Train from Portland to Los Angeles

All Aboard!!

After a delicious late brunch we said a tearful goodbye to our friends and headed to Union Station in downtown Portland. Since we arrived early and there’s no long lines or security checks we dropped off our luggage at the fancy-pants first class lounge. We took an Uber to go shopping and I played some Pokemon *because this summer was all about Pokémon Go if you have been living under a rock*. I wanted to buy these cute sunglasses from J. Crew however the store was closed for renovation *uh oh, the Liz curse struck again! So we settled for Nordstrom where Liv found the perfect pair of ballet flats for the first day of school.

I am so happy we get to visit these guys at least once a year. They are coming to LA soon to take Veda to Disneyland so I’m looking forward to hosting them. Portland’s Union Station was nice, but didn’t strike me as much at King’s Street Station in Seattle.

We made it back to the train station with plenty of time to board and found our luggage already set up in our stateroom. I booked a Superliner bedroom with a bathroom for our thirty hour train ride home. The stateroom was much bigger than I expected but still tight for us so I decided to check Liv and my bags so we would have more legroom. Big mistake! I totally forgot to put our pjs, toiletries in my carry-on and the games I brought to play during the trip. Oh well, we made due by reading books, we bought things from the snack car and borrowed things from Antz. The first twenty four hours were a breeze. I definitely recommend upgrading to the bedroom sleeper for an overnight trip because I would have not made the entire thirty hours using public bathrooms. I have never been on a train overnight so there were so many fun features. We had our own butler who would appear magically to make our meal reservations and straighten our room. You may wonder what did we do for thirty hours…?

EAT!

When you board, the waitress takes your drink order, then she ask what would you like for lunch. As soon as you head back to your room for a wake up, it’s time for breakfast, then you have a snack and it’s already time for lunch. I felt like we ate for thirty hours straight! The best part was because we are a family of three, we had a new passenger join our table for every meal. We made so many new friends although one guy was anti-social during lunch. Riding the train does cause a little motion sickness and I still felt the tremble of the train a day after we got home. The observation car was my favorite part of the train experience. I sat in the comfy swivel cars and stared at the views thought the glass ceiling for hours not realizing I intended to finish reading my book. I loved that we could spread out along the train and not be cooped up in our room the whole time. There is even a movie theater but we weren’t interested in watching the new Batman movie.

Our butler Mike met us as we boarded. Liv was so excited to get our own sleeper room.

Liv was elated to have her own bed! It was really cool. We were able to plug our devices in, for about half the trip we had wifi and having our own bathroom was crucial!

The food was on par with airplane food. I had crab cakes twice! I suggest you bring your own blanket and pillowcases.

This is Moses. He was the best part of our train trip. He would give us updates on meal times, info on the area we were passing through and crack us up with random facts and jokes on the intercom. He was like our own private comedian DJ. It took us about five hours to find where he was located on the train but it was so funny hearing his voice pop up ever so often to keep us entertained.

Have you ever seen the episode of I Love Lucy when she thinks a jewel thief is on the train so she keeps pulling the emergency brake? I really wanted to pull this guy just for laughs!

We were fortunate enough to arrive in Santa Barbara just before our last dinner. This gave me a quick few minutes to jump off the train and take a few photos. Antz was sure I would miss the train.

After about eight hours in the mountains, we finally got wifi and for the remaining two hours, these two were glued to their screens! I can’t blame them, the route heading into the outskirts of LA isn’t very interesting at night. We had so much fun but to be honest those last two hours felt as long as the first twenty eight hours.