[Amtrak trip] 24h in New Orleans (1)

August 4, 2018August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Be nice or leave! Motto of New Orleans

10:30 AM The oldest tram in the world

I started the second day in New Orleans quite late. It seemed it was the way everybody was doing it in New Orleans. After taking a good rest, I went for a lunch at Carrollton Market in the west side of the city (Carrollton) beside the Mississippi river.

It was about 4.7 miles from my hotel. I decided to try the historic New Orleans tram #12, oldest streetcar in the world! I could buy the ticket very easily with the smartphone app ‘RTA Go Mobile.’ One day unlimited ride ticket (Jazzy pass) was $3.00.

The tram was made with wood and rattled as it went slowly. There was no window glass on the driver’s seat so the driver could announce whatever he/she wants (like “take the next tram!”) by shouting it out loud to the streets. The tram took the historic St. Charles Ave, which was filled with beautiful/huge houses and large trees.

The oldest streetcar in the world

12:00 Lunch at Carrollton Market

Carrollton Market was reported in Forbes magazine as one of the four restaurants that you shouldn’t miss today in New Orleans. And the owner/chef Jason Goodenough had been named the chef of the year by New Orleans Magazine last year. The food was very elegant and interior was cozy. I had Oyster Goodenough French Omelet ($17) that was very unique and rich in taste.

Carrollton Market

Oyster Goodenough French Omelette at Carrollton Market

2:00 PM Waking around Magazine Streets

Magazine Streets are 6 miles stretching streets in the west side of New Orleans filled with local shops. The streets are abundant of vintage shops, antiques, and various local products. I was not planning for shopping but ended up buying a leather pencil case at Box Paper Scissor (beautiful stationery shop) and two vinyls (SP) of Quincy Jones and George Harrison at Peach’s Record.

Kaweco fountain pens at Box Paper Scissor

Peach’s Record

Very very interesting coloring book at Peach’s Record

4:00 PM Cocktail time

We took the tram again to come back to the French Quarter. It was now sizzling and impossible to stay outside for too long. So like everybody else in New Orleans, we went for cocktails. At first, we just grabbed any seat at the bar Famous Door that was playing live music (something like Irish country songs…?) and drank a big cup of Hurricane cocktail that so many people were drinking (rum+passion fruit juice.)

Famous Door at Bourbon Street

It was a bit early for a dinner and too hot to walk around, so I decided to go for… another cocktail, thinking it must have been weather that made New Orleans a birthplace of cocktail. My next stop was Carousel Bar at Monteleone Hotel. The bar is the only rotating (yes, spinning slowly like a carousel) bar in New Orleans and according to its website it had been spinning for 65 years now! I had Vieux Carre ($12.00), signature cocktail created in 1938 (Rey Whiskey+Sweet Vermouth+etc.) which was strong enough for a hot summer day

Vieux Carre cocktail at Carousel Bar (minions not included :-P)

7:00 PM Seafood Dinner at Felix

I had this list of ’10 things that you must eat in New Orleans,’ from USA tourism site and felt like I was running out of time to eat them all in three days. So to check out several menus at once, I went to Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar. It was very casual restaurant that served New Orleans style seafoods. We had half shell oysters, char-grilled oysters, Crawfish Etouffee, and Jambalaya. The waitress recommended seasonal local draft beer which was watermelon (!) beer. It was perfect for the weather and the food.

Char grilled Oysters at Felix

The list of ‘ten things I must eat’ in New Orleans

After the dinner, it was cooler than before so we walked to the next spot, Frenchmen St. On a way, I encountered a wonderful shop (Magnolia Sugar & Spice Praline Kitchen & Hot Sauce Bar) that had hundreds (or thousands) kinds of hot sauce. They even had hot sauce tasting bar (“Taste at your own rick”) to feel the different tastes of hot sauces. I couldn’t resist but to buy one Louisiana ‘original’ hot sauce, although for me it was almost impossible to tell the difference among various kinds.

