The journey has begun! Andrew and I arrived at the Pacific Train Station in Vancouver. A lovely rain shower greeted us as we prepared to board the train. It was a fitting send-off on our vacation to warmer climates Down Under! Our 2020 reverse trip to Australia was finally getting started… albeit about 5 years later!
We got through customs with our paper forms in hand. They have not upgraded to kiosks yet like the airport. As soon as that happened, we were walking towards our car next to the train taking us down to Seattle. We were in the liquid sunshine and getting totally soaked! Andrew checked our 2 bags. I got onto the train, akin to how it is done in Europe with a hand cranked wheelchair lift. We had booked accessible business class seats. However, as I do not travel sitting on my walker, so they put us in regular seats. I was surprised that, for business class, seats were not assigned. We ended up sitting at the front of the car. The chairs had no tables. My seat was broken—the leg rest would not go up! To raise the leg rest was a bit of a feat as the train was swaying along the tracks! One had to get out of their seat and lift it up where it would lock into place. Then they had to crawl back onto the chair. That was some extra exercise I did not need!
Here are the pictures of us departing from Vancouver –
The train actually departed Vancouver early which was great! We left at 4:30 instead of the 4:45 pm departure time. At the same time, the Seattle Mariners started playing Game 5 of the Divisional Playoff Series. They were playing in their stadium in Seattle right next King Street station. The series was tied 2-2. It was down to one game against the Detroit Tigers. This game would decide who moves on to play the Blue Jays!
The view out of the train was very nice going south! Eventually we stopped at the Peace Arch crossing for the border guards to inspect the train (we had gone through customs in Vancouver).
I was keeping tabs on the Mariners game on my phone the “old fashioned” way by watching the box score. The gentleman behind me was listening to the game on ESPN. He lived in Seattle and loved going to and watching the Mariners games. As we traveled down to Seattle, the broadcasters live on ESPN radio would announce the game quickly. They were faster than the box scores showing up on the internet. When we got closer to Seattle, between Everett and Edmonds, the box score got faster. The ESPN broadcast seemed to have a time delay! This frustrated the man behind me – as we arrived into Seattle during a very crucial inning! Detroit players were walked onto the bases. I knew what was going on from the pitching display, however, the broadcasters were slow with updating the action!
All was good though. Seattle got out of the disastrous inning and was up to bat. We were in the train station. We could hear the yelling of the crowd! We retrieved our luggage and got a taxi. My biggest concern was not getting a taxi as the game would let out at the same time. We arrived at the hotel, and we were finished traveling for the day!
Tomorrow is a day trip to Puyallup to visit my aunt and uncle and also to see what other mischief we can get ourselves into – Seattle style!