Train Ride and Blackwinged Boy

John's alarm went off at 7. By the time I got myself put together, Jet had already played a game or two with John and David, and the oatmeal was cooked. So I ate happily, while Jet had waffles from the previous morning. We then stuffed everything into our travel things, and we ended up with just two bags and Jet's car seat.

David got us to the train station, and while we were waiting at the kiosk for the lady in front of us to get her tickets the train pulled in! Meep!

But there was plenty of time. We got our tickets, hugged David good-bye and thank you VERY much, and then got on the train. The front three cars were to Seattle or Portland, and we got in and found a table at the end of the car, which had a little sign that said, "For groups of three or four only." Two teenage boys sat at the table next to us, and when the conductor came through, they were warned that they'd have to share if other people wanted to sit with them. But there were only two other people in the whole car. So that never happened that we saw.

The train didn't pull out until the scheduled 8:35 time, so we had a good ten minutes to get good and situated.

The route runs right by the ocean for much of the early part of the trip. Right on the shore, so much so it seemed that the water was lapping nearly at the ties. The mists over the San Juan islands and, eventually, the Olympics were gorgeous over the steel colors silk of the sea.

It was beautiful.

Jet was unhappy about having to do his homework on the trip, but we needed to get something done before we got too much further. But he did get a hot chocolate and some snacks to go with the homework and he was content. I got a lot of knitting done on the baby sweater I was making for Kathrynt, and did the bulk of the work on the sleeves. So that was very good to get done as I hadn't had any time while we were in Bellingham and had half regretting bringing it all.

But it was a good two and a half hour ride, though it seemed to go much more quickly than that. A couple of stops to the north, and we ended up at the King Street Station by the ballpark in Seattle. The whole train stopped there, rather than the short stops up to that point, as they were re-stocking the cafe car, so we could take our time to get out.

blackwingedboy was there right in the waiting room! Yay! I love it when a plan works.

He had parked by the station, and had a hour's parking for customers of the train. So we went up to Uwajimaya for a quick run through while we had the time. I was severely tempted to just have lunch there, instead of going to the Macarina Bakery on Queen Anne as I'd originally planned to do. But I finally resisted, and we just bought a few things, and hopped into William's very clean car for the drive to Queen Anne.

It was worth it. The bakery still had Sunday brunch specials running, including smoked salmon on onion biyali that they'd baked. They came with salads and big potato wedges. Wow. One big mugga latte and I was very happy for lunch. Jet decided on a bagette with butter, and that was good enough for him. John had a sandwich that looked great and disappeared quickly. William settled on a chocolate chip cooking for dessert, and I fell to the marketing power of the lemon sour cherry coffee cake and bought "a slice". It turned out to be a six inch thick HUNK of cake in a box. I nibbled the top quarter inch of it and it was just as good as advertised. Better, as the lemon glaze was far tarter than I thought it could be, and the sour cherries were delicious on top of that.

Wow.

The boys thought it would be fun to see the locks, as we'd caught a glimpse of them on the ride in and the day was very sunny. So we went and walked through the Ballard Locks, which is actually quite close to where William lives. That was cool. Jet loved seeing the boats go up and down and we went through the empty fish ladders and saw the water rushing through.

The were crows everywhere! *grin*

I was pretty tired after that, so I asked that we just be dropped at our bus station. That took a lot more effort than I'd originally thought it could! Meep. It mostly had to do with "going around the block" in the center of downtown Seattle often involved going around at least four blocks, sometimes eight, and once we couldn't even get there from here. John ran down a hill to catch up with us and hopped in. We ended up dropping him at a third stop on a completely different street, and it ended up being the right place. A badly parked Jeep provided cover, as William stopped and we hopped out and Jet was great and did things quite quickly. Then we had absolutely no trouble catching the 550 to the Bellevue Way Park and Ride and then the 222 to Isabel and George's hill. It was nice to have public transport work so very, very well in addition to William's excellent driving. :-)

It was a very full day.

Jet ran the full way up the hill to the house. I guess he'd been sitting a bit too much, but he was very happy to play with his grandparents. He jumped rope, played ping pong and did all kinds of things. I helped with getting him put to bed, and soon after I got to go to sleep early. While I went to sleep it started to rain, and the sound was so wonderful to just settle into and listen to. It's been a while.

