Murder on the Orient Express

This week I watched Murder on the Orient Express from the 70s. Its been in my queue forever so I was glad I finally got to it.

So it was surprising to see it would be shown on the Amtrak train on our way to Portland (where I am now. Here's to mobile blogging!).

Despite how odd it is that the movie would come up again in the same week, I think its even odder to play this movie on a train. Isn't that a bit like showing a movie with a plane crash in flight?

Rail to Portland

Mary and I are going to spend Saturday in Portland. We'll be on the train in the morning and back by night, thanks to a 2-for-1 deal with Amtrak.

I'm expecting Travel Scrabble will probably make the journey with us. But we're definitely looking forward to a nice day in Portland (especially when it's supposed to be in the 70s if not 80s). Powell's here I come!

Also check out Peter Callaghan's article on the Seattle to Portland Amtrak trip. They expect to be able to cut Point Defiance out of the trip and save 6 minutes. Callaghan's right, it's a very nice 6 minutes, but it's part of an overall plan to cut the trip between Seattle and Portland by 1 hour. That's really fast and makes the trip shorter (just barely and depending on how fast you drive) than going by car. That's a good rail system.

Portland Express

I'll recap the awesome weekend quickly.

We left at 10:30 from Tacoma on the train and pulled in just before 2. We sat for about 45 minutes in front of Chambers Bay waiting for our "sister" train. I didn't know what that meant. But it's so much different than traveling by air. Three hours in an airline seat and three hours sitting at a table reading and playing Scrabble are two very different things.

We got in, walked to the hotel and then started exploring Portland's Pearl District (which is awesome!). Lots of wandering, lots of browsing, not much buying, but that's ok. We had a late dinner at a great Italian restaurant and then headed off to bed.

Sunday we had breakfast at Jake's and then spent the requisite few hours browsing Powell's. Because how could you not? And then wandered the town a bit more after that.

The train ride back made it all the worth it. It was dark, traffic looked heavy, but there we were, once again reading and playing Scrabble in the lounge car, when I could have been staring at the dark freeway feeling tired. The trip back was only 2:45, too, so not much longer than the drive would take.

It was a very cool weekend away!

Yes. It's True. Vacations are awesome.

Exhibit 1.



What a beautiful night at Cannon Beach.

Oregon Weekend

Will be at Cannon Beach this weekend for some rainy walks on the beach looking at Haystack Rock. At least, that's what all my other experiences on Cannon Beach tell me it will be like.

Maybe we'll get lucky.

Mount Bachelor

I went skiing yesterday here at Bachelor for the first time in 2 years, almost to the day. My legs are killing me and I'm sore all over but it was definitely worth getting back out on the slopes.

We also had an awesome dinner in downtown Bend last night. On my trips here before I've never ventured into the downtown, but I discovered it's a pretty great little town. I'm going to go back today and explore a little more in the light of day.