our first indication that we were entering The West

How we kept ourselves entertained: Books, episodes of Bones, cards, etc

I absolutely loved this scenery.

We even saw some horses from the train, no moose though.

Thursday evening brought us beautiful sunset sky as we approached the mountains of Glacier National Park

We also ended up seeing two sets of double rainbows that evening.

This leg of the trip was by far my favorite.

Glacier National Park

We saved the pesto for our last meal on the train, super yummy pita, cheese sticks, cherry tomatoes and pesto sauce!

The next morning we were still going through mountains.

Washington is a beautiful state.