Magnolia Sugar & Spice Praline Kitchen & Hot Sauce Bar

Hot sauce tasting

9:00 PM Jazz time

The main street for New Orleans jazz is Frenchmen St, about 15~20 mins walk from the crazy Bourbon St. According to the website, Frenchmen St. is “the capital of live music in New Orleans. With 20+ bars, venues, and restaurants all within a 2 block area, each hosting various live music events 7 days a week.” So how could I skip it?

The first jazz bar we hopped into was the Maison where the band, Smoking Time Jazz Club, was playing. We sat at the bar and nobody asked for a cover charge. (Later I found out the show is all free unless otherwise specified.) The show was great and so jazzy, quite different from something like $50.00 cover charged live in New York.

After the show and a glass of local IPA, we headed to another jazz bar nearby, the Spotted Cat. This time we had to pay $10.00 entrance fee but the didn’t have to order anything. We were standing in the crowd so it was not easy to drink anyway. The night was turning deeper and so was the music. It was getting warmer from heat of the crowd, but nobody seemed to care and nor did I.

The Mason

The Spotted Cat

[Amtrak trip] Chicago to New Orleans

August 2, 2018August 2, 20182 Comments

Day 5. From Chicago to New Orleans

Chicago–>New Orleans
Amtrak 59 <City of New Orleans>, Reserved Coach
Departure 8:05 PM
Arrival 3:47 PM (next day)

8:05 PM Departure from Chicago

The daily train from Chicago to New Orleans, ‘The City of New Orleans’ started around 8:00 PM, just in time to enjoy the sunset of Chicago from the departing train. I remembered the docent from Chicago architecture boat tour telling us the quote from Mark Twain. “She is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.” Indeed, I shall come back one day.

The train slipped quietly through the night. It was to pass Champaign-Urbana, Carbondale, Memphis, Jackson, and arrive at its final station New Orleans after about 19 hours (934 miles.) I fell asleep as soon as it left and woke up around at 5:30 AM near Memphis. The crew announced that it was ‘designated smoking stop,’ and so many cigarette lovers jumped off excitedly. I realized the train was running about one hour early, meaning that it needed to wait for passengers for about an hour. I had more than enough time to get off and to stretch myself. After Memphis, I couldn’t go back to sleep.

Stopping at Memphis

Observation car in ‘City of New Orleans.’ Later this car turned into a party car.

The Amtrak train from Chicago to New Orleans was a little bit different from the train from Boston to Chicago. The biggest difference was that it had an observation car, where the chairs were installed sideways to look at sceneries through the large windows. It was the next car from my seat, so I went to take a look around 8:30 AM. Then I found out that there was a whole different world being unfolded in observation car. It was not an observation car, it was a PARTY car! People were laughing, talking, singing, playing cards and it was so loud and joyful. Someone even was playing wild music with a Bluetooth speaker and one group was having bachelorette party. The city of New Orleans in the train already!

: Scenery going into New Orleans, Lake Maurepas

Scenery going into New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain

Scenery going into New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain

2:50 PM Arrival: New Orleans

The scenery outside was changing from coolness of Chicago to warm, hot, wet, swampy scenery of the South. The driver of the train must have been pumping the gas hard, because the train surprisingly arrived in New Orleans about one hour early (!) at 2:50 PM. I was shocked that New Orleans was a large city with high rises. How stupid I was to think that it would be a small city similar to Cambridge (MA)!

The famous Mercedes Stadium near New Orleans Amtrak station

Colorful New Orleans Amtrak Station

Street near the hotel. “Jazz it up”

It was so hot and sunny in New Orleans. I walked about 15 minutes from the station to the hotel, Drury Inn & Suite. The lobby was really luxurious, and the check-in staff was very kind. She let us know that we get three free drinks (including beer, wine, or cocktail) and free food every day from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM. I couldn’t believe my ears so asked back, “you mean it’s all free?” (Yes, it really was.)