Train Ride and Blackwinged Boy

John's alarm went off at 7. By the time I got myself put together, Jet had already played a game or two with John and David, and the oatmeal was cooked. So I ate happily, while Jet had waffles from the previous morning. We then stuffed everything into our travel things, and we ended up with just two bags and Jet's car seat.

David got us to the train station, and while we were waiting at the kiosk for the lady in front of us to get her tickets the train pulled in! Meep!

But there was plenty of time. We got our tickets, hugged David good-bye and thank you VERY much, and then got on the train. The front three cars were to Seattle or Portland, and we got in and found a table at the end of the car, which had a little sign that said, "For groups of three or four only." Two teenage boys sat at the table next to us, and when the conductor came through, they were warned that they'd have to share if other people wanted to sit with them. But there were only two other people in the whole car. So that never happened that we saw.

The train didn't pull out until the scheduled 8:35 time, so we had a good ten minutes to get good and situated.

The route runs right by the ocean for much of the early part of the trip. Right on the shore, so much so it seemed that the water was lapping nearly at the ties. The mists over the San Juan islands and, eventually, the Olympics were gorgeous over the steel colors silk of the sea.

It was beautiful.

Jet was unhappy about having to do his homework on the trip, but we needed to get something done before we got too much further. But he did get a hot chocolate and some snacks to go with the homework and he was content. I got a lot of knitting done on the baby sweater I was making for Kathrynt, and did the bulk of the work on the sleeves. So that was very good to get done as I hadn't had any time while we were in Bellingham and had half regretting bringing it all.

But it was a good two and a half hour ride, though it seemed to go much more quickly than that. A couple of stops to the north, and we ended up at the King Street Station by the ballpark in Seattle. The whole train stopped there, rather than the short stops up to that point, as they were re-stocking the cafe car, so we could take our time to get out.

blackwingedboy was there right in the waiting room! Yay! I love it when a plan works.

He had parked by the station, and had a hour's parking for customers of the train. So we went up to Uwajimaya for a quick run through while we had the time. I was severely tempted to just have lunch there, instead of going to the Macarina Bakery on Queen Anne as I'd originally planned to do. But I finally resisted, and we just bought a few things, and hopped into William's very clean car for the drive to Queen Anne.

It was worth it. The bakery still had Sunday brunch specials running, including smoked salmon on onion biyali that they'd baked. They came with salads and big potato wedges. Wow. One big mugga latte and I was very happy for lunch. Jet decided on a bagette with butter, and that was good enough for him. John had a sandwich that looked great and disappeared quickly. William settled on a chocolate chip cooking for dessert, and I fell to the marketing power of the lemon sour cherry coffee cake and bought "a slice". It turned out to be a six inch thick HUNK of cake in a box. I nibbled the top quarter inch of it and it was just as good as advertised. Better, as the lemon glaze was far tarter than I thought it could be, and the sour cherries were delicious on top of that.

Wow.

The boys thought it would be fun to see the locks, as we'd caught a glimpse of them on the ride in and the day was very sunny. So we went and walked through the Ballard Locks, which is actually quite close to where William lives. That was cool. Jet loved seeing the boats go up and down and we went through the empty fish ladders and saw the water rushing through.

The were crows everywhere! *grin*

I was pretty tired after that, so I asked that we just be dropped at our bus station. That took a lot more effort than I'd originally thought it could! Meep. It mostly had to do with "going around the block" in the center of downtown Seattle often involved going around at least four blocks, sometimes eight, and once we couldn't even get there from here. John ran down a hill to catch up with us and hopped in. We ended up dropping him at a third stop on a completely different street, and it ended up being the right place. A badly parked Jeep provided cover, as William stopped and we hopped out and Jet was great and did things quite quickly. Then we had absolutely no trouble catching the 550 to the Bellevue Way Park and Ride and then the 222 to Isabel and George's hill. It was nice to have public transport work so very, very well in addition to William's excellent driving. :-)

It was a very full day.

Jet ran the full way up the hill to the house. I guess he'd been sitting a bit too much, but he was very happy to play with his grandparents. He jumped rope, played ping pong and did all kinds of things. I helped with getting him put to bed, and soon after I got to go to sleep early. While I went to sleep it started to rain, and the sound was so wonderful to just settle into and listen to. It's been a while.