4:00 PM Walking around French Quarter

It was the first day in New Orleans, so I decided to explore the most famous spot, French Quarter, about 20 minutes’ walk from the hotel. It was only 4:00 PM the streets were filled with partying people. The live music was being played in every corner and everywhere you turn, there were street performers playing jazz.

: Park near French Quarter (Jackson Square)

Colorful phone booth in French Quarter

Everybody walking the alleys were carrying some kind of cocktail in their hands. ‘You can drink outside, smoke inside’ has been the motto of New Orleans, I’ve read, and it seemed to be true. Nobody was covering their alcoholic drinks with brown bag and there were several cigar bars with signs ‘you can smoke inside.’ People used to really smoke inside the bars until several years ago, but it is now banned except designated cigar bars.

We headed for the first food of New Orleans, the world-famous Beignet. The most famous spot for Beignet was Café du Monde. Luckily there was no line for the inside seats, so we just dived in and ordered iced Café au Lait ($5.00) and one dish of Beignet (3 pieces, $2.73.) According to Cafe du Monde’s website, Beignet is “a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar.” Hot and crispy fried dough was covered with the finest powder of sugar and it tasted like heaven.

The famous Beignet cafe <Cafe du Monde>

Beignet with Cafe Au Lait

7:00 PM Dinner at Compere Lapin

After taking a walk for about an hour, we went to Compere Lapin (French for ‘brother rabbit’) for a dinner (about 10 mins walk from French Quarter.) It was a nice Creole restaurant serving local food. I had curried goat which was very unique and tasty. My travel companion drank the signature cocktail ‘Copper Bunny’ which was served in very heavy rabbit shaped copper cup that kept the cocktail cold for a long time.

Copper Bunny cocktail at Compere Lapin

9:15 PM Jazz at Preservation Hall

We went back to French Quarter to watch the Jazz performance at the historic Preservation Hall. It felt weird to walk around with no cocktail at hands, so I bought the cocktail that seemed most popular among the crowd, Hand Grenade. Finally, I really felt like fitted to New Orleans.

According to Preservation Hall’s website, it has been operating since 1961. You can book for a seating ticket in advance for $35~50 dollars. We didn’t make a reservation so stood in line for walk-in ‘standing’ tickets ($20.00.) The show started at 9:15 PM and we went in with the crowd. It was not a bar, just a music hall, and we were allowed to bring our own drinks. The hall was very small and had the original decoration from 1960s (no air conditioning.) The 45 mins show (by a sextet) was truly great. Its finale was, of course, ‘the Saints.’ (no photo allowed)

It was already 10:30 PM at night but the air still felt very warm, or even hot. Nevertheless, I felt really festive. I bought a beads necklace that everybody was wearing for 50 cents to celebrate my first day in New Orleans and walked back to the hotel.

Hand Grenade cocktail

Lively street of French Quarter, New Orleans

Oh-I-must-buy-this beads accessories

***Amtrak Trip 2018: the full list***

[amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (3) + Chicago to NOLA

July 30, 2018August 1, 201810 Comments

Day 4. 24h in Chicago (3) + Chicago to New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA)
Check out: Holiday Inn Express Magnificent Mile
Chicago–>New Orleans
Amtrak 59 <City of New Orleans>, Reserved Coach
Departure 8:05 PM
Arrival 3:47 PM (next day)

11:00 AM Wright (3) Robie House+ Museum of Science and Industry

I kept running into this really fun looking Pixar Exhibition (‘The Science Behind Pixar’, through Jan 6, 2019) posters while I was walking around the streets of Chicago. I love Pixar, so I made up my mind to visit the exhibition held at Museum of Science and Industry near Hyde Park. Of course, the museum itself is also historic. It was the main venue for the World’s Columbian Expo in 1893 which made Chicago world-famous.

Close to the museum was another famous architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House. The 11:15 AM tour was available, so I decided to visit Robie House first and then go to the museum. From my hotel near Magnificent Mile, it took about 40 mins by bus (#3 or #26) and another 10 mins of walk.

Robie House is a house that Wright built for the rich young entrepreneur (bicycle parts manufacturer,) Frederick Robie. It is now under construction and is open to public Thursday-Monday, only by guided tour. Robie House is a symbolic architecture showing Wright’s distinctive, so-very-American organic architecture. The guide explained to us that while ‘organic architecture’ has diverse meanings, the essence of it is that the architecture must integrate with the nature surrounding it. The style was developed as a resistance against fancy European-ish designs that were popular among mainstream Chicago architecture society in early 1900s.

Chicago is very flat city so the Robie House was also spread flat on the ground, looking like it was lying down relaxed. The particular style is called ‘Prairie Style,’ which later was developed into typical American houses: one that I saw all the time when I drove through a typical town, the houses with garages attached to the side. (According to the docent, Wright was perhaps one of the inventors of American style garage!)

After about an hour of guided tour, I had to walk fast toward the Museum of Science and Industry. Pixar exhibition ticket (you can purchase them with mobile phone) has a designated entrance time and it was 12:50 PM for me. It took about 15~20 mins walk from Robie House to the museum. As a lunch, I grabbed a quick sandwich (Italian Sub) from Medici on 57^th (established in 1955!) on a way to the museum, which was delightfully delicious (and SPICY!)

Pixar Exhibition was very colorful and interactive. I could render and play around with the characters from Pixar animations and learned a lot about the production procedure. The museum is the second largest science museum in the world, huge and full of interesting scientific stuffs. Kids were excitedly jumping up and down everywhere. I wished I could stay longer, but it was sadly the last day in Chicago and I still had places to visit so left the museum at around 2:00 PM.

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Births of Woody and Buzz!

2:30 PM Art Institute of Chicago

After leaving the museum, I took another bus (#6) and headed to the Art Institute of Chicago. Since I started to learn drawing last June, I had become a big fan of Georges Seurat. I had been copying his charcoal drawings and became to admire the sensitive (almost paranoid) touch of his hand.

Art Institute is the home of Seurat’s most famous painting ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.’ As soon as I entered the museum, I ran to see the painting on the second floor.

Other than Seurat’s painting, there were so many notable paintings in the museum, Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ and Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Old Guitarist’ to name a couple. One could spend a whole day at the museum but I had to leave at around 5:00 PM because I had a train to catch and… a hotdog to eat!

Seurat’s <A Sunday on La Grande Jatte>, room 240 at Art Institute of Chicago

Edward Hopper <Nighthawks>

Picasso <Old Guitarist>

6:00 PM Hot dog

Before getting the luggage back from the hotel, I headed to the hot dog chain restaurant near the hotel, Portillo’s. Chicago hot dogs are known to be so special and delicious. If I didn’t eat Chicago hot dog, I would be so miserable.

As I was dashing into the restaurant I was shocked by its huge size! It was like ten times bigger than an ordinary McDonalds! I ordered Jumbo Hot Dog ($3.55) with EVERYTHING on it. According to its website, ‘everything’ includes “mustard, relish, celery salt, freshly chopped onions, sliced red ripe tomatoes, kosher pickle, and sport peppers piled onto a steamed poppy seed bun.”

We celebrated our last meal in Chicago with ice cold beer. The hot dog was so good and I had an urge to eat one more but decided not to because I had been eating too much. Oh, how stupid I was!

Portillo’s, the biggest hot dog restaurant I’ve ever seen

Portillo’s

Jumbo Hot Dog with EVERYTHING on it

8:05 PM Chicago–>New Orleans

At around 7:30 PM, I hopped into the train to New Orleans. The name of the train is (really) ‘The City of New Orleans’ and it runs all the way from Chicago to New Orleans (19 hours of ride.) Before people were boarding, the staff handed out the papers with seating numbers. Not like the train from Boston to Chicago, we could not select seats of our preference.

There were other differences too, which seemed interesting to me such as… 1) There’s no free WiFi for Reserved Coach 2) There is separate observation room where the seats are facing outside 3) The train is double deck and reserved coach is on the second deck. (First deck seemed to be for luggage, bathroom, A/C room etc.) 4) The train’s older and shakier than Lake Shore Express (Boston to Chicago) 5) So many people looked like they were going to a party, very excited! However, within about one hour from the departure, most of the people on the train fell asleep.

Double decker train ‘The City of New Orleans’

“So long Chicago,” sunset from the train

***The things I learned today***

Not every Amtrak train is alike but there’s no place to check what the differences are
The staff kindly covered the lights in the corridor so people could sleep better
Computer programmers play humongous role in Pixar animation
I had learned that many of American innovations come from a garage (like Steve Jobs+Wozniak.) Perhaps many garage innovators owe it to Frank Lloyd Wright?

[amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (2)
[Amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (1)
[Amtrak trip] Boston to Chicago

[Amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (1)

July 27, 2018July 27, 20182 Comments

Day 2. Chicago
Amtrak 440 Lake Shore Limited, Reserved Coach
Arrival 11:15 AM (1.5 hour delay)

3:00 AM Passing Cleveland
The Amtrak train from Boston ran, ran, ran… and arrived at Cleveland around 3:00 AM. The train was still whistling like an owl. Another 30 minutes break was given but at this time not many people got out. I went back to sleep as well.

Dawn at Lake Erie, right after Cleveland station

6:00 AM Amtrak Coffee
The Sun has started to come up. Only then I realized the train had been running right beside Lake Erie for a while. It looked like an ocean to me, endless water stretching far toward the horizon. The dawn came with gray fog delivering dreamy and unrealistic scenery. I could not go back to sleep. Ate left over fried rice from the night before as a simple breakfast and drank $2.75 coffee from the dining car to kick off the day.

10:50 AM–>9:50 AM (!)
I was so very curious about when the time would change… you know, from eastern time to central time. I did some research and learned that it should be around La Porte, Indiana. Coming from South Korea with only one time zone, I have never experienced a time change on the ground so I got excited. I wanted to capture the moment of the time change. And then, I was drawing something on my sketchbook, Bam! the time was not 10:50 AM but 9:50 AM instead.
I felt like it was a good deal because I have earned an extra hour of my life. But then I realized that it is now two more hours of train ride instead of one. 😛

11:30 AM Arrival at Chicago
The train arrived at Chicago one and half hour late. Looking at the map, I was waiting Lake Michigan to be seen through the window but after passing White Sox baseball field, the train just glided into Chicago Union Station. I have heard that the station is beautiful but too bad it was under construction.

Here comes Chicago!

On a train going into Chicago, White Sox Stadium

Chicago Union Station

I bought 3 days public transportation pass ($20.00+$5.00 card deposit) that can be used both for buses and subways. After 30 minutes bus ride I checked in at Holiday Inn Express near Magnificent Mile. The hotel was compact, clean, and well equipped. I liked it because it had a refrigerator! (Is it only me who feel like hotels are getting rid of refrigerators recently?)

1:00 PM Navy Pier+Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Chicago is known to be THE ‘foody’ city. I had made a reservation for a 4:00 PM architecture tour so decided to go for a simple lunch. The first lunch should be symbolic, right? So I went for Chicago pizza, the deep dish pizza at Giordano’s Pizza at Navy Pier! This way I could enjoy both pizza and Navy Pier at once.

Navy Pier (built in 1916) used to be (until last year) the most visited spot in Chicago (now it is Millennium Park.) 9.3 million people visited Navy Pier in the year 2016. Built as ‘Municipal Pier’ for recreational purposes, it was used as a training site for the World War I soldiers and was named ‘Navy Pier’ to honor the men and women who fought for the country. Over the time “the facility has evolved into a premiere entertainment and exposition center”, according to their website. The view looking out to the horizontal line of Lake Michigan was magnificent.

View from Navy Pier

View from Navy Pier

We didn’t wait long to be seated outside at the restaurant (Giordano’s Pizza at Navy Pier.) However I was told that I must wait 45~60 minutes for deep dish pizza. Of course, I chose to wait! After drinking about 1.5 glasses of Diet Pepsi, I was blessed with deeeeeeep, stuffed, delicious CHICAGO deep dish pizza.

Deeeep dish pizza at Giordano’s

4:00 PM CAF Architecture Boat Tour

Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) offers architecture boat tour ($47.00, 1.5 hour) from spring to late summer. The ticket sells out fast, so I made an online reservation for 4:00 PM tour on the day before.

The boat went up and down the Chicago river and the docent told us interesting stories about the famous Chicago buildings. According to the excellent docent Ross, Chicago “goes nuts about architecture” and Chicago is like “Grand Canyon of architecture.” It surely seemed so! I could learn a lot about the past, present, and future of Chicago architecture.

View from CAF architecture boat tour, El train and ‘Upside Down’ building (150 North Riverside)

(from the left) Corn buildings (Marina Towers), a building by Mies van der Rohe, Trump Tower

Very very big sign in front of Trump Tower Chicago

7:05 PM Baseball game at Wrigley Field

After finishing the architecture tour, we went to the famous Wrigley Field to watch Chicago Cubs vs Arizona D-back baseball game. The subway was very convenient and the ballpark was surprisingly close to the subway station (Red line: Addison), only about one minute walk.

Wrigley Field

Everybody was wearing Cubs bluish something except us. The ball park (opened in 1914), second oldest in the US to Fenway Park in Boston, was truly unique with ivy trees climbing up the red brick fences. After over-eating Chicago deep dish pizza, it was impossible for me to go for a hot dog. Instead, I drank a can of beer and ate a small cup of ice cream to get one of those cute little blue souvenir cup with red ‘C.’

Souvenir cup ice cream at Wrigley Field

We sat near a big group of Javier Baez fans wildly shouting out his name. I also rooted for Cubs (despite being a Red Sox fan), but unfortunately Cubs lost to D-backs five to one.

*** Things I learned today ***

The automatic doors between the cars on the Amtrak trains have ‘open’ buttons at the bottom too so you can kick open the door while carrying two cups of coffee from a dining car.
Amtrak trains are often delayed, so no tight planning on the day of arrival.
On a boat tour, a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen are must (on a sunny day.)
At Wrigley Field, they don’t check your ID for beers unless you are under 35 (not like Fenway Park or Yankees Stadium where you get ID checked even if you are over 70!)
The train whistles pretty much throughout the night, so it is better to sit as far from the front as possible (if you have a choice.)

[Amtrak trip] Boston to Chicago

July 24, 2018July 26, 20183 Comments

07/23/2018
Day 1. Boston –> Chicago
Amtrak 440 Lake Shore Limited, Reserved Coach
Departure 1:20 PM
Arrival 9:45 AM (next day)

from Boston to Chicago by Lake Shore Limited

After shipping the furniture and stuffs to South Korea in the morning, I grabbed a Lyft ride and headed to Boston South Station. The journey begins today: a trip from Boston all the way to Seattle with Amtrak USA rail pass!

Boston South Station

1:20 PM Boston, MA

The first train I am taking is Amtrak 449, Lake Shore Limited, running from Boston to Chicago. The train was supposed to be full, but since Boston was the starting station, it was not hard to get a seat I preferred. I looked at the map and it seemed like the right hand side seats will have better view when I pass the big lakes of Midwest (will find out tomorrow morning!), so I chose to sit at one of the right hand side seat. I was planning to sit on a quite car, but when I asked the staff he said “no quite car on this train.”

There were signs saying ‘seats for groups’ that made me think the seats were for well… big ‘groups.’ But the staff assisted us (party of two) to sit on one of those seats. I asked “are those not for groups?” and the staff kindly answered “yes, groups like two people groups.”

Two or more persons = group

The train departed on time. I had to show to the staff both the USA rail pass and the reservation ticket. (Didn’t check the passport in my case.)

Lake Shore Limitied is an overnight train. I did not get a sleeping car because the price seemed too expensive. (USA rail pass holders can ride on reserved coach seats for free. You can pay extra dollars and upgrade the seats to business seats or sleeping cars.) Forgot the exact amount but the extra money was around 500 dollars, which was like five star hotels. If you reserve a sleeping car, you get free meals for the entire trip so it sounded attractive, but it was waaaaay over the budget so I decided to stick with a reserved coach seat for this train.

The reserved coach seats had more leg rooms than I expected, something like business class seats of DOMESTIC flights. Being 5’6″ (169cm), I could stretch my legs all the way. There are feet and legs rest too and the chairs recline to about 45 degrees. I had very little sleep the night before, so took some nice rest.

Reserved Coach in Lake Line Limited

5:09 PM Pittsfield, MA

The speed of the train was perfect for enjoying the charming scenery of Massachusetts, not too fast nor not too slow. After having some fun… hmm, just looking outside the window, it came to my mind that it would be wonderful if I could track and record my routes throughout the journey. I did some research with free wifi on board and purchased an iPhone app called GPS Tracks ($3.99)

GPS Tracks screen shot: from Pittsfield to Rochester

6:30 PM Albany- Renssenlaer, NY

thirty minutes break at Albany, NY

scenery of Mohawk river near Albany

Now the train was running alongside a river (Mohawk River according to my GPS Tracks.) After fiver hours from the departure, the train made 30 minutes stop at Albany- Renssenlaer, NY. In here the train was joined by travelers from New York City. People who were dying to smoke cigarettes hopped off the train and smoked on the platform. I stepped outside to stretch my stiff arms, legs, back… etc. Now the train was almost full and the staffs did their best to arrange the best seats for everybody.
The train turned off electricity here and I learned that you should not use toilets while electricity is off. One woman was saying she was sorry, could not flush because it was ‘off.’ Good to learn!
Train departed at 7:05 PM. I ate fried rice I bought from South Station (there’s also a reasonably priced dining car on board) as a dinner and went back to sleep.

dining car on Lake Shore Limited

12:08 (+1) Rochester, NY

Woke up at around 11:00PM and went to the restroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. The structure of the washing basin was somewhat not suitable for washing faces, so I decided just to brush my teeth. Wet tissues I brought came in handy to wipe off some sunscreens from my face.
The train is now heading west. It stopped for about 20~30 minutes somewhere (to make a way for a freight train?) and had some slow moving times here and there, so at this point we are about one hour behind the schedule.
The train was a bit shaky and rattling, but most of the travelers seemed very comfortable, sleeping like babies. The car is as quite as any peaceful quite car. Only sound I can hear now is the whistles of hard working good boy, Lake Shore Limited.

midnight at Rochester, NY Amtrak station

***Something I learned today***

Good to carry wet tissues around
Reserved coach seats on long trains are pretty comfortable
Should not use the restroom on board when electricity if off
‘Group’ means two or more persons
Amtrak Timetable come in handy. Good to know when and where the next stop is
Amtrak wifi works pretty well, though sometimes unstable
Temperature on board is pretty low (strong A/C), so very good idea to bring some kind of blanket (I brought one of those compact down blankets made for camping)

Stopping stations of Lake Shore Limited, from Amtrak Timetable

small talks about small things

Tag: amtrak

[Amtrak trip] 24h in New Orleans (1)

[Amtrak trip] Chicago to New Orleans

[amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (3) + Chicago to NOLA

[Amtrak trip] 24h in Chicago (1)

[Amtrak trip] Boston to Chicago